City Of Water Day – Celebrating Island Living Across NYC

This Saturday, September 12, we celebrate our waterfront. The event is organized by Waterfront Alliance who has been working for 13 years to connect communities to and advocate for resilient, revitalized, and accessible coastline for all.

Out of the 500 some miles of waterfront across the city, Brooklyn is home to 131 glorious miles of coastline. There are great parks you can stroll along from Bushwick Inlet park to Domino park ( which just won the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Open Space Award).

This year you won’t have to fight through the crowds of tourists in DUMBO, but there is so much more – check out Verrazzano Bridge from Shore Parkway, discover Coney Island Creek, and Coney Island, but when was the last time you were out in Canarsie or Marine Park? All of them offer magnificent views and fabulous recreation, and there are bike lanes almost everywhere.

Why not join in and explore the 26-mile Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway?

Or hop on the ferry and get from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint in style, passing by the last remaining NYC working waterfront at Brooklyn Army Terminal, Industry City, Brooklyn Container Terminal, Brooklyn Navy Yard.

To explore the impact of the raising water and risk of floods, explore the Blue Line –  the location of the future high tide line six feet above today’s high tide, which you can find in this map from NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer. More than one million people in the region are currently living within the future 2100 ‘BlueLine’ or floodplain.

Art at the BlueLine launches on Saturday and will be available to view through September 27 for Climate Week NYC at Pier 17 in South Street Seaport in Manhattan.

Newtown Creek Alliance will be holding a series of events at Newtown Barge Park (Greenpoint), located at the beginning/end of the Brooklyn Greenway.

Or join the Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park who will have Marine biologists from the Coastal Classroom lead the community in exploring marine life at low tide on the Bushwick Inlet Park jetty. Sign up here.

Further south, Coney Island Beautification Project will gather to advocate for more resilient waterfronts tomorrow at 10:00 am at Kaiser Park along Coney Island Creek (Bayview Ave entrance).

Gowanus Dredgers have a full day of events planned along the canal.

The day at this location will start with Gowanus Canal Shoreline Art Walk at 11:30 am from Brooklyn Habit, 405 Smith St.

Explore the canal in a canoe between 1-5 pm, first come, first served. (Boathouse is located at 165 2nd St.) Check on the health of Gowanus Oysters between 1-2:30 pm at the Esplanade near Sponge Park and Dredgers boathouse, or meet for a tour of future flood line with Steve Koller. Details an all events are here.

The evening will be closed out by Vienna Carroll and Gowanus Wildcats step team before BRIDGES OF BRASS! Funkrust Brass Band takes to
canoes on the Gowanus between 7-8 pm.

And if you are in the Gowanus area, join the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and learn about the Gowanus Canal history and current initiatives, and pot up plants in our native plant nursery, located at our stewardship site, the Salt Lot.

Jamaica Bay Festival at the Blue Line is organized by the Jamaica Bay Conservancy and will take place between 9 and 3 pm, check out the events here. They will be streaming live on Facebook as well.

There is so much to do and explore, you really should not stay home. The full lineup of all events across the city is here.