A Walking Tour Looks Back On The Legacy Of The 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Rezoning

Twenty years ago, during the Bloomberg administration, the New York City Council reached a decision—with support of the mayor—to rezone a huge tract of land by the Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront for residential use.

The land, spanning approximately 180 blocks, had for decades been devoted to industrial businesses and maritime use. Around the mid 20th century, these enterprises in the area declined dramatically—and were replaced with waste transfer stations and other environmentally challenging uses. Finally, the idea to develop housing on the water took hold. Tower after tower of luxury apartments have appeared in the two decades since the rezoning was finalized.

What else was promised, what has been delivered, and where the development stands overall was the topic of the May 3rd walking tour “Revisiting the Accidental Playground: 20 Years of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Rezoning,” led by urban historian and author Daniel Campo and NBK Parks Alliance executive director Katie Denny Horowitz. The event was part of a global series of tours called Jane’s Walks, named for journalist and activist Jane Jacobs. 

As of May 2024, Greenpoint and Williamsburg had added 26,253 housing units in the previous 13 years. In 2023 alone, 2,306 units were added—the most of Brooklyn’s community boards for that year. Many of those units are on or near the waterfront. Affordable housing should comprise a specified percentage of these units—though what is “affordable” can be open to debate. 

The tour started at Greenpoint’s One Blue Slip and headed south. The sun shone brightly, and the breeze from the river was refreshing and energizing on a warm morning. The advantages—and the beauty—of our neighborhood’s waterfront were immediately apparent. 

At the corner of West and Huron Streets, Campo pointed out the differences between the “old Greenpoint” buildings to the east and the brand-new towers stretching west toward the river. As the group took this in and asked questions, a truck backed up on Huron, toward the intersection. Meanwhile, a child rode her bike through that same intersection—prompting a group member to call out to the driver, making sure he saw the child and would stop. This led to a discussion of challenges that can result when a neighborhood’s population expands more quickly than its attendant infrastructure. 

One tour participant, a Greenpoint resident named Turlough, raised the point of school construction. “Over 20,000 new homes—and there is no high school,” he stated. “I have two granddaughters in the neighborhood who have to go elsewhere.” 

“Rezoning,” Campo pointed out, “is a very broad brush”—not a specific plan. The decision to rezone didn’t come with full and clear steps for handling a significant increase in neighborhood residents; those plans are instead being made piece by piece. 

The park space, too, has been addressed in a somewhat ad hoc manner. The space now used as Transmitter Park, explained Denny Horowitz, was owned by the City before the rezoning; but the land on either side of it is privately owned, creating complications regarding the full vision for Transmitter and contiguous waterfront access. There is also the issue of upkeep.

“Parks are being developed without adequate maintenance funding,” Denny Horowitz noted. “They often engage parks partners and volunteers to fill funding gaps in the City’s budget.” Indeed, I volunteer at 50 Kent, one of the park spaces, through the Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park—pulling weeds and planting flowers. I love doing it and didn’t think much about the fact that other parks have staff for these tasks. The absence of a significant maintenance budget offers neighborhood residents an unintended benefit: the personal connection of enjoying landscapes they have helped to create. 

50 Kent and another segment of Bushwick Inlet Park, just to the south, are the two park spaces so far developed in the rezoning agreement. A third, a few blocks north of 50 Kent, is to open September 1 and was receiving plants during our tour.

Some planned parks, Denny Horowitz explained, have been delayed due to “environmental scarring.”

“Due to past industrial use, much of the area’s waterfront has been environmentally damaged—requiring, at times, significant remediation,” she said.

One tour participant, Jane, mentioned a public-space issue faced in her neighborhood—around Sutton Place, along the East River in Manhattan. Some residents of her building, she explained, tried to argue against the land between the building and the river being made publicly accessible. They lost, as the building does not own that land; but the dispute illustrates another challenge that can arise, this one gatekeeper-oriented. 

“It’s a lot less than what was planned or promised to this neighborhood in 2005,” Campo said of the current park space in our rezoned district. “Meanwhile, the towers have all gone up.”  

Over these 20 years, Denny Horowitz added, “different approaches to park development on the shoreline have emerged—in response to more extreme weather events and the advancing climate crisis.”

For all the unanswered questions and unresolved concerns, though, our group witnessed the beauty of the current public spaces on the river; and got at least a glimpse of how they can expand. Of course, as Campo pointed out, access to the waterfront did not begin 20 years ago; people in the neighborhood have been gathering in these spaces for decades. But now the spaces are cleaner, better-lit, more fully landscaped, and more broadly known.

Truly affordable housing, park space, and an addressing of environmental issues—old and new—are the main priorities as Greenpoint and Williamsburg look ahead regarding the rezoned waterfront area. As our tour took in the high-spirited park-going masses, it was clear that these goals are worth any efforts they require.