Dotted with parkland, southeast Brooklyn waterfront is varied and fascinating
With waterfront homes equipped with docks, numerous boat clubs and huge swaths of parkland, the shoreline of Brooklyn’s Community Board 18 could well be the most diverse not just in the borough but in the entire city.
The board’s 8.4 square miles of area encompass the communities of Mill Basin, Canarsie, Mill Island, Marine Park, Bergen Beach and Flatlands, and all of them, except Flatlands, have direct access to bodies of water as varied as the communities they embrace, including Jamaica Bay, Mill Basin, Fresh Creek, Paerdegat Basin and the waters of Marine Park’s Salt Marsh Nature Preserve.
Some of it — including the homes and boat clubs — is private property. “Mill Island is the only place in the borough of Brooklyn where you can actually have a boat in your backyard, with the exception of a few spots in Gerritsen Beach,” noted Frank Seddio, a former assemblymember who is also the former chair and former district manager of CB 18.