The fate of a beloved West Village recreation center – featuring a one-of-a-kind Keith Haring mural – is once again up in the air after mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani signaled support for preserving the aging facility instead of tearing it down.
The landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in the West Village, which was initially approved for $120 million in capital repairs after it closed to the public in 2021, has been destined for the bulldozer since the Adams administration changed its tune and announced the site would be demolished, citing irreparable damage.
Mamdani — who is leading in the polls in the 2025 race for Gracie Mansion — has given hope to backers of the current building by expressing support for rehabilitating the site.
Mamdani made the comments at a September town hall, blasting the Adams administration’s decision to nix a plan to spend $120 million to renovate the center in favor to replacing it with a new building. He said we need to be “honoring the legacy of” Dapolito and keep the historic 1908 facility.
“The important thing to do here is not just to fulfill the promises you have made but also do your best to fulfill the promises that have been made prior to you,” he said.
Dozens of West Village residents – many of whom recalled fond memories growing up at the 117-year-old rec center – gathered at a Wednesday rally to call on the Parks department to shift gears in line with the mayoral hopeful.
“In the summertime the pool would be open even, in September: the community, the people really enjoyed it,” said Christina Kepple, 60, who has lived on Bedford street for over 30 years. “It was clean and beautiful … It shouldn’t be torn down, we don’t need another high rise building – we definitely don’t need that.”
Rachel Gelman, who has used the recreation center for over five decades, called the battle to save the center “maddening.
“The most galling thing was the dishonesty, because we were told ‘we’re working on it, we’re going to renovate it, be patient,’ and [then] cut to, ‘we’re going to demolish it,'” she added.
Sommer Omar, founder of the Coalition to Save the Public Recreation Center Downtown, told protesters at the Wednesday event that the city should “course correct” immediately given Mayor Eric Adams’ recent exit from the race.
“These are not mere ornaments or luxuries reserved only for those who can afford exorbitantly priced gym memberships and after school programs,” she said of the center’s offerings, such as free swim lessons, senior programming and after-school activities.
“These are essential resources that make life full and dignified for working New Yorkers.”
City officials previously argued that the decades-old recreation center – with amenities including indoor and outdoor pools and basketball courts – is too far gone to fix with crumbling facades, non-fire-code-compliant stairs and corroding steel beams that are “pushing the building apart.”
A Parks spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the site has “serious structural issues” and “restoring the building in a way that meets modern recreational programming, health and safety standards and full ADA accessibility is not feasible.”
But Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, contends the building has been subject to years of neglect but can still be repaired of its structural issues, calling the walk-back “hypocrisy.”
“If our city government isn’t capable of repairing an old building, what are they capable of?” he said.
A 2024 letter to Adams signed by the Preservation League of New York State, the New York Landmarks Conservancy and other groups similarly contends the argument that the building is too difficult to repair “is entirely unfounded.”
The Parks rep said the city is instead “committed to honoring the site’s legacy while delivering new, accessible, and future-ready recreational resources,” including a “reimagined outdoor pool and pool house” at the current site.
The new pool complex will include the preservation of its 18-foot-tall Keith Haring mural featured in “Raging Bull,” the rep confirmed, as well as expanded recreational offerings “with a new, fully accessible indoor recreation center” to be built nearby at the incoming 388 Hudson Street affordable housing complex.
That complex will feature an ADA-accessible indoor pool, gym and other recreational spaces — but advocates are still holding out for the piece of history to remain on the Clarkson Street corridor.
Mamdani isn’t the only mayoral hopeful eyeing to save the existing recreation center. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa told The Post that buildings such as the “magnificent” Tony Dapolito Recreation Center are what differentiate New York from other cities and must be preserved.
“I’s a tremendous community asset,” Sliwa told The Post. “We have to preserve the old and help develop some of the new — but not at the expense of the old character.”
A request for comment from the Andrew Cuomo campaign was not immediately returned. Mamdani’s campaign did not return requests for more details on what he would do with the center.
“It’s time for a reset. It’s also time to reestablish the trust that’s supposed to exist between our elected leaders and the people that they represent,” Berman added.
“Well, now it’s the mayor that’s going away, and the Tony Dapalito Center is going to stay.”