Hidden Beauty in Southeast Brooklyn

It may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking of interesting areas in New York City, but the neighborhoods in southeast Brooklyn are known as hidden gems by the residents for good reason. Marine Park and coastal Sheepshead Bay are home to not only the largest park in the borough but also miles of shoreline, making them one of the better places to be in the summer months.

While both may lean more residential overall, they host a variety of independent restaurants and businesses along with organizations such as the Marine Park Alliance and the Salt Marsh Alliance, not to mention several beaches. The historic Coney Island is a quick train ride away, but one does not even need to leave the area to find plenty to do. “We love to offer something for everybody,” said Scott Middleton, Executive Director of the Marine Park Alliance, “whether it’s a concert in the park, cultural festival, [or] an educational program.” The Marine Park Alliance is a non-profit organization whose mission, stated Middleton, is to “promote the park, improve it, and let people know about it, and that it’s a place they should visit, even if they don’t live right along the edge.”

Middleton, who’s been with the MPA since 2024, explained that aside from the annual fundraising gala, everything that the organization hosts is free. That includes things such as weekly concerts in Marine Park, group kayaking, yoga, and arts and crafts showcases. There are also events specifically for kids such as puppet shows, reptile shows, and movie screenings along with activities and gatherings for adults aged 60 and older. The MPA works closely with the SMA (Salt Marsh Alliance), another non-profit focused solely on caring for and representing the salt marsh, which is part of the 798 acres that Marine Park encompasses.

Led by President Jessica Schulman, the SMA was formed in 2002 to support the Salt Marsh Nature Center and is almost completely volunteer-based. This includes a nature trail which is always open to the public and is home to a variety of birds, insects, and plants, all of which are taken care of by those volunteering with the SMA and NYC Park’s Urban Parks Rangers. The SMA does host some events of the educational variety and per Schulman, everyone of all ages are welcome, including well behaved dogs and even snakes if one so chooses.

While environmentalism is incredibly important to these neighborhoods, there are much more to them than that. There is a decades-long debate about which restaurant has the best roast beef sandwiches, Roll-N-Roaster or Brennan & Carr, which has yet to be settled and probably never will be because both are too good to really decide. Wheeler’s is the place to go if you’re looking for an old-school vibe and the best pizza bread you’ve ever had, along with decently priced drinks and a train station close by. One of the defining characteristics of these areas are the independent restaurants and businesses that have been there for decades and have kept the old Brooklyn feel the entire time. There really are few things better than an ice-cold lemonade from Roll-N-Roaster after a day at the beach.

Everyone knows Coney Island, which is an amazing location in its own right. However, if you’re in Marine Park or Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach are easily accessible and usually a bit quieter than Coney is. A quick drive over the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge lands you on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, which is home to Jacob Riis Park. However, the real hidden beauty is Plumb Beach in Sheepshead Bay. Right off the Belt Parkway heading east, the beach is small, quiet, and has a great view. It’s an incredibly quick drive for anyone who lives in the area and is truly one of the best places to hide away if you need some time to yourself.

To the right of Plumb Beach is the iconic Emmons Avenue. Home to Roll-N-Roaster, the street is a strip of restaurants and shopping with a marina across the way. The Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club is based on Emmons Ave., but for those who are only looking for a few hours on the water, the marina has plenty of boats that can be rented for fishing or events.

With all of that said, the real beauty in these neighborhoods is the community that they encompass. Every Brooklyn neighborhood does seem to have a small-town feel to it in some capacity, but being so residential makes Marine Park and Sheepshead Bay the quintessence of that feeling. There are a few residents in particular who are doing what they can to make the community even stronger and feel more inclusive.

Sam Daniele, 26, is the president and co-founder of the Marine Park Young Adults Association. Founded in 2024 by Daniele and his friend Vincent Sinatra, the MPYAA is an organization geared towards adults ages 18-35 and began because the two felt that there wasn’t much to do in the area for younger adults. “It started because there’s not really a lot of social or recreational opportunities around here,” Daniele said. “That’s why we do movie nights, game nights, trivia, and karaoke. We really started as a social club, and we’re still doing that with our events.” The organization’s core events are ones that take place monthly and are often out of Marine Park Coffee, which acts as a bit of a home base. Those events are free for MPYAA members and usually have a cover fee of about $5.00 for anyone else. There are also open community events, which are for anyone and everyone and are events such as live music or outdoor movie screenings. The MPYAA is also the South Brooklyn branch of Climate Cafe, an initiative focused on conversations surrounding climate-change and what can be done about it. In doing so, the association also has a hand in the environmentalism permeating the neighborhood.

There are clearly many organizations and associations based out of the area, but there is a newly created very specialized one for a group of people that can often be overlooked. Lana Ryvkina co-founded Mothers Bloom Together this past March, with the goal behind it being to help mothers who may have lost pieces of themselves in motherhood find those pieces again. “When you become a mom,” Ryvkina said, “you kind of change. Your perspective, thinking, and everything, it becomes [about] your child, so you forget about yourself.” A mother of four, Rykvina had commiserated with friends of hers and her sister about her feelings of loneliness and isolation, and in realizing that so many women were experiencing the same feelings, decided to do something about it. The idea was simple—schedule regular meetups for mothers where they can get out of the house and socialize. In two months, over 40 women had come to the organization’s various events, which range from weekly coffee meetups to dance nights to events on the beach. The goal was to help mothers feel like themselves again and to avoid experiencing burnout, and the organization has been successful thus far in doing so.

“The people who don’t visit … might have a certain idea of what Marine Park is like,” Middleton said. “I like to expand people’s understanding of the park … and highlight the fact that we try to serve every user and every user group who takes advantage of the park to make them feel welcome and represented.”