GREENWICH VILLAGE, Manhattan (PIX11) — A recreation center that has been in Greenwich Village for more than 100 years is facing possible demolition as the city says reopening the space would be a safety hazard.
The Tony Dapolito Recreation Center has sat vacant for the past five years. Once a vital community hub in the neighborhood — offering free swimming lessons, senior programming, and a welcoming space for residents across the city — the site has fallen into disrepair and could soon be torn down.
Andrew Berman is the executive director of Village Preservation. He’s part of a coalition of residents and organizations fighting to save the facility that they say has been a staple in the community for more than a century.
“They need to get to work on reopening this,” said Berman. “It’s June. It’s 80 degrees. There should be people swimming in that pool. There should be people running around that track, and unfortunately, it’s not serving the people of New York as it should.”
A spokesperson for NYC Parks, which runs the facility, tells PIX11 News that the center and its pool are closed because of structural problems — and that fixing it up in a way that meets today’s recreational needs and accessibility standards is not possible.
Francisco Gonzalez remembers spending his childhood at Tony Dapolito. Now, he hopes the city will restore it rather than tear it down.
“It was an outlet for me to come to another neighborhood back then and socialize and participate through sports through the rec center,” Gonzalez said.
He added, “It meant a lot to us. It was an affordable place for us to come together and just be a community.”
A spokesperson for NYC Parks said in a statement, “We’ve heard the community’s call for renewed recreation in the neighborhood. In response, we aim to improve, reimagine, and reconstruct the Tony Dapolito Outdoor Pool area in close collaboration with the community. This effort will include the demolition of the structurally compromised recreation center building and the existing outdoor pool. Our goal is to build upon the previous amenities to deliver meaningful upgrades that meet the recreational needs of current and future generations.”
Sommer Omar lives nearby and said there’s nothing else like the center in the neighborhood that’s free and accessible.
“Your other options are if you happen to live in a luxury building that has recreational facilities in it, if you happen to be able to afford Equinox, which is several hundred dollars a month,” said Omar.
She added, “Lots of people can’t afford that, and so, this is really our only shot at having access to some kind of indoor recreation.”
The city said renovating the building would be costly, and even then, it could result in a loss of space for recreational programming. The city is, however, open to replacing the facility altogether rather than repairing it.
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