Our Mission
Our mission is to create an equitable, accessible, and vibrant parks & open space system in North Brooklyn.
Founded in 2003, the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBK Parks) has evolved from a grassroots parks coalition into a full-scale public realm conservancy with a team of more than 20 staff members working in the parks, plazas, and open streets of Brooklyn Community Board District 1 (Williamsburg and Greenpoint). NBK Parks is the only conservancy in New York City that manages public space across agencies and land jurisdictions, allowing it to deliver comprehensive, city-aligned improvements that merge maintenance, horticulture, sustainability, and community engagement at a scale few organizations can match.
As a Licensed Partner with NYC Parks, a Plaza Partner and Open Streets steward with NYC DOT, and the manager and operator of Under the K Bridge Park through New York State DOT, NBK Parks executes over 30 large-scale events and 100 public events annually, integrating maintenance and mission-driven cultural programming to sustain public spaces both financially and ecologically.
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NBK PARKS HISTORY
Our organization was born out of the environmental justice movements of the 1980s and 90s. North Brooklyn’s landscape is defined by a manufacturing history dominated by five heavily polluting industries: printing, glass and pottery making, metal casting, and oil refining. By the 1970s, many of those industries shut down, leaving behind ecological devastation and neglected land along the East River and Newtown Creek.
In the early 2000s, citizen-led advocacy galvanized around a rezoning plan to restore the waterfront. The plan called for transforming industrial land into a new network of waterfront parks. In 2003, NBK Parks (then known as the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn [OSA]) was incorporated as a non-profit to help realize the Waterfront Access Plan. The city approved the rezoning in 2005, paving the way for massive residential development along North Brooklyn’s waterfront and making it one of the fastest-growing pockets of NYC.
For more than twenty years, our organization has been a steady advocate, community partner, and leader in driving investment into North Brooklyn’s public spaces, both inland and on the waterfront.
Check out our signature projects below.
2005-08 | McCarren Pool Activation. Through major concerts and events—like the legendary Pool Parties—NBK Parks (then OSA) advocated for the restoration of McCarren Park’s Olympic-sized WPA era public swimming pool, which had been shuttered since 1984.
credit: Jason Bergman
2012 | McCarren Pool Reopens. After 30 months of construction, the McCarren Pool reopened to the public. As the nonprofit partner of the Parks Department, our organization supported the pool’s operations and acted as community liaison during the renovation of the pool and its opening season.
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2010 | Transmitter Breaks Ground. NBK Parks (then OSA) and the Parks Department led a community-driven design process for the WYNC Transmitter site, one of the few open spaces available for park development on the waterfront pre-rezoning. The park broke ground in 2010.
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2012-2015 | Northside Concert Series. After the McCarren Pool Parties era, bringing cultural activation to unconventional public spaces became a signature of our organization. We continued to advocate and fundraise for open space by partnering on local concerts at the future sites for the Martha P. Johnson State Park and Bushwick Inlet Park.
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2013 | Bushwick Inlet Park (86 Kent) Opens. Nearly ten years after the Waterfront Access Plan was formalized, the first portion of the promised 27+ acre Bushwick Inlet Park was built. The soccer field opened in 2010, followed by the LEED-certified NYC Parks building in 2013. Our administrative team works out of this office.
credit: Mark Davis
2014 | Havemeyer Park Pop-Up. NBK Parks (then OSA) helped open and operate Havemeyer Park, a temporary public space at the future Domino Park project site. The park featured picnic benches, umbrellas, a farmer’s market, a yoga patch, and regular free movie nights.
credit: NBK Parks
2015 | Union Ave Demapped. It took more than five years—including several studies funded by our organization—to successfully transform the section of Union Avenue running through McCarren Park from a highly trafficked street into demapped parkland. The space now hosts a farmer’s market on Saturdays and serves as a car-free pathway connecting the track, dog run, and ballfields in McCarren Park.
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2020 | Pandemic & Open Streets. In spring 2020, when outdoor public space was immediately seen as a valuable resource, NYC DOT expanded its Open Streets program. NBK Parks became a DOT community partner and provided critical support to the burgeoning North Brooklyn Open Streets Community Coalition.
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2021 | Under the K Bridge Park Opens. When the 1938 steel and concrete Kosciuszko Bridge was replaced with a state of the art suspension bridge, NBK Parks led the design process to create a linear park below the BQE. Now we manage NYC’s first el-space, which serves as a public park, our operational home base, and one of NYC’s most dynamic concert destinations.
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2023 | Banker’s Anchor Plaza Opens. North Brooklyn got 5,000 square feet of new open space when the N.14th slip lane was converted into a public plaza known as Banker’s Anchor. NBK Parks is DOT’s maintenance partner for the space; our mobile crew keeps the plaza clean and our programming team assists with events and site activations.
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2024 | McGolrick Park – Final GCEF Investment. Our organization was awarded the final Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund (GCEF) grant for horticulture stewardship and community engagement in McGolrick Park. These funds have supported a full-time dedicated gardener, our 2025 Urban Forest Fellowship, and regular volunteer programming in the park.
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2024 | Restoration at Bushwick Inlet Park (50 Kent). The second portion of Bushwick Inlet Park, which opened to the public in 2022, became quickly overwhelmed with invasive species. We hired a dedicated landscaping team to eradicate mugwort, restore the pollinator gardens, and rehabilitate the lawns (a three-year project with a six-figure investment).
credit: Matt Davis
TODAY | Northside BID Formation. Just as more parks and open spaces appear on North Brooklyn’s map, the Parks Department is seeing deep cuts to its budget and workforce. NBK Parks is part of the steering committee engaged in the process of forming a Northside Business Improvement District to generate sustainable funds for parks public realm maintenance.
credit:As a recognized tax-exempt nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance seeks to be transparent in its financial operations by making the following information publicly available. A copy of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance’s history of financial statements and IRS Form 990s may also be obtained by writing to the New York State Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271 or by visiting https://www.guidestar.org