Coney Island Creek is a Coney Island Creek Resiliency Study, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) – 2016.07.08, pages 14–15 tidal inlet in Brooklyn, New York City. It was created from a series of streams and inlets by land filling and digging activities starting in the mid-18th century which, by the 19th century, became a continual strait and a partial mudflat connecting Gravesend Bay and Sheepshead Bay, separating Coney Island from the mainland. The strait was closed off in the early 20th century due to further land development and later construction projects. Today only the western half of Coney Island Creek exists. What once was a thriving fish and oyster population in salt marshes, freshwater streams, and expansive forests is now an unnatural environment wrecked by industrial pollution and construction debris. Urbanization of the city and man-made conditions have led to dumping of sewage and discarded materials, including cars and ship parts. The urbanization and pollution of the creek have caused the low-income and diverse community residing nearby to face many environmental injustices, such as health risks and environmental safety hazards. Restoration projects are limited and most conservation efforts are seen to be performed by the local community.
Course
Coney Island Creek extends eastward from Gravesend Bay to Shell Road and separates the west end of Coney Island from the neighborhoods of Gravesend and Bath Beach. The west end of the creek is bordered by Coney Island Creek Park and Kaiser Park on the south side, and Calvert Vaux Park on the north side. The creek is crossed by the Cropsey Avenue and Stillwell Avenue bridges as well as two parallel rail trestles carrying the West End and Sea Beach subway lines (respectively served by the and ). The eastern end is bordered by the Shore Parkway on the north side and Neptune Avenue on the south side. The eastern portion of Coney Island Creek runs along private industrial property and several acres formerly owned by Keyspan, the local electricity provider. The creek terminates at Shell Road where a storm sewer emerges from under the road (designated stormwater outfall CI-641 in city plans).
History
Extensions and infilling Before the 17th century, the Lenape people, a Native American tribe, inhabited the land now called Coney Island. The arrival of the Dutch in the 17th century led to the expulsion of the Lenape from their homeland. A wall was built around the settlement to keep the Lenape out of their territory. The Dutch claim that the land was "purchased" from the Lenape, but the Lenape people disagree and understand the "purchase" as a forced removal. According to the Coney Island People's Planning Process, they "thrived along the coast, relying heavily on the island's abundant natural resources".
Although the Lenape were removed from their territory, there are still many indigenous people living in New York City. According to Sutton King, a member of the Menominee and Oneida nations and president of the Urban Indigenous Collective, "[There are] over 181,000 Indigenous peoples living in New York City" . While most of the Lenape were removed from their homeland and had to go to other places like Oklahoma, the descendants of the Lenape people still actively try to keep their presence in New York City Efforts such as the Smithsonian museum, which is a museum that "features exhibits that explore Native American history and showcase contemporary Native art and heritage" and the Lenape center in New York City, which aims to "promote Native American arts and humanities, environmental stewardship and Lenape identity" are working to keep the Lenape history known in NYC.
At the time of European settlement, Coney Island Creek was full of rabbits. This is why the island is named Coney because it comes from the Dutch word Konijin, meaning rabbits . The land that makes up the present day Coney Island was several barrier islands with interconnecting waterways that were all constantly changing shape. Coney Island Creek was once primarily characterized by salt marshes, hardwood forests, and freshwater streams. The waterway that became Coney Island Creek did not originally extend across the back side of the island since part of the land on the west end was a peninsula called Coney Hook. Hubbard's Creek, which ran down the eastern side of the peninsula, connected directly with the ocean. In 1750 a 0.25-mile-long canal (called the "Jamaica Ditch") was dug through the Coney Hook salt-marsh from a creek connecting to Gravesend Bay east to Hubbard's creek.1884 history calls this other creek "Brown's Creek" and period maps show a mill pond in this area and call it "Mill Creek"City in Environment – Evolution Coney Island This new waterway, allowing shipping traffic to travel from Jamaica Bay to New York Harbor without having to venture out into the ocean, connected Gravesend Bay and Sheepshead Bay together.William H. Stillwell, A History of the Town of Gravesend, N.Y., 1884, page 34Coney Island History Project, Collection – Jamaica Ditch The waterway behind the islands was called Gravesend Creek in the early 19th century since it cut below the town of Gravesend (later the name was used interchangeably with "Coney Island Creek").New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Coney Island Creek ParkCover G. Tremlett, In the Matter of the Application of the City of Brooklyn to Acquire the Property and Franchises of the Long Island Water Supply Company: Before ... Commissioners of Appraisal. Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners, 1893, page 273 Eventually Hubbard's and the other creeks and inlets that separated the islands were filled by a combination of natural process and land development, leaving just a single island that came to be called Coney Island and a single creek behind it that came to be called Coney Island Creek.
In August 1776, the Battle of Brooklyn took place on the distant marshy fields of Gowanus and Red Hook, where a British invasion force from Staten Island prepared to attack New York City. The landing on the beaches of Gravesend marked the beginning of the Battle of Brooklyn. This battle, also referred to as the Battle of Long Island, began the New York and New Jersey campaign, the first major armed campaign for the colonies following their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. This battle resulted in the retreat of General George Washington and the Continental Army from Brooklyn Heights, forcing them to cross the East River and regroup in Manhattan.
Coney Island Creek was still a minimally navigable waterway over its 3-mile length through the turn of the 20th century.Sergey Kadinsky, Hidden Waters blog Companion blog for the book "Hidden Waters of NYC" Canal Avenue, Brooklyn By the early part of the century, industries started to develop around the creek. This resulted in it becoming polluted with substances including arsenic, cyanide, and benzene. The largest polluters included the Brooklyn Yarn Dye Company and the Brooklyn Union Gas Company.
In a period from the late 19th century through the early 20th century there were plans to turn the creek into the Gravesend Ship Canal.NYC Parks Dept Coney Island Creek Park It would re-dredge the creek into a canal running in a straight east–west line and fill all the marsh land on either side of the creek to expand the urban grid to the edge of the canal. The plan was eventually abandoned and by 1924 local land owners had filled a portion of the creek.Hidden Waters blog, Companion blog for the book "Hidden Waters of NYC" – Photo of the Week March 4, 2016 A major section of the creek was further filled in to allow construction of the Belt Parkway in the 1930s. More fill was added in 1962 with the construction of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge. This turned Coney Island Creek into an inlet with the western and eastern ends of the island becoming peninsulas. None of the creek remains at the eastern end. That terminus, Sheepshead Bay, has been dredged and, for the most part, enclosed in bulkheads. The path of the landfill of what used to be the creek follows Shore Parkway, Guider Avenue, and the triangular block between Neptune Avenue and Cass Place to a bulkhead at Sheepshead Bay.
Current status
A northwestern part of the creek is known as a "ship graveyard" for the dead and abandoned ships found there. At the southern shore of the creek, the remains of a yellow submarine, the Quester I, protrudes from the water. Built from salvaged metal in the late 1960s, it was never able to maintain an even keel and was abandoned. There are other leftover shipwrecks left in the creek, but their origins are somewhat unknown. They either are left over from The Battle of Brooklyn, or they are left over from when the creek was somewhat active in the 20th century. The creek is also used for performing baptisms.
The health and behavior of marine life in Coney Island Creek have been impacted by environmental factors and human activities in previous years. Pollution from nearby urban development has degraded water quality, leading to harmful substances lingering in the water that could affect marine life. Additionally, the creek's confined space and fluctuating tides can trap marine animals, as evidenced by the 2013 incident involving a dolphin that became disoriented and stranded. This dolphin became trapped and was found dead in the creeks waterway. Incidents like these showcase the challenges faced by marine life in adapting to their changing habitat. There is an obvious need for conservation efforts and better management of local waterways to protect these vulnerable species.
In 2016, the New York City government found that a nearby apartment complex, Beach Haven Apartments, was dumping of sewage each day into Coney Island Creek. The complex was fined $400,000 two years later. By late 2016, local residents were advocating the designation of the creek as a Superfund site, which would provide funding to clean the hazardous materials from the creek. Community members testified that auto shops on nearby Neptune Avenue were still dumping cars into the creek. The creek was expected to undergo some minor cleanup between 2018 and 2020. By late 2020, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was considering designating the creek as a Superfund site. In a site inspection, the EPA found toxic levels of cyanide, iron, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the sediment and surface water samples of the Coney Island Creek. However, the EPA has not yet called for an official cleanup of the creek nor designated it as a Superfund site despite the community still using the creek for recreational purposes.
In 2018, the Coney Island History Project opened an exhibition about the history of the Coney Island creek titled: "Coney Island Creek and the Natural World."