In a shocking betrayal of Mayor Mamdani’s campaign pledge to repair and reopen the long-shuttered Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura last week reiterated the department’s plans to move ahead with demolition of the landmarked building, claiming that doing so would simply be “more efficient” than repairing and reopening it. The Parks Commissioner claimed the Parks Department had, over consistent community objections, locked itself into locating all area recreational facilities in a new planned tower at 388 Hudson Street, leaving no facilities left to occupy the beloved historic center, thus rendering it obsolete. This is an outrageous breach of public trust, and one that must be reversed. 

There is absolutely no reason why new recreational facilities can’t be located at 388 Hudson Street while the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center is repaired and reopened with a variety of modern recreational facilities, with the two centers complementing each other. The Tony Dapolito site must continue to provide locker rooms, showers, and changing areas for the adjacent outdoor pool, making demolition of the building especially foolish. And allowing the Parks Department to destroy a historic, landmarked structure simply out of convenience has troubling, far-reaching implications for the scores of other historic landmarked structures the department controls, from Washington Square Arch to Central Park’s Belvedere Castle, to countless others. 

Read our letter to Mayor Mamdani and the Parks Commissioner HERE, and read Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Councilmember Carl Wilson’s letter to them HERE. 

TO HELP:

Also, SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday, September 9 at 6:30 pm, the Parks Department will report to Community Board 2 on its plans for 388 Hudson Street — we will need you there to demand such plans include locating recreational facilities in a repaired and reopened Dapolito Center.