Pier 1 Opens at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Fake it till you make it. (I didn't have a quarter.)

Despite what the title might imply, this post has nothing to do with the opening of a home furnishings retailer.  I'm talking about the first phase of our neighborhood's new waterfront park (Brooklyn Bridge Park) opening today.  Since the groundbreaking in the beginning of 2008, Becca and I have been anxiously watching the park progress from five piers covered with mainly abandoned warehouses, to skeletons of those warehouses, to an actual park with grass and trees.  I even posted the occasional photo of the progress here.

Pier 1 opened today.  For those who have visited, this is the pier to the left of the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory when you are facing Manhattan.  I happened to have taken the day off to take care of wedding suit shopping and saw on Curbed that the park was opening today.  It was rainy and overcast all day, but we didn't let that stop us.  We slapped on our Tretorns, picked up our umbrellas and took a stroll down to the new park.  Despite the dreary conditions, it was kind of a magical experience walking out on a pier jutting into the East River, with unmatched views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and the skyscrapers of the financial district feeling close enough to reach out and touch - or at least skip a stone to.

I think the most significant thing about the opening of the "first" section of the park (I put first in quotes because the new park will tie in with the existing Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park - infamous for all-too-frequent male thong sightings, north of the Brooklyn Bridge) was that it offered a clear vision of what was to come.  The potential of an underutilized waterfront becoming a world-class park, with some of the greatest views in the world.  In a city where residents are desperate for greenspace (heck, Becca and I are willing to give up our lovely apartment for one with a sliver of outdoor space - something that looks like it's going to happen in the next month), that's a big deal.  And we're pretty lucky to have it just a short walk away from our casa.

Check out some of the moist, delicious photos Becca took today.  Speaking of moist and delicious, we also discovered that a new Crumbs is opening up shop a couple of blocks from our apartment (apparently, a somewhat controversial topic for other neighborhood residents).  We'll have to walk off those 780 calories at the new park.