A crowd of fired-up Villagers converged on the corner of Clarkson and Varick Streets to demand that their beloved and landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center—closed since COVID, for five years—be repaired as promised, and not demolished, as the city now threatens to do.
The June 1st rally, organized by Village Preservation and the grassroots Coalition to Save the Public Recreation Center Downtown (SPRCD, or “sparked”), called on the New York City Council to insist that money allocated to demolition and replacement of the Center, approximately $52 million in the mayor’s 2026 budget, launch long-delayed repair work on the century-old facility. Built in stages, the Center began in the 1900s as a free public bathhouse and was expanded through the 1930s. The outdoor pool boasts a mural painted by Keith Haring in 1987.
Demolition by neglect
Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, decried the “hypocrisy” of the city attempting to accomplish demolition-by-neglect, the illicit practice of doing an end-run around the city’s own landmark preservation laws by neglecting a landmark so much that it falls apart. “Rather than repair it, they let it rot,” he contended, and “now we know [why]. It’s because they never wanted to repair it at all.”
“The city claims that this building is unsalvageable,” he continued, countering, “We toured it—there’s nothing in this building that needs fixing [that’s different than] nearly every old building in our city!”
Berman declared, “It can be repaired. It can be brought back to life. The only thing that needs fixing is the city’s unwillingness to live up to its responsibilities.”
Sommer Omar, the founder of SPRCD, dug into city records to uncover startling findings. According to the city’s own capital projects database, she said, the city has failed to spend more than $100 million previously allocated to the Center, presumably for repairs. This is “on top of the $51.8 million just earmarked by the mayor.”
Omar declared, “This is an extraordinary amount of money for the city to be idling while the facility deteriorates in plain sight. Every New Yorker is entitled to ask the self-evident question this raises: where did all that funding go, and why hasn’t it been used for repairs as initially promised?”
Community board member Mar Fitzgerald, who will soon become the West Village Democratic district leader, surmised an answer in her rally speech. “It sounds like our mayor, Eric Adams, is trying to use public funds to advance private interests. We are dealing with cronies and billionaire developer donors so they can build yet another out-of-scale, out-of-character glass and steel tower on public land,” she suggested.
Fitzgerald asserted that public land is for the public good. West Villagers “don’t need luxury, just accessible, affordable indoor and outdoor recreation through restoration. Anything less would be betrayal of our neighborhood….To our electeds and to our city agencies, I say you have a duty to preserve the spirit, the purpose, and the stunning architecture of this center, not just for us, but for the generations to come.”
Surprise speaker Keith Powers, the District 4 City Council Member running for Manhattan Borough President against State Senator Brad Hoylman, described the rally’s goals as “deeply personal,” as Tony Dapolito himself had been a friend of Powers’ best friend. Powers proclaimed the importance of community members “having a seat at the table” to participate in the city’s decision-making.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams characterized the city’s conduct—the about-face on plans to repair the center—as “bait-and-switch.” “Who’s going to go after the government when it’s City Hall that’s doing the bait-and-switch?” he asked, adding “I wish I could say I’m surprised at what’s coming from this administration, but I’m not.”
Berman urged rally participants to “send a message to the mayor, the parks commissioner and all of the members of the city council” to demand that the earmarked $52 million in the mayor’s budget be used not for demolition, but for repair.
