Rally to Save West Village Recreation Center

Efforts to save Greenwich Village's Tony Dapolito Recreation Center continue, following the release of documents by the Save the Public Recreation Center Downtown (SPRCD) that show the facility is not beyond repair, contrary to what the city government has reported previously. Now, New Yorkers are hoping Mayor Zohran Mamdani will fulfill his campaign promise to restore, not demolish, the Manhattan institution.

Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation, said demolishing this building, designated a historical site as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II in 2010, sets a dangerous precedent for all the other historical buildings in the city.

"It has broader implications just in terms of any building that's been landmarked or determined historically significant," said Berman. “If the city gets to say, well, yeah, it was important enough to landmark, but we don't really want to have to deal with it anymore, we should just be allowed to demolish it — that has very broad implications for the tens of thousands of other buildings in New York City that are under a similar designation."

Beyond its status as a historic landmark, the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center has served as a community hub for New Yorkers to enjoy. Some of its facilities included indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a dance studio, and a running track. It was also the site of an iconic Keith Haring mural.

Sommer Omar, an attorney and activist who filed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last year asking for documentation of the center’s status, said the city has presented New Yorkers with a “false choice” of demolishing the center and replacing it with a modern facility across the street.

"I think what's striking is that we rarely hear people say, okay, I think we've had enough of these super luxury boutique fitness studios or Equinoxes, where it's several hundred dollars a month just to have their basic membership package,” she said. “And yet when you have the community and working families asking for more public recreation — in a neighborhood that hasn't had access to it for a number of reasons— that is sort of frowned upon as excessive."

During a March 29 rally asking Mayor Mamdani to save the center, local resident Michelle Rae Cruz said she can’t remember her childhood without remembering the summers she spent at the rec center playing sports with her brothers. She says that the recreation center isn't just a building, but a community.

”Most of my lifelong friends are from this place, and today we are people who serve, who give back, who pour into others because that's what was poured into us,” she said. “I've seen everything in this building: adult volleyball leagues, kids learning to swim, celebrities returning to relive their childhood or having their children join leagues — and even jugglers holding practice.”

Assembly Member Grace Lee, who represents Manhattan's 65th district in Lower Manhattan, said historical buildings like the Tony Dapolito Recreations Center should be preserved, with investment coming from city government.

"It's always been a place where a community can come together," Lee explains. "Young people can get free classes, and people can go swimming. It's been a hub and a cornerstone of this community for so long, and we deserve a recreational center that can be preserved."

The Parks Department is holding a meeting on April 8 to discuss the status of the Dapolito Center as well as a proposed new facility across the street.