By the 1970s, McCarren Park and other city parks were in poor condition due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. NYC Parks commenced a project to restore the pools in several parks in 1977, including at McCarren Park. These projects were not carried out due to a lack of money, and by March 1981, NYC Parks had only 2,900 employees in its total staff, less than 10 percent of the 30,000 present when Moses was parks commissioner. In 1982, the NYC Parks budget increased greatly, enabling the agency to carry out $76 million worth of restoration projects by year's end; among these projects was the restoration of the McCarren Park Pool. Unlike the other ten city pools that opened in 1936, McCarren Pool was not restored. Residents had opposed the renovation, preferring that it be closed instead, as they claimed the pool had become a hub for drug dealing and prostitution. The pool was closed after the end of the 1983 season, and when contractors tried to perform a renovation in 1984, protestors chained themselves to the complex's gates. The pool complex quickly became blighted and covered in graffiti. The bathhouse buildings were broken-into and vandalized, until they were sealed up sometime around 1989. The eagle sculptures were stolen from the bathhouse and recovered by an NYC Parks employee who saw them in the window of an architectural-salvage store in Lower Manhattan. A car was also driven into the dried-up pool. By 1989, Brooklyn Community Board 1 had devised plans to restore the pool, but destroy the bathhouse buildings and build a gymnasium and community center. The pool would be reduced to a capacity of 2,000. The project would not begin before 1995 because the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was determining whether to designate the eleven Moses-era pools as landmarks. At the time, the LPC was considering designation for the McCarren Play Center to avert the demolition of the bathhouse. Phyllis Yampolsky, a local resident whom NYC Parks had hired to ensure the structure's demolition, had reconsidered her position after seeing the structure. Yampolsky later said that neighborhood leaders saw her as "an enemy of the people" after her change of sentiment. A compromise to preserve the wings was reached by 1990, but the LPC did not designate the bathhouse at that time. Yampolsky helped found the McCarren Park Conservancy in 1994. The group sought