The Columbia Street Waterfront District is a neighborhood in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on the

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

waterfront between Cobble Hill and Red Hook and situated on the western side of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway (BQE). The neighborhood is locally governed by

Brooklyn Community Board 6 Brooklyn Community Board 6 is a New York City community board that encompasses the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus, Cobble Hill and Columbia Street Waterfront District. It is delimited by Upper New Yo ...

. The neighborhood was formed in 1957 when the newly built BQE effectively cut Columbia Street off from

Carroll Gardens Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Taking up around 40 city blocks, it is bounded by Degraw and Warren Streets (north), Hoyt and Smith Streets (east), Ninth Street or the G ...

and Cobble Hill, its two adjacent neighborhoods. The district, once an area that was blighted by empty storefronts, was further emptied of tenants by a 1975 accident, while a sewer line was being repaired, that caused the death of a construction worker and the demolition of 33 buildings. By 1984, an

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

project was completed, as well as a brand-new street, houses along which sold out quickly. Throughout the 2000s, new bakeries, restaurants and businesses began opening in the neighborhood, including Alma, a Mexican eatery and

Pok Pok Pok Pok was a group of Thai restaurants based in Portland, Oregon, founded and led by chef Andy Ricker. Pok Pok won both local recognition and major industry awards, with ''The Oregonian'' describing the restaurant as "one of those quintessentia ...

, a Thai restaurant at 127 Columbia Street that ultimately closed in 2018. The district is one of Brooklyn's smallest neighborhoods, comprising about 22 blocks in an area west–east between the B.Q.E. and the waterfront, and north–south from Atlantic Avenue to the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel. It is sometimes described as part of

or Cobble Hill. Eleven percent of the population along the northern section of Columbia Street is unmarried, same-sex households, which is the largest percentage of same-sex relationships anywhere in New York City.

References

{{Brooklyn Neighborhoods in Brooklyn * Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn