Greenpoint Got a Little Beach

A 1.8-acre parcel of Bushwick Inlet Park opened on Kent and North 14th Streets after many years of delay. The Motiva site, named for a fossil-fuel company, was purchased by the city in 2014 for $5 million, but construction did not begin until much later. The broader 27-acre park plan tied to a 2005 rezoning has progressed slowly, with less than a third completed after more than two decades. The city spent over $350 million acquiring land, and additional delays came from difficult land sales and ongoing issues related to contamination. Swimming is not allowed, and fenced areas still show litter and safety barriers while remediation responsibility is disputed among fossil-fuel companies.

"“It’s the closest waterfront park we have that’s actually water,” says Lane DeVries, who is spending her day off sunbathing on a beach chair plopped down next to the sliver of sand. The only problem, we both agree, is that swimming is not allowed. A Big Gulp cup floats close to shore as DeVries considers the bright side. Given its proximity to former industrial sites, “I thought it might smell bad,” she says. “But it doesn’t.”"

"This specific 1.8-acre parcel of the park is called Motiva, which sounds like a prescription ADHD medication but is in fact the name of a fossil-fuel company. The city purchased the land, once the site of a shipbuilding operation, from Motiva Enterprises in 2014 for $5 million, and somehow 12 years passed before this teeny park actually got built. The entire 27 acres of Bushwick Inlet Park was supposed to be developed as part of the 2005 neighborhood rezoning, but over two decades later, less than a third of that plan has been completed."

"Part of the delay: The city spent more than $350 million acquiring the land, and the owner of the last tract played hardball but finally sold it in 2016. Still, that was a decade ago. The park plan was a sweetener for the rezoning deal, and while many of its high-rises have gone up, to get to Motiva you have to walk past two blocks of fenced-off waterfront littered with overturned park benches, bicycle tires, and safety cones."

Read at Curbed