Play soccer at Bushwick Inlet Park

Bushwick Inlet Park, located on the Williamsburg waterfront, features excellent artificial turf soccer fields that are popular with local leagues and casual players. The park's creation is a significant story of community activism. In 2005, during the large-scale rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Bushwick Inlet Park was designated as a "giveback" to the community to provide much-needed green space. Historically, Bushwick Inlet was the mouth of a large inland waterway and wetlands, serving as a vital ecosystem for indigenous populations before European settlement. Over centuries, the area became heavily industrialized, including a freight terminal and sites for manufactured coal-tar gas, leading to significant contamination. After the industrial decline in the 1980s, local activists campaigned tirelessly to reclaim the waterfront. The park opened in stages, with the soccer and football fields officially opening in 2010, followed by a community center in 2013. The land acquisition for the park, particularly the final plot occupied by a CitiStorage building, was a prolonged and expensive process, finally concluded in 2016 after years of community holdouts and negotiations. Today, the fields are known for their good condition and are often lit for evening games, offering impressive views of the Manhattan skyline. Access is convenient via the L train (Bedford Avenue or Lorimer Street) or G train (Nassau Avenue or Metropolitan Avenue). While on-site amenities are basic, the park represents a hard-won victory for public space and offers a lively environment for soccer.