NEIGHBORS ALLIED FOR GOOD GROWTH
STATEMENT ON THE GROUNDBREAKING OF
THE BUSHWICK INLET SOCCER FIELD


Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) welcomes Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to the official groundbreaking of North Brooklyn's new soccer field. This site is a much-needed addition to our community's meager open space, and we look forward to its completion.

The Parks Department and the Open Space Alliance, along with neighborhood groups including NAG, the Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, and the Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning, have worked long and hard to create more open space along the East River. This future facility, along with East River State Park and the reopening of McCarren Pool, are examples of what can be done when local organizations and government work together to set priorities, push through bureaucracy and create positive change.

But we must highlight the other open space commitments made during the 2005 rezoning in an agreement between the City Council and Bloomberg administration that have not yet materialized:

• The funding for future phases of Bushwick Inlet Park has been reduced in the recent budget, which will delay land acquisition and business relocation;


• The MTA site at 65 Commercial Street remains a parking lot;


• The sludge tank on Dupont Street is far from becoming an affordable housing development;


• Transmitter Park at Greenpoint Avenue, while opening temporarily, is still far from being a public amenity.

We are happy to see some progress--waterfront access at North 5th, a recently-announced feasibility study for the MTA lot, and the much-delayed opening of the Manhattan Avenue park. The Open Space Alliance deserves credit for bringing these efforts to fruition, and they have recently started holding monthly meetings update with officials and community members, and we are appreciative of this move towards transparency and dialogue. However, the lack of progress on these other major issues is dismaying.

It has been four years since the rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Our neighborhood is changing before our eyes--there are few blocks in North Brooklyn that haven't been touched by development. We have towers now, but we are still waiting for our affordable housing, the continuation of the tenant anti-displacement program, and of course, our parks.