Advocacy

Since its inception the Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park has worked very hard to fulfill its mission of serving, protecting and helping realize the full promised Bushwick Inlet Park. 

Want to join our ranks and help advocate for all things BIP?! Drop us a line at volunteer@bushwickinletpark.org

Through relentless advocacy, manifesting in a powerful FBIP-led coalition-based movement, referred to Where’s Our Park?, that in 2016 led to the City purchasing the 7.5-acre CitiStorage parcel, preventing its sale for private development and solidifying 27-acres of contiguous tax-payer owned parkland (that was promised to the community in 2005!) that can be converted into publicly accessible open green space. 

Build Our Park

As a follow up, in 2021 we re-mobilized with our elected officials and coalition partners to help secure $75 million from the City for further development of the park including the CitiStorage building demolition, as 5 years transpired since this property was acquired by the City. 

We also confer with NYC Parks, together with relevant city and state agencies, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and our elected officials on a regular basis working to keep the momentum going for remediating, funding, designing and constructing the final sections of the park.

Turf Replacement

Additionally, working with local soccer clubs, the local Community Board and our elected officials to apply intense pressure on the NYC Parks Department, in the spring of 2022 the agency replaced the soccer field turf at 86 Kent which had been in a terrible state for years.

After defeating the push for a sell-off of the CitiStorge parcel for private tower development in the middle of future and current BIP, there is now a current similar existential threat to the park. An MTA-approved large-scale building development from the Gotham Organization, branded as Monitor Point, includes plans to erect a 530-foot tall mixed-used building containing almost 1,000 apartments (& over 2,000 residents) adjacent to the northern bank of Bushwick Inlet at 40 Quay Street. A gargantuan structure of this size will tower over Bushwick Inlet and Bushwick Inlet Park itself. If built, this development will create major problems for the park, the adjacent neighborhood and the environment. The community has a more just and sustainable alternative vision for the site that embodies expanding Bushwick Inlet Park, creating a gateway to the park for Greenpoint, where none exists currently, and a naturalistic more sustainable line of defense against storm surges and sea level rise. Gotham is seeking an upzone of this property to achieve this enormous building density which will require a land use action that will take them through multiple levels of city government for review and approval, including the local community board. Read our press release here. Stay tuned for further developments and mobilization efforts.

Advocate With Us!

It feels great to work towards preserving and expanding the public realm that was promised to the community, into a world-class waterfront park for all to enjoy! Contact us if you would like to pitch in: volunteer@bushwickinletpark.org