In 2005, as part of his proposal to rezone Williamsburg and Greenpoint, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg [promised neighborhood residents](https://citylimits.org/whose-dreams-will-decide/?ref=hellgatenyc.com) that in exchange for all those luxury high-rise towers, they would get a 28-acre park along the formerly industrial stretch of waterfront.

One problem with that plan? That waterfront land, from North Ninth Street up to the Bushwick Inlet, wasn't owned by the City. In the two decades since, the development of Bushwick Inlet Park has proceeded in fits and starts, thanks to costly battles with the various owners of the parcels, as well as the need to remediate the heavily polluted land. Today, less than a third of the planned park is open to the public, the rest fenced off and in various states of undevelopment and disrepair, even as the City [has spent hundreds of millions](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/nyregion/new-york-buys-last-tract-for-williamsburg-waterfront-park-for-160-million.html?ref=hellgatenyc.com) to both acquire and develop the land. 

Bushwick Inlet Park has been an expensive headache for every mayor since Bloomberg. In 2016, under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City finally [was able to purchase the last parcel of park land](https://gothamist.com/news/city-finally-acquires-citistorage-site-to-complete-long-delayed-bushwick-inlet-park?ref=hellgatenyc.com), the CitiStorage site, from its owner, Norman Brodsky—for a whopping $160 million. Under Mayor Eric Adams, who as Brooklyn borough president [had led a campout](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/nyregion/activists-camp-out-to-call-for-completion-of-a-brooklyn-park.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0&ref=hellgatenyc.com) in the rain to push the City to complete the park, the only significant progress made [was the demolition of the warehouse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DJPUP2fRWg&ref=hellgatenyc.com) on the former CitiStorage site and [work to develop a sliver of land](https://www.nycgovparks.org/planning-and-building/capital-project-tracker/project/8919?ref=hellgatenyc.com) north of the inlet, which had already begun under his predecessor. 

Now, advocates are calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who promised to prioritize parks during his campaign but has [since retreated](https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/19/mamdani-budget-parks-libraries/?ref=hellgatenyc.com) from that goal, and who has a rather significant [budget gap](https://hellgatenyc.com/mayoral-hot-take-bracket/) to fill, to finish what his predecessors started. They point to the recent death of a 16-year-old New Yorker who [fell from a cell tower](https://nypost.com/2026/03/20/us-news/boy-16-falls-to-death-while-taking-social-media-photos-from-cell-tower-at-nyc-park-with-skyline-views-cops-sources/?ref=hellgatenyc.com) in an undeveloped portion of the park as more reason for the City to fulfill the promises it made more than two decades ago. 

Earlier last month, the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, along with New Yorkers for Parks and more than a dozen other organizations, [sent a letter](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EPla82VnZvg6pHxdjVn86HIdcEPlirydT6lx7dMOEjU/edit?usp=sharing&ref=hellgatenyc.com) to the Mamdani administration urging it "to take decisive action to finally complete Bushwick Inlet Park and secure its long-term future." 

Katie Denny Horowitz, the executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, is hopeful that Mayor Mamdani will make finishing the park a priority. "It really takes City Hall to advance these complicated, long-term projects," she said. "And so what we're asking for is, again, for City Hall to prioritize and to look at the red tape that is burdening the system to ensure that this is moved at a timeline that is transparent and communicated, and also to have the waterfront treated with the respect that the advocates and the neighbors who have fought for it for generations deserve."

When reached for comment, the Mayor's Office referred Hell Gate to the Parks Department. 

"Our hearts go out to the young man's family and friends following this tragic event," a spokesperson for the Parks Department told Hell Gate. As for the park itself, according to the agency, one section of the park—CitiStorage North—is fully funded, and a request for proposals from potential designers will be released later this year. There is also partial funding for the development of the remaining two parcels, Bayside and CitiStorage South.

But there's one huge obstacle to the development of those last two large chunks of the park—they still need to be cleaned up after decades of industrial abuse, a process that [requires bringing companies](https://greenpointers.com/2025/02/18/friends-of-bushwick-inlet-park-detail-next-steps-at-recent-community-meeting/?ref=hellgatenyc.com) like National Grid, Chevron, and Exxon to the table. 

"We still are wrangling National Grid," said Councilmember Lincoln Restler, whose district includes Bushwick Inlet Park. In one of those two sites, National Grid and Exxon are currently in litigation to figure out who exactly is responsible for the clean-up; for the second, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is currently investigating who is on the hook for the remediation. A DEC report providing clarity on the latter is expected later this month; none of the fossil fuel companies currently agree on who's responsible, according to the councilmember. "We would be much further along in the development of the park if National Grid were cooperative," Restler said. (National Grid did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) 

Still, Councilmember Restler was optimistic that Mayor Mamdani's past support for parks could signal future progress for Bushwick Inlet Park. "I'm hopeful that this mayor and his team will do two things. One, have the City of New York take the aggressive lead on remediation of these two sites, and get the fossil fuel companies to contribute their approximate fair share and get this done," Restler said. 

Then there's the funding issue: According to Restler's estimates, an additional $75 to $100 million will still be needed to fully finish the park. 

"We made essentially zero progress over the last four years, despite me banging my head against the wall with every single member of the Adams administration as many times as I possibly could. They just didn't care. And I think we have a different orientation in the Mamdani administration," Restler said. "I've been meeting with a variety of senior leaders on their team on this topic already, and I'm hopeful they'll be good partners."

Read more at the link.

Unfinished Bushwick Inlet Park Is Mamdani's Problem Now