New beach opens at Bushwick Inlet Park in Greenpoint
The beach was built by the Parks Department with input from local community members, including longtime waterfront advocate Katherine Conkling Thompson.
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A small beach at Bushwick Inlet Park, near Franklin Street and North 15th Street, is officially open.
“I'm very happy to see this space made into something beautiful that we can use with our kids,” one visitor said.
The beach was built by the Parks Department with input from local community members, including longtime waterfront advocate Katherine Conkling Thompson.
“This inlet was closed off for more than 100 years,” Conkling Thompson said. “After the industrial era moved out, they basically just put up a fence and left it.”
The new space is part of a much larger plan tied to the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning, which promised expanded public access along the waterfront.
But more than two decades later, only part of the planned park has been completed.
“It’s been over 20 years since the rezoning, and only about a third of the park has been built,” Conkling Thompson said.
The remaining land contained and will require cleaning up before a park can be built.
“This area is basically the birthplace of the fossil fuel industry,” she said. “There’s been heavy industrial use here since the 1850s.”
In the meantime, the small beach is already drawing families, children and neighbors looking for a quick escape.
But some residents are raising concerns about a separate development proposal nearby - a controversial plan to build three large residential towers next to the park on land currently occupied by an MTA building.
The proposal is continuing through the city’s land use review process despite opposition from some community members.
The City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the plan next week. A public hearing before the City Council is scheduled for May 27.
