An improvement district for Bushwick Inlet Park

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.

Why NBK Parks is helping lead a BID Formation effort

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.

Making long-term parks maintenance a top priority

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:

• Support long-term maintenance of Bushwick Inlet Park and surrounding open spaces
• Expand professional horticultural maintenance of planters and street trees
• Ensure our parks and streetscapes receive consistent, high-quality attention 

In addition, the BID will deliver:

• Reliable sanitation and snow removal, seven days a week
• Trash removal, graffiti removal and power washing
• Business support and marketing, including holiday lighting, street banners and public art

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.

Voting is now open

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.

• Visit the Northside Improvement District’s website
• Vote to help make this happen
• Follow the effort on Instagram

With appreciation,

Katie Denny Horowitz

Executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance