Mayor Adams has been working tirelessly to engineer the demolition of the beloved, landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center over widespread community objections. Following Councilmember Erik Bottcher’s lead, in June the City Council funded Mayor Adams’ demolition plans for the Center, further undermining community efforts to save it.

But Eric Adams’ exit from the Mayor’s race creates huge new opportunities to save and reopen the Center. Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has offered very positive indications about his thinking on repairing rather than destroying the center, and Village Preservation is reaching out to the other candidates to urge them to support preservation.

Councilmember Bottcher can also now play a key role if he wants to, and undo the damage done by the City Council funding. He can commit to immediately lobby whoever wins the Mayor’s race in November and urge them to begin a plan to finally repair and reopen rather than destroy the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center. We’re launching a campaign to get the remaining Mayoral candidates to 100% commit to restoring the Tony Dapolito Center, and Councilmember Bottcher to work with the election winner to do that. And we’re holding a rally with fellow downtown groups on October 8 to call attention to this new opportunity to save the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center.

TO HELP: