Dutch Kills Green

Dutch Kills Green is a small park near Crescent Street and Queens Plaza South in Long Island City, Queens. The park takes its name from Dutch Kills, a tidal creek that once flowed through this area and was named by the Dutch settlers who colonized western Queens in the 17th century (the word 'kill' is Dutch for creek or channel).

Dutch Kills was part of the network of tidal waterways that drained the wetlands of western Queens into the East River. Like most of the city's natural waterways, the creek was gradually filled, channeled, and buried as the area was developed for industrial and residential use.

The park provides a small green space in the rapidly developing Queens Plaza area, which has seen explosive residential tower construction in recent years. Long Island City's transformation has created enormous demand for every type of public space, and even small parks like Dutch Kills Green serve an important function.

The park features benches, plantings, and a paved area that provides a resting spot near the busy Queens Plaza transit hub, where multiple subway lines, buses, and bicycle routes converge. The park's proximity to this transportation node ensures high foot traffic throughout the day.

Dutch Kills Green preserves the memory of a vanished waterway in a neighborhood that has been utterly transformed from tidal marshland to industrial district to glittering residential towers, each transformation erasing more of the natural landscape that the Dutch settlers first encountered.