Coffey Park

Coffey Park is a four-acre park in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, bounded by Richards, Verona, and King Streets. The park is the principal green space in Red Hook, an isolated waterfront neighborhood cut off from the rest of Brooklyn by the elevated Gowanus Expressway and the former industrial waterfront.

Red Hook was once one of the busiest shipping ports on the East Coast, with docks, warehouses, and maritime industry dominating the waterfront. The neighborhood's decline began with the containerization of shipping in the 1960s, which shifted port activity to larger facilities in New Jersey, leaving Red Hook economically stranded.

The park features a playground, basketball courts, open lawns, and seating areas. Coffey Park serves both the Red Hook Houses (one of the largest public housing developments in Brooklyn) and the growing number of residents attracted to the neighborhood's waterfront character, artistic community, and relative affordability.

Red Hook has experienced a gradual revival since the early 2000s, with restaurants, galleries, and small businesses establishing themselves alongside the longstanding working-class community. Coffey Park serves as common ground between these different populations.

Coffey Park is the beating heart of Red Hook: the place where the community comes together for events, where children from the housing projects and the brownstone blocks play on the same equipment, and where the neighborhood's ongoing transformation is most visible in the mix of people who share the space.