The Columbia Street Waterfront District is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on the

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...

waterfront between Cobble Hill and Red Hook and situated on the western side of the

Brooklyn–Queens Expressway Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York ...

(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 ...

. The neighborhood was formed in 1957 when the newly built BQE effectively cut Columbia Street off from Carroll Gardens 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 (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

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 quintessenti ...

, 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 Carroll Gardens 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