Under the K Bridge Park, a new public park built beneath the overpass of the Kosciuszko Bridge, officially opened last week.
The new park is seven acres and comes equipped with bike paths, greenspace, and skate park.
“The Kosciuszko Bridge project continues to reap benefits not only for motorists, pedestrians and the cycling community, but for a North Brooklyn community craving for more open space in the midst of a worldwide pandemic,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo. “Under the K Bridge Park is living proof that the Kosciuszko Bridge project didn’t just connect two New York City boroughs, but is helping to transform an entire community.”
The bike lanes at Under the K connect to North Brooklyn’s growing bike lane network and to Queens via the shared-use path on the Kosciuszko Bridge.
The new Kosciuszko Bridge officially opened in August 2019 and included pedestrian walkways and bike lanes. The project represented the first major bridge crossing built in New York City since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic in 1964.
Under the K also features more than 20,000 trees and plants, bringing a much needed touch of color to the largely industrial Newtown Creek waterfront.
“With the addition of this truly innovative urban park, DOT is expanding those benefits to further integrate green, open space for the enjoyment of all New Yorkers,”. “The COVID-19 public health emergency underscored the need for outdoor recreational opportunities and that’s exactly what Under the K Bridge Park provides,” said Marie Therese Dominguez, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. “With expansive walkways, innovative design and landscaping, this bridge truly connects people through infrastructure and greenspace.”
The new park will be open daily from dawn until dusk, with COVID-19 health and safety measures in place to ensure park visitors comply with the state’s guidance on masks, social distancing, and gatherings.
“North Brooklyn has been historically underserved with its amount of parks and open space,” North Brooklyn Parks Alliance founding board member Joseph Vance explained. “Under the K Bridge Park opens the door for innovative transformation of underutilized public land for open space.”

From June 8 to June 28, a new memorial at Green-Wood Cemetery will honor the more than 52,000 New Yorkers who have already died from the COVID-19 pandemic. The new installation — titled ‘WE REMEMBER: A COMMUNITY COVID MEMORIAL’ — features images, nameplates, and other items along a 200 feet stretch of the iron gate at the Cemetery’s iconic entrance on Fifth Avenue and 25th Street.

Naming the Lost Memorials, a nonprofit that has organized previous COVID-19 memorials in New York City, worked in collaboration with Green-Wood Cemetery to bring WE REMEMBER to life. The cemetery also partnered with over 20 local organizations to help promote and finance the memorial, including Brooklyn Roots, Flushing Town Hall, the Worker Justice Project, Hebrew Tabernacle, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
“All of us at Green-Wood have seen, firsthand, the toll that COVID-19 has taken on family, friends, our community, and even our industry,” said Kay Turner, an artist, folklorist, and team member at Naming the Lost Memorials. “This beautiful living memorial gives us a special place to remember what they meant to us and how they each made this world a better place.”
Turner continued: “Even as New Yorkers begin to feel the joys of opening, the pandemic rages on in other parts of the world. It’s not over. Nor is the sense of loss we feel knowing that 600,000 of our loved ones in the United States are gone from us. Mourning and remembrance are still necessary acts. Naming those lost to COVID-19 must continue. Our memorial at Green-Wood provides a place to do just that.”
WE REMEMBER functions as an interactive exhibit. Community members and passerby are encouraged to create their own nameplates to add to the ever-growing memorial wall.

Unfortunately, the opening ceremony that was planned for the memorial was cancelled due to weather, yet Green-Wood still hopes to organize candle lightings, name readings, and other events down the road.

Green-Wood Cemetery experienced a dramatic increase in burials and cremations during the pandemic’s heights last spring and summer. The volume of deaths was so great that the cemetery was forced to institute a partial cap on the number of cremations it would allow within a day. Although case numbers and deaths continue to decrease, the staff at Green-Wood Cemetery has remained extremely busy since the pandemic’s start.

For more information on the memorial, visit https://namingthelost.com/memorials/.