Brooklyn Candidates Tell Lander: No Library Selloff!
Video Copyright 2014
Jonathan Barkey.
All Rights Reserved.
For rights and usage, contact jonathanbarkey.com
Brooklyn Heights Blog Debate:
NYS 52nd
Assembly District Democratic Candidates
September 2, 2014 at 7:00 PM
St. Francis College,
Brooklyn, NY 11201
All three Democratic candidates for the 52nd Assembly District in
Brooklyn respond to the following audience question submitted in writing by
Citizens Defending
Libraries Co-founder
Michael D.D.
White and read by
BHB Publisher and event moderator
John Loscalzo:
----
"
Brad Lander has gone out of his way to say that selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights
Library is a *good idea*. Which of the candidates would stand up to him on this, and in what way?"
----
Responses:
DOUG BIVIANO
"
If I get elected and don't save this library, I'm going to take it personally."
Says
Lander is connected to the "
Working Families [Party] BerlinRosen [influential p.r. consulting firm] machine".
Biviano says BerlinRosen represents many Brooklyn Democratic politicians including
Council Member Lander [chair of the Committee on
Rules, Privileges and
Ethics] and
NYC Mayor de Blasio, as well as both
Forest City Ratner [the mega-developer that owns hugely valuable air rights connected to the Brooklyn Heights Library] and amazingly, the
Brooklyn Public Library itself.
"How could that exist?! In the legal world they would be disbarred overnight. And
Jonathan Rosen is an attorney!"
"So, the ethics, where are the ethics? Why won't you call him [Lander] out,
Peter Sikora?
... we're going to lose our library because there's no ethics in government."
Quotes
Thomas Jefferson on "enlightening the people". "That's what we have to do with the library, and then Lander will go [scamper] back to his district wounded."
JO ANNE SIMON
"To answer your question of course I will stand up to Brad Lander with respect to the library."
"I have stood up to lots of people who have proposed ideas that aren't in the public's interest. We need to have our public libraries, it is a *public* resource. It should be publicly funded. It shouldn't be monetized. And we shouldn't be selling off pieces our library to fund some other libraries... [we need] to look at funding all of our libraries."
Cites her efforts to save the
Pacific Branch,
New York's first
Carnegie library, which is still not safe from development schemes [as it sits literally across the street from Forest City Ratner's
Atlantic Yards mega-development].
"If we don't [provide sustainable funding for] our public libraries, nothing will be sacred. They will just sell the most expensive real estate. That's can't be how we sustain our public libraries."
PETE SIKORA
"I'm glad the question got asked. The library system is terribly important."
"I was one of these kids ... who was in the library a lot, every day in high school reading
The New York Times."
Cites importance of libraries for educating kids and helping the unemployed find work.
"
Contrary to what people think, the library in Brooklyn Heights on
Cadman Plaza is not used exclusively by folks of upper income. In fact, predominantly its not. Its a very diverse mix of people from all around the district ... racially, ethnically, [socioeconomically].
"So we need the library to stay there ... we need to fight against the Brooklyn Public Library's proposal to sell off the library."
Cites
Michael Whites latest articles on
BPL's secretive real-estate sell-off plans:
http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/08/mostly-in-plain-sight-few-conscious
.html
http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-multiplicity-of-scoops-astounding.html
"They have a long-term strategy of selling off real estate in order to continue their operations. That's the wrong strategy... [we need] to put the library system ... into a better funding situation."
Acknowledging
Joan Millman's efforts, says its necessary to "get the Brooklyn delegation to unify around funding for the library system as a whole ... stop the cuts
."
"In the instant situation of the Brooklyn Heights Library, we need to preserve what's there, including the
Business Library, which should not be moved to
Grand Army Plaza. That doesn't make any sense. [
Downtown] is the commercial area. Why would you have a business library next to
Prospect Park?"
"That library needs to be preserved. [BPL] needs to stop monkeying around with the numbers, pretending, for example, that the air conditioning is a multimillion dollar expense
."
"...use the ULURP process and the leverage that the community has and fight against that proposal so we can preserve the library that we have."
Responding to
Michael White (in the audience):
"
Brad [Lander] is one of my supporters. I think the world of Brad Lander. I'm proud to have his endorsement ... so I disagree ... we need to preserve the library system."
[
END]