With Mayor Adams out of the race, we have a renewed chance to finally save and reopen the beloved landmarked Tony Dapolito (Carmine Street) Recreation Center from his plans to demolish it. Village Preservation and thousands of our supporters have called on all Mayoral candidates to support preserving the center (Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa have replied; Andrew Cuomo has not). But perhaps more importantly, we’re also calling on City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents the area, to immediately reach out to whoever wins the Mayor’s race and urge him to work with the local community on a plan for preserving, restoring, modernizing, and reopening the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center. This will be critical to ensuring that demolition plans are halted and a new plan that saves the building emerges. 

Councilmember Bottcher, who says he supports preserving the building in some form but also approved the Mayor’s requested $52 million for demolishing it over community objections, has yet to commit to calling on the new Mayor to preserve the building.

TO HELP: