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# Save Our Libraries Pt. 2 or WTF is the Council Doing?
- URL: https://bklyner.com/save-our-libraries-pt-2-or-wtf-is-the-co-sheepshead-bay/
- Published: 2009-06-03T16:00:15.000Z
- Updated: 2009-06-03T16:00:15.000Z
- Author: Ned Berke
- Tags: #API-Imported

Brooklyn Public Library Executive Director Dionne Mack-Harvin testified at a City Council hearing last Thursday and pretty much confirmed everything we reported two weeks ago:[ the libraries are screwed if Bloomberg’s budget passes](/blog1.php/news-features/save-our-libraries). Yet our City Council members are showing little opposition.

Just to reiterate, his dis-honor (Oh snap!) has proposed a budget that includes a $17.5 million cut to BPL. The cut will result in the loss of hundreds of jobs and a reduction in library hours by nearly half (five hours a day, weekdays only). Programs and new book purchases are sure to suffer as well.

Meanwhile, everyone’s cooing over some[ adorable little Canarsie girl’s plea to the mayor](http://www.nydailynews.com/ny%5Flocal/brooklyn/2009/05/29/2009-05-29%5Fsave%5Fmy%5Flibrary%5Fbloomberg%5Fcanarsie%5Fgirls%5Fletter%5Fbegs%5Fmayor%5Fto%5Fstop%5Fcuts.html?ref=bklyner.com#ixzz0HJHcEUOX&B) to save our libraries:

> “If the library closes, where are we supposed to go?” she wrote in her two-page letter to Bloomberg.  
> “The only thing we will have to do is go home. And home is not as fun as the library. Home doesn’t have games, programs and books everywhere.  
> “Please keep my library open is all I say. Please keep it open everyday,” she went on. “If the library closes it will be all your fault.”

Adorable, but I doubt the mayor is listening.

It seems as if many of our city council members aren’t listening either. That includes Sheepshead Bay’s own representative Michael C. Nelson. I sent Nelson an email the day I wrote the original article asking him to oppose the budget. This was his response, which I received yesterday morning:  

> Thank you for contacting my office regarding Brooklyn’s libraries.

> Libraries must be a top priority especially in difficult economic times. I have always supported libraries and am proud to have allocated funding for the complete renovation of the fully handicapped accessible Kings Highway Branch reopening June 11th.

> Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. I hope this addresses your concerns. If I can ever be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to call upon me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for renovating libraries – especially handicapped accessible ones. But don’t think for a second that this “addresses my concerns.” Actually, it pissed me off for how far it came from addressing my concerns. So I e-mailed Nelson back, telling him that and asking, explicitly, if he’ll be opposing the budget. The answer was as ambiguous as it gets:

> As my record in establishing priorities for libraries shows, I will do whatever is possible in these challenging budgetary times to restore the 17.5 million which was unfortunely cut by the mayor in his proposed budget.

What I understand from this is that he’s not able to answer with a simple “yes” or “no” – and that’s probably because the answer is “no,” he won’t oppose the budget, but once it has passed and the libraries have suffered – he’ll do what he can to make it up to them. But without a solution on the table, I’m not likely to buy this as anything but waffling.

Sorry, but in these political and economic times, I’m looking for substantive answers from my representatives – especially when I ask them simple, direct questions. Sure, I expect this kind of evasiveness from those higher in power, but at the local level I really do expect a bit more transparency and openness.

Nelson and other council members: stop playing games and offer some solutions to the problem of the BPL budget – before it’s too late. It’s what your constituencies want.

(Don’t forget to sign the [BPL petition](https://bpl.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/adv/helpus.aspx?ref=bklyner.com).)