Newtown Creek Alliance invites you to join us at Maspeth Creek for a clean up + planting!
The 49th Street – Maspeth Creek site is a public right-of-way sidewalk strip that is situated directly above NCQ-077, a combined sewage outfall that contributes an estimated 300+ million gallons of sewage yearly into Newtown Creek. Despite this frequent disturbance, Maspeth Creek is still home to a rich diversity of bird and marine life!
NCA has been working to restore native ecology, add visibility to the water, and improve pedestrian accessibility along this stretch of 49th Street. We aim to engage folks with this rare public waterfront access area through hands-on projects that can help improve environmental conditions along the shore and in the Creek itself.
This event will include:
- Landscaping the existing vegetation and paths
- Trash cleanup along the sidewalk
- Removing specific plant aggressive species like knotweed
- Planting of native wildflowers and grasses from our nursery!
Newtown Creek Alliance invites you to join us at Manhattan Ave Street End Park for a clean up + planting volunteer event!
This public space sits at the former site of the Vernon Avenue Bridge (replaced by the Pulaski in the late1940’s). In the years since, it had been used as a parking lot and dumping site, before being transformed into a park space with water access and a native wildflower meadow.
This event will include:
- Landscaping the existing vegetation
- Trash cleanup throughout the space
- Removing specific plant aggressive species like bindweed
- Planting of native wildflowers and grasses from our nursery!
Past Events
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Tidal Toast is Newtown Creek Alliance’s annual celebration of Newtown Creek! Bringing together community members, local businesses, and long-time champions of the Creek, Tidal Toast is an evening of inspiration and impact.
We’re thrilled to announce our 2025 Tidal Toast Honorees!
REVITALIZE: El Puente is a human rights institution founded in 1982 with a mission to inspire and nurture leadership for peace and justice. Based in NYC and Puerto Rico with national and international impact, El Puente directly serves approximately 12,000 individuals annually from nine youth Leadership Centers across the Southside of Williamsburg and Bushwick, Brooklyn, and within Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. El Puente creates community-led movements of self determination among low-income, oppressed peoples, Latine and communities of color through a holistic leadership and membership model, and high impact youth and community development programs.
REVEAL: The Welikia Project aims to illuminate the rich ecological history that underwrites the development of New York City, drawing awareness to how drastically our own neighborhoods have changed over time, and suggesting possible alternative futures. It roots us in place, helps us understand the place we live in, and fosters the long view. The goal of the project is not to go back to the past but rather to go forward into the future, taking on the wisdom and inspiration that nature provides.
RESTORE: Seaweed City is a regenerative urban aquaculture organization with the mission to restore our marine ecosystems, clean our water, and promote community investment in the NYC estuary. As climate change accelerates, seaweed aquaculture is a powerful nature-based solution, improving environmental conditions by serving as marine habitats, providing an alternative to plastic, acting as a storm surge buffer, and aiding in pollution extraction. We aim to create an open-source research and development laboratory for community members, scientists, artists, students, entrepreneurs, and advocates to explore the benefits of seaweed and connect with the local marine environment.
Join the NCA crew as we look to the future of the Creek and dance the night away. Featuring an exciting silent auction, open bar, dinner, and a shared love of the waterway, join us as we *CHEERS* to the Creek!
Join the Newtown Creek Alliance on this 5-mile bike tour to witness and discuss a number of key environmental issues and public access opportunities along Newtown Creek. The tour will bring us to key street-end areas that we are targeting for enhanced public access, improved safety, and opportunities for restoration and ecological benefits.
Stainless steel gates, petrified tree stumps, “paleocene” engraved on granite steps…
Curious about what it all means? Join Newtown Creek Alliance staff on this guided tour of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, as we peel back layers of history and symbolism within this unique community space.
We’ll also talk through intertidal restoration projects undertaken by Newtown Creek Alliance, including a stop over at the nearby North Henry Inlet to explore our floating marsh structures.
At the close of the tour, attendees can visit Kingsland Wildflowers for sunset and skyline views, where the green roofs and native plant nursery will be open during our “Autumn Evenings” series!
This 6-mile bike tour will follow the proposed route of the Department of Environmental Protection’s planned Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Storage Tunnel for Newtown Creek. Years in the making, this massive, multi-billion dollar infrastructure project will bring much needed relief and reduction to the repeated discharging of untreated sewage entering Newtown Creek during rain events. 2025 is a critical year for designing the tunnel and getting everything lined up to begin construction in the coming years (the project completion date is 2040).
Along the way, we’ll pass pump houses, sewer grates, and CSO discharge points, stopping frequently to point out existing infrastructure and talk about the DEP’s planned underground work.
Have you noticed how hot it can get in the city—especially around Newtown Creek?
Join artist DaeQuan Alexander Collier on Thursday, September 11th at 6:30PM at the Queens Landing Boathouse and Environmental Center for a film screening and workshop exploring how heat shapes our bodies, cities, and imaginations. The evening will feature clips from iconic portrayals of urban heat over time, followed by a participatory workshop inviting you to reflect and create together.
Free and open to the public; recommended for adults.
DaeQuan Collier is a Bronx-born interdisciplinary artist and writer whose practice weaves together moving image, sound, and experimental storytelling to examine how memory is shaped, held, and transmitted. Moving between physical objects and digital tools, his work conjures spaces for communion. Through installation, video, and text-based works, Collier explores how personal and collective histories are archived and mediated, often drawing on oral traditions, site-specific research, and found materials. His work is informed by how media, images, and space affect us, engaging storytelling as a mode of inquiry, healing, and reimagining. He holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA from Emerson College.