
Dear Neighbor,
I’m writing as the executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, and as someone who has spent the last two decades working to care for our parks and public spaces.
These last few weeks of winter have made something painfully clear.
After recent snowstorms, neighborhoods with Business Improvement Districts (BID) were cleared faster: sidewalks were shoveled; trash was picked up; streets were walkable. Meanwhile, here in North Brooklyn — despite being one of the city’s fastest-growing and most commercially dense areas — we were left waiting.
It felt familiar.
Those disparities echoed what many of us experienced during the pandemic, when neighborhoods with supplemental, reliably funded services fared better than those without. For me, that moment was a turning point. In 2023, it prompted the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, alongside residents, small businesses, property owners and our elected officials, to begin organizing to form a Northside Improvement District.

For more than 20 years, NBK Parks has partnered with city and state agencies to support public space maintenance in Brooklyn’s Community Board 1. Our work includes maintaining parks, providing professional horticultural care and stewarding plazas and open spaces that serve tens of thousands of people every week.
Bushwick Inlet Park is the clearest example.
As the anchor park of the 2005 Williamsburg–Greenpoint rezoning, Bushwick Inlet Park remains unfinished and underfunded. In the absence of a reliable funding mechanism — like those that support maintenance of other major parks across New York City — NBK Parks has supported NYC Parks with additional professional horticultural services like tree care, lawn management, soil restoration and day-to-day stewardship to keep open portions of Bushwick Inlet Park healthy and well maintained.
But this is not a sustainable model for the future park without long-term, reliable funding.

When nearly 1,000 Northside stakeholders participated in a Needs Assessment Survey, one message came through loud and clear: people want cleaner, better-maintained parks and public spaces.
The Northside Improvement District proposal directly responds to that call by creating a dedicated funding stream to:
In addition, the BID will deliver:
This isn’t about replacing city services: it’s about increasing those services to ensure that North Brooklyn has the level of neighborhood care it needs and deserves.
All residents, business owners, and property owners within the proposed Northside BID boundaries have an opportunity to vote on this proposal, and your vote matters.
A “yes” vote is a vote for cleaner streets, healthier parks and a sustainable future for Bushwick Inlet Park and the broader public realm.
With appreciation,
Katie Denny Horowitz
Executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance












SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.

ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.