Brooklyn’s Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center finally opened this month in East Flatbush — the first new city-run recreation center built in more than a decade. This was a dream from city and community leadership that was 13 years in the making.
“The Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center will soon be alive with possibility — kids learning to swim, cook, and grow their own food; friends coming together on the court; neighbors of every generation creating and connecting, from the gym to the podcast studio. This will be a space where the city meets itself, built to serve the people who call it home,” said Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, who joined city and state leaders at the opening on February 9.
The facility is named after the late Brooklyn Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, who served from 1969 to 1983, and made a historic run for president in 1972. Chisholm was a Flatbush native and descendant of Guyanese and Barbadian immigrants.
The $141 million, 74,000-square-foot recreation center features an Olympic-sized pool, rack, gym, weightlifting facility, teaching kitchen, afterschool space, event space, community class spaces, cardio rooms, and a media lab named for Dr. Roy A. Hastick Sr., who founded the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce.
The center was launched as a community-driven response to rampant gun violence and a reaction to the police shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray in 2013, said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who was the former councilmember for the district. They decided that a community center would give youth a safe haven and be a boon to public safety, the first-ever such resource in Central Brooklyn.
“When I dropped the seed to make this happen, I wasn’t sure if I would see it happen, but we, as elected officials and leaders, have to get to a point where it is okay for something to be completed [even if we] may not be there to see it,” said Williams at the opening. “It just cannot be about the credit of who does a thing, but the fact that the thing gets done. If we cannot get to that point, our communities will continue to suffer. There’s enough light to go around. We can all get the credit we deserve. Let’s drop those seeds and push [projects] to fruition so that our community benefits all of the time.”
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg provided $500,000 to do the impact study for the center. Councilmember Farah Louis, William’s successor, picked up the mantle for the center when he left the City Council in 2019. A number of state leaders, including Senator Kevin Parker, Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman, and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, had a hand in keeping the dream of the center alive, said Williams. By 2020, former Mayor Bill de Blasio finally reallocated funding from the NYPD capital budget to finish the project.
“This moment is the result of years of advocacy, persistence, and a community that refused to give up on a vision for itself,” said Louis. “The Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center stands as a testament to what happens when residents, advocates, and public servants work together with purpose.”
“From early planning through completion, this effort was guided by community input and the belief that public investment must deliver real, lasting benefits,” said Bichotte Hermelyn. “Named in honor of Shirley Chisholm, this center stands as a living investment in wellness, opportunity, and community connection for generations to come.”
The center was fully open to the public on Tuesday, Feb. 10. The parks department is hosting guided tours, registration events, and demonstrations to help New Yorkers experience what the new facility has to offer. Membership is free for people 24 years and younger.