Advocates Say Clock Is Ticking to Preserve Tony Dapolito Rec Center

The Tony Dapolito Recreation Center is inching closer and closer to doom, unless $51 million in proposed budgetary funds that would go toward demolishing and completely remaking it are reallocated by the end of the month, advocates say.

Village Preservation has announced a “countdown clock” that ends on June 30, when the City Council is set to finish its revisions of Mayor Eric Adams’s overall proposed budget. Andrew Berman, the advocacy group’s executive director, is urging Council members to put the $51 million toward repairing the existing 117-year-old structure; the Parks Department insists that the lot, which is situated next to J.J. Walker Park, would be better served by outright tearing down the structure and replacing its services with newer ones. Some of these would be relocated across the street to a mixed-use development.

“The only way we’re going to be able to prevent the mayor from demolishing the building—which he is dead-set on doing—is if the City Council takes the $51 million he’s put in the budget for demolition . . . and puts that money toward restoration or renovation,” Berman told Our Town Downtown.

“If they vote to approve the $51 million for demolition, then we’re really going to have nothing but a wing and a prayer to go on,” he added.

At a June 1 rally in front of the recreation center, Berman directly slammed the Parks Department as well: “The beloved, venerable, landmarked and much-needed Tony Dapolito Recreation Center has been closed for five years—due to deferred maintenance and neglect by the city. Rather than repair it, they let it rot. Why? Well, now we know. It’s because they never wanted to repair it at all, they wanted to tear it down.”

District 4 City Council Member Keith Powers showed up to the rally, where he hailed his love of the Dapolito family (the center was named after Dapolito, a Community Board 2 chair, shortly after he passed away in 2003. It used to be known as the Carmine Street Pool).

“Tony Dapolito was actually a personal friend of my family, his wife Francis. . . . His grandson Brian Delaney is my closest friend on Earth,” Powers said. “I know what he fought for, and I have the spirit of Tony Dapolito here today, fighting for strong neighborhoods.

“As we go through this fight, as we go through this conversation about the city budget, I want to add my voice of support to make sure that the city does not move forward in an urgent plan to tear down this recreation center,” the Council member added.

A number of politicians—including local City Council Member Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine—wrote a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and the Parks Department on June 5, in which they expressed their “grave concerns” about the current state of the demolition plans.

They stopped short of calling for the money to be reallocated toward repairs, however, instead writing that “any proposal to replace the center must be preceded by a transparent public process and a comprehensive, community-informed plan that reflects neighborhood needs and is firmly grounded in public use.”

Yet Berman found the letter lacking in key aspects, which he addressed in a letter of his own. “Community Board 2 has held multiple public hearings on this issue, with a lopsided turnout in favor of preserving and restoring the existing building, and a strong resolution passed overwhelmingly by the full board calling for the same,” he wrote. “A transparent public process has already taken place; the Mayor and the Parks Department simply don’t like its results.”

”The tone of the elected officials’ letter was good . . . but in terms of the substance of what we need, the letter fell pretty far short of what’s called for in the situation,” Berman told Our Town Downtown.