Maria Hernandez Park

Maria Hernandez Park — Bushwick’s living room, and a name that means something

Just under seven acres in the middle of Bushwick, and there is almost never a moment when it is empty. Maria Hernandez Park is small enough to cross in five minutes and dense enough that those five minutes take you past a domino table, a handball wall, a dog run, a stage, a spray shower and a basketball game with an audience. It carried the name Bushwick Park for nearly a century. In 1989 the City Council renamed it for a neighborhood woman who organized her block against the drug trade and was killed for it — a decision that turned an ordinary green square into the neighborhood’s memorial to itself.

Highlights

• The performance stage — a permanent outdoor stage added in the park’s recent rebuild, used for concerts, community events, dance and summer film nights.
• The basketball and handball courts — resurfaced in the 2016–2022 works and among the most consistently occupied courts in Bushwick, from morning pickup to floodlit evening games.
• The dog run — a neighborhood institution, funded for a full rebuild through City Council money allocated in 2022, with plans for dog-friendly turf and drainage, better lighting and fencing, shaded perimeter seating and drinking fountains with dog bowls.
• The playground — completely rebuilt with new equipment and spray showers that run through the hot months.
• The Saturday farmers market — running in the park since 2012 and operated by a local nonprofit since 2017, with a vendor roster that is majority Latine and people of color, many of them from the neighborhood.
• The fitness and skate areas — outdoor workout equipment, sports turf and a skate ramp added in the recent upgrades.

What you’ll find

This is a compact, hard-working city park with no wilderness and no pretensions — a rectangle of paths, trees, courts and benches that the neighborhood treats as a shared front room. Four wheelchair-accessible entrances open onto it from all sides, and the layout is legible from any corner.

• Full-size basketball courts and handball walls, both floodlit for evening play.
• A children’s playground with modern equipment and spray showers for hot weather.
• A fenced dog run, one of the busiest in the district.
• An outdoor fitness zone with fixed equipment, sports turf and a skate ramp.
• A performance stage with open paved space in front of it for audiences, markets and events.
• Shaded benches, mature trees and the informal table-game corners where dominoes and cards run all afternoon.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Basketball and handball players — dependable pickup games at almost any hour, with courts good enough that people travel across the neighborhood for them.
• Families with young children — a rebuilt playground and spray showers, plus enough adult seating in shade that a whole afternoon is workable.
• Dog owners — a proper fenced run that functions as the neighborhood’s most reliable social network.
• Saturday shoppers — the farmers market brings regional produce into a district that historically had little of it, and its vendors reflect the community it serves.
• Concert and event audiences — the stage gives Bushwick a genuine outdoor venue for music, dance and film through the warm months.
• Anyone who wants to understand Bushwick — a half hour on a bench here tells you more about the neighborhood than any guidebook, and the park’s name tells you the rest.

Getting there & practical

The park sits in the heart of Bushwick in northern Brooklyn, close to the Ridgewood boundary. The L train is the simplest approach — Jefferson Street and DeKalb Avenue are both short walks — and the M train stops nearby at Knickerbocker Avenue and Central Avenue, which is often the better option coming from Queens or Midtown. Local buses serve the surrounding avenues from several directions. Entry is free, there is no gate, no ticket and nothing to book; the courts, playground, fitness area and dog run are all open on a first-come basis, and the park has four wheelchair-accessible entrances. It is open year-round, daily from early morning until one in the morning, with the spray showers running only in hot weather and the market keeping a seasonal Saturday schedule. Thirty minutes is enough for a look; a Saturday morning with the market and a coffee is the local way to use it.

When to visit

Summer is peak Maria Hernandez: spray showers going all afternoon, the stage in use on weekends, courts busy until the lights go off, and the market at its fullest. Spring brings the park back quickly — the trees leaf out, the dog run refills, and the first outdoor events appear on the stage calendar. Autumn is the most pleasant time to sit here, with cool air, long light through the trees and the market at its harvest peak before the season winds down. Winter thins the park out but does not empty it: the courts stay in use by the committed, the dog run runs on regardless of weather, and the bare trees open up sightlines across the whole rectangle.

Good to know

The land has an unlikely earlier life: parts of the site were owned by the showman Phineas T. Barnum and his wife Nancy, and were used for circus performances and storage. The City of Brooklyn bought the property from the Barnums and other owners in the early 1890s, and by 1896 landscaping and construction had turned it into a showpiece of the district. It was known as Bushwick Park for nearly a hundred years. In 1989 the City Council renamed it for Maria Hernandez (1953–1989). She was born in Brooklyn, went to public school in the borough and studied accounting at New York University. She and her husband Carlos became leaders of the effort to push drug dealing out of Bushwick at the height of the crack epidemic: they confronted dealers directly and asked them to leave, passed information to the police, and organized block parties, sports and cultural gatherings to build enough neighborhood cohesion to make the dealers unwelcome. On the morning of 8 August 1989 five shots were fired through the window of her home and she died soon after. The renaming came the same year. In the decades since, the park has been rebuilt around that name: works carried out between 2016 and 2022 delivered a new playground, resurfaced basketball and handball courts, outdoor fitness equipment, spray showers, benches and the performance stage, and a further project funded through City Council allocations from 2022 is rebuilding the dog run and playground area. The park was named New York City’s Park of the Month in December 2006 and received the Lily Bartle award in January 2007.

Visitor tips

• Come on a Saturday morning if you want the park at its most characteristic — the farmers market runs alongside the courts and the dog run, and the whole neighborhood passes through.
• Check the stage schedule in summer before you plan a quiet afternoon; when there is a concert or film night on, the paved area in front of the stage fills completely.
• The park is genuinely small, so pair it with a walk through the surrounding streets — the street-art district and the neighborhood’s Latin American and Puerto Rican food are all within a few minutes on foot.

Questions & answers

Who was Maria Hernandez? A Bushwick resident, born in Brooklyn in 1953, who with her husband Carlos organized the neighborhood against drug dealing — confronting dealers, working with police and building community events to reclaim the blocks. She was shot at her home on 8 August 1989 and died of her wounds. The City Council renamed the park for her that same year.

What was the park called before? Bushwick Park. It carried that name from its creation in the 1890s until the 1989 renaming.

Is there an entrance fee? No. The park is free and open year-round, daily from early morning until one in the morning, with four wheelchair-accessible entrances.

Is there a farmers market? Yes — a Saturday market has operated in the park since 2012 and has been run by a local nonprofit since 2017. It works a seasonal schedule through the warm months, with a vendor roster drawn largely from the community it serves.

Can I bring a dog? Yes. The park has a fenced dog run that is one of the most used in Bushwick; dogs must be leashed elsewhere in the park. The run has been slated for a full rebuild with new turf, drainage, lighting, fencing and shaded seating.

What is there for children? A completely rebuilt playground with new equipment, spray showers for hot weather, sports turf, a skate ramp and open space for scooters and bicycles.

Is the park connected to P. T. Barnum? Partly. Barnum and his wife Nancy owned part of the site before the city bought it in the early 1890s, and the ground was used for circus performances and storage.

Are there events here? Yes. The permanent outdoor stage hosts concerts, dance, community gatherings and summer film screenings, mostly from late spring through early autumn.