City Council Contact Information For Pending December Vote Whether to Initiate Sale and Shrinkage of New York City Libraries

For convenience sake we have collected the contact information below to facilitate contacting City Council Members about their pending December vite about whether to initiate the sale and shrinkage of New York City Libraries.

Ibarron@council.nyc.gov, RCornegy@council.nyc.gov, LCumbo@council.nyc.gov, cdeutsch@council.nyc.gov, REspinal@council.nyc.gov, mathieu.eugene@council.nyc.gov, vgentile@council.nyc.gov, dgreenfield@council.nyc.gov,lander@council.nyc.gov, slevin@council.nyc.gov, AMaisel@council.nyc.gov,Fcabera@council.nyc.gov, district11@council.nyc.gov, mcarroyo@council.nyc.gov, VGibson@council.nyc.gov, mviverito@council.nyc.gov, apalma@council.nyc.gov, Andy.King@council.nyc.gov, jvacca@council.nyc.gov, rtorres@council.nyc.gov, dmealy@council.nyc.gov, info38@council.nyc.gov, areynoso@council.nyc.gov, mtreyger@council.nyc.gov, JWilliams@council.nyc.gov, chin@council.nyc.gov, idickens@council.nyc.gov, dgarodnick@council.nyc.gov, district3@council.nyc.gov, BKallos@council.nyc.gov, District7@council.nyc.gov, Rmendez@council.nyc.gov, yrodriguez@council.nyc.gov, Helen@HelenRosenthal.com, costa@council.nyc.gov, ecrowley@council.nyc.gov, ddromm@council.nyc.gov, CD21invites@council.nyc.gov, m23@council.nyc.gov, RLancman@council.nyc.gov, Koslowitz@council.nyc.gov, pkoo@council.nyc.gov, District27@council.nyc.gov, drichards@council.nyc.gov, eulrich@council.nyc.gov, district19@council.nyc.gov, JVanBramer@council.nyc.gov, rwills@council.nyc.gov, vignizio@council.nyc.gov, SMatteo@council.nyc.gov, DROSE@Council.nyc.gov

BROOKLYN CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Martha Rowen

INEZ BARRON
718-649-9495
Ibarron@council.nyc.gov

ROBERT CORNEGY
718-919-0740
RCornegy@council.nyc.gov

LAURIE CUMBO
718-260-9191
LCumbo@council.nyc.gov

CHAIM M. DEUTSCH
718-368-9176
cdeutsch@council.nyc.gov

RAFAEL ESPINAL
718-642-8664
REspinal@council.nyc.gov

MATHIEU EUGENE
718-287-8762
mathieu.eugene@council.nyc.gov

VINCENT J. GENTILE
718-748-5200
vgentile@council.nyc.gov

David G. Greenfield
718-853-2704
dgreenfield@council.nyc.gov

BRAD LANDER
718-499-1090
lander@council.nyc.gov

STEPHEN LEVIN
718-875-5200
slevin@council.nyc.gov

ALAN MAISEL
718-241-9330
AMaisel@council.nyc.gov


BRONX CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS,

Marilyn

FERNANDO CABRERA                  
347-590-2874
Fcabera@council.nyc.gov

ANDREW COHEN
 (718) 549-7300
district11@council.nyc.gov

MARIA DEL CARMEN ARROYO
718-402-6130
mcarroyo@council.nyc.gov

VANESSA L. GIBSON
718-588-7500
VGibson@council.nyc.gov

MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO
Manhattan: 212-828-9800
Bronx: 347-297-4922
mviverito@council.nyc.gov

ANNABEL PALMA
718-792-1140
apalma@council.nyc.gov

ANDY KING
718-684-5509
Andy.King@council.nyc.gov

JAMES VACCA
718-931-1721
jvacca@council.nyc.gov

RITCHIE TORRES
718-842-8100
rtorres@council.nyc.gov

DARLENE MEALY
718-953-3097
dmealy@council.nyc.gov

CARLOS MENCHACA
718-439-9012
info38@council.nyc.gov
 
ANTONIO REYNOSO
718-963-3141
areynoso@council.nyc.gov

MARK TREYGER
718-373-9673
mtreyger@council.nyc.gov

JUMAANE  WILLIAMS
718-629-2900
JWilliams@council.nyc.gov

MANHATTAN CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

MARGARET CHIN
212-587-3159
chin@council.nyc.gov

INEZ E. DICKENS
212-678-4505
idickens@council.nyc.gov

DANIEL R. GARODNICK
212-818-0580
dgarodnick@council.nyc.gov

COREY JOHNSON
 (212) 564-7757
district3@council.nyc.gov

BEN KALLOS
212-860-1950
BKallos@council.nyc.gov

MARK LEVINE
212-928-6814
District7@council.nyc.gov

ROSIE MENDEZ
212-677-1077
Rmendez@council.nyc.gov

YDANIS RODRIGUEZ
917-521-2616
yrodriguez@council.nyc.gov

HELEN ROSENTHAL
 (212) 873-0282
Helen@HelenRosenthal.com

QUEENS CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

COSTA CONSTANTINIDES
718-274-4500
costa@council.nyc.gov

ELIZABETH CROWLEY
 (718) 366-3900
ecrowley@council.nyc.gov

DANIEL DROMM
718-803-6373
ddromm@council.nyc.gov

JULLISA FERRERAS
718-651-1917
CD21invites@council.nyc.gov

BARRY GRODENCHIK
718-468-0137
m23@council.nyc.gov

RORY I. LANCMAN
718-217-4969
RLancman@council.nyc.gov

KAREN KOSLOWITZ
718-544-8800
Koslowitz@council.nyc.gov

PETER KOO
718-888-8747
pkoo@council.nyc.gov

I. DANEEK MILLER
718-776-3700
District27@council.nyc.gov

DONOVAN RICHARDS
 (Rockaway) 718-471-7014
drichards@council.nyc.gov

ERIC ULRICH
718-738-1083
eulrich@council.nyc.gov

PAUL VALLONE
718-619-8611
district19@council.nyc.gov

JIMMY VAN BRAMER
718-383-9566
JVanBramer@council.nyc.gov

RUBEN WILLS
718-206-2068
rwills@council.nyc.gov

STATEN ISLAND 

JOE BORELLI
718-984-5151
vignizio@council.nyc.gov

STEVEN MATTEO
718-980-1017
SMatteo@council.nyc.gov

DEBORAH ROSE
718-556-7370
DROSE@Council.nyc.gov

How to Submit Testimony To City Council And Its Land Use Disposition Subcommittee About The Proposed Sale And Drastic Shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library

2,000+ testimonies collected in slightly more than two weeks all opposing the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library

We have been kept waiting for instructions on how to submit testimony to the City Council Subcommittee on Planning, Disposition and Concessions (a part of the Land Use Committee) in connection with its hearing on the precedent-setting proposed fire sale of a major public asset, Brooklyn' second biggest library, the central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn.

Here is what we can tell you now.

We suggest that you submit testimony to the the City Council Subcommittee on Planning, Disposition and Concessions and that you also have you testimony do double duty by submitting to the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Libraries and Technology as provided below.

To submit testimony to City Council we suggest that you send testimony to all of the City Council subcommittee members and to City Council Member Stephen Levin as follows.  (You ca also consider calling too):

Andrew Cohen  -  District11@council.nyc.gov 718-549-7300
Darlene Mealy -  dmealy@council.nyc.gov 718-953-3097
Inez E. Dickens -  idickens@council.nyc.gov 212-788-7397
Mark Treyger - mtreyger@council.nyc.gov 718-373-9673
Ydanis A. Rodriguez -  yrodriguez@council.nyc.gov 917-521-2616 

Councilman Stephen Levin, slevin@council.nyc.gov, 718-875-5200 (and 718-643-6620)

To help you with the content of you testimony:

    •    Here is the Media Advisory we sent about the hearing:

    •    Here is testimony that Citizens Defending Libraries submitted at the hearing:  Report on Wednesday, November 18th City Council Hearing On Proposed Sale And Shrinkage of Brooklyn's Second Largest Library Plus Testimony of Citizens Defending Libraries.

    •    Here are back and forth exchanges expressing concerns about the project at the City Planning Commission and information from Citizens Libraries about why all of these concerns are extremely valid:  Report on Tuesday, September 22nd City Planning Commission Hearing On Proposed Sale and Shrinkage of Plus Testimony of Citizens Defending Libraries.

    •    Here is the testimony form from Citizens Defending Libraries completed by more than 2,000 people that Citizens Defending Libraries collected in just over two weeks that is a useful as a checklist of twenty-two reasons most people think the library should not be sold or shrunk.  (Text also at the very bottom.)

You can print this form and use it to submit testimony

All we can tell you about when to submit your testimony: The sooner the better.

HERE'S a heads up about a valuable possibility:  Have the testimony you are giving to City Council about the Brooklyn Heights Library do double duty-

You have until tomorrow, November 20th, to also submit your City Council testimony as written testimony to the Assembly Committee on libraries as well.

Suggestion:  Just quote BPL President Linda Johnson from yesterday's hearing saying that the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library is being looked at as a model for future transactions by all three New York City Library systems.  Then tell the Assembly that it is not appropriate for the state to be funding libraries and not looking into the way that libraries like SIBL, into which we have put a lot of state funds, are then being turned into real estate deals that benefit developers, not the public.  Then remind the Assembly Committee that libraries are regulated by the State Education Department and that the these shadowy largely undisclosed deals appear to be highly inconsistent with that state regulation and its intended benefits.

And as for the deadline of tomorrow: Better late than never.

Submit you testimony to the State Assembly Committee by emailing
Steven McCutcheon
mccutcheons@assembly.state.ny.us

Steven R. McCutcheon
NYS Assembly Program and Counsel
Legislative Analyst
Libraries Committee
518-455-4881

Here is the Assembly's notice of that hearing

Hearing Notice-

ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

SUBJECT:      Funding Public Libraries.
PURPOSE:    To examine the 2015 -2016 State Budget's impact on libraries.
                         in New York State.

http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/Library/20151023/index.pdf

Steven McCutcheon
Legislative Analyst
Assembly Committee on Libraries and Education Technology
Room 513M, The Capitol
Albany, New York 12247
Email: mccutcheons@assembly.state.ny.us
Phone: (518)  455-4881
Fax:     (518) 455-7250

* *  * *

TEXT OF TESTIMONY FORM (a valuable checklist)
 
Here in TEXT form is a checklist of reasons you can include when you testify that you are against the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library:

•    The library, which I understand has a probable value of over $120 million, is being sold for absurdly little.

•    The BPL has been extraordinarily non-transparent in all ways including keeping its plan to sell this library secret since 2007 (or before) and refusing to publicly disclose  its "strategic real estate plan" revealing what libraries it wants to turn into real estate deals next.

•     We should not be shrinking this library, especially down to just one-third size, especially since it was just enlarged and completely upgraded in 1993 at considerable public expense and sacrifice.

•     It is impossible to guarantee that any proceeds from the sale (which all go to the city) would ever come back to be spent on libraries and, even if they were, the net amount is paltry, perhaps close to or even less than zero.

•     The library is a sturdy beautifully designed building with space that can easily be put to good many good uses in different ways.

•    The library's "Business and Career" functions should not be moved out of the Downtown Brooklyn business district, especially when it is growing.

•    We should not be selling off our public infrastructure to private developers, especially educational infrastructure when, for example, our schools are not keeping pace with new development.

•    It is discriminatory and anti-democratic to turn libraries into real estate boondoggles.

•    I don't like that Mayor de Blasio was taking money from the development team that was chosen while their application was pending. (Developers he said were "lurking right behind the curtain . .  very anxious to get their hands on these valuable properties.")

•    Stuck in the bottom of a residential, privately owned building, we won't ever be able to enlarge this library to correct this shrinkage or accommodate growth.

•    Selling libraries to developers "because they are underfunded"creates a perverse incentive to underfund libraries, exactly what we have witnessed.

•    The library is being shrunk down to a preordained size without bothering to design a new library first or figure out how many books it should hold.

•    I want lots of books in our libraries and this plan gets rid of them.

•    Selling this public asset so cheaply will lead to sell-offs of our other assets including sale of more libraries.

•    We can't sell off our libraries for a few so-called "affordable" housing units, especially when these units "poor door" style are insultingly far away and we are, at the same time, shedding 14,000 truly affordable NYCHA public housing units using the same tactics and excuses employed to sell libraries.

•    A private school (Saint Ann's) is benefitting in a significant and undisclosed amount from the loss that the public will suffer if the library is sold and shrunk (and may even get more from the sale than the city and BPL will net).

•    I don't believe the fairy tales the BPL is telling about how it `can't fix' library air conditioning.  (I wouldn't sell my home for this reason!)

•    No extra space will be built at the Grand Army Plaza Library to house any shift of the "Business and Career" functions to that location and there are no designs or cost estimations for how to cram those functions in.

•    Library use and circulation of physical books is up dramatically and our libraries should grow and be funded to accommodate that.

•    This plan is a short-sighted sacrifice of an irreplaceable asset, inexcusable for a wealthy city like ours.

•    We should have learned from the Donnell Library sale debacle (that this sale is modeled on!) how terrible mistakes like this are.

•    The environmental repercussions of this project have not been adequately considered and assessed.

•    Civilizations that dismantle their libraries generally fail.

•    ALL OF THE ABOVE!

Report on Wednesday, November 18th City Council Hearing On Proposed Sale And Shrinkage of Brooklyn’s Second Largest Library Plus Testimony of Citizens Defending Libraries

 (We will be updating this page.)

Here is some of the testimony of the Citizens Defending Libraries.

* * * *

November 18, 2015

City Council Subcommittee
      on Planning, Disposition and Concessions
City Hall
City Hall Park
New York, NY 10007

Re: Submission of supplemental testimony against the proposed sale and drastic shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library, Brooklyn’s central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn. (ULURP C15039 PPK - Oral testimony taken by Subcommittee on November 18, 2015)
Dear City Council Subcommittee:

We are going to be giving you a lot of testimony, here today, and particularly in follow-up and it is important for you to know that we have a great deal of information and therefore the answers to the questions you should have, specially given the lack of transparency with which the Brooklyn Public Library has conducted itself with respect to these library sales since at least 2007, likely 2005.

You need to know that the public reviles these proposed library sales.  Citizens Defending Libraries finds pubic response consistent and nearly universal. Citizens Defending Libraries collected testimonies from over 2,000 individuals opposing this proposed sale and shrinkage in just over two weeks.  Citizens Defending Libraries has over 25,000 signatories to its petitions opposing the sale of this and other NYC libraries.  Citizens Defending Libraries also has a widely signed letter of support calling for New York City libraries to be properly funded, not sold, signed by, among others: The Committee To Save The New York Public Library, The Cobble Hill Association, the DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the Boerum Hill Association and the Park Slope Civic Association.

To understand what is going on, you should compare two deals conceived at the same time: the first library sale and shrinkage that was done, the Donnell Library and this one, closely modeled after it.  Although the execution of these deals is separated somewhat in time, there is not much else to separate them. They even have the same people in the background, including the Offensends, David and Janet. . .

A week ago Saturday (November 7th) was the 8th anniversary of the announcement of the sudden, secretive sale of the Donnell Library.  Last March the luxury hotel, the luxury condominium building, the luxury restaurants replacing the Donnell Library all opened, but the promised shrunken (less than one-third size) "replacement" Donnell library is nowhere in sight. The NYPL's current, relentlessly postponed expected completion date for that library, to be mostly underground and largely bookless, is  "Summer 2016."  Like the proposed Brooklyn Heights transaction a pittance was received for the library's sale.   There can be no mistaking from this the priorities behind these deals.  When the math is done, the NYPL netted perhaps not even $25 million.

The hearings to date and the more than 2,000 individual testimonies we collected in a short time opposing the sale (stating twenty-two very good reasons- attached) present many reasons not to sell this library, some of them:

    1.    This a "one-shot deal."
    2.    The BPL’s selling the library without even bothering to design the so-called "replacement" shrunken library first: Although the proposed sale would lock in this preordained shrinkage, the Brooklyn Public Library did not design a replacement library beforehand.
    3.    No guarantee that any of proceeds going to the city general fund would ultimately be spent on libraries (the "main argument" for the proposed sale).
    4.    The resulting imbalance and burdens between development and supporting public infrastructure when our educational infrastructure, schools and libraries get such short shrift.
    5.    The lack of a proper appraisal and testimony that showed that the city was not even getting the "tear-down" value of an extremely valuable asset, an asset that is worth far more than its “tear-down” value.

Let’s look at just one of these:  Having to sell one's property for no more than its tear-down value is the nightmare of any property owner that has made a substantial investment in their property.  This is a $120+ million public asset that was expanded and fully upgraded in 1993, one of the most modern in the Brooklyn system, but is being sold to net New York City's general fund considerably less than $40 million.  When the math is finally done there might even be a loss.  The library would be shrunk from 63,000 square feet to about 21,000 square feet. The tear-down value of the library is no more than a good indication of what would be only a fraction of the cost involved, just a starter, if the public were ever to try to reestablish the full equivalent of this library in the future.

Sale of this asset would be sheer folly.  The public knows it and anyone responsible will be held accountable.  We swear we will not forget: Remember the Donnell!

Sincerely,

Michael D. D. White

MEDIA ADVISORY- A First Ever City Council Hearing: Should Brooklyn's Second Biggest Library Be Sold and Drastically Shrunk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York City

WHAT: City Council Subcommittee on Planning, Disposition and Concessions (a part of the Land Use Committee) is having a hearing on the precedent-setting proposed fire sale of a major public asset, Brooklyn' second biggest library, the central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn
WHEN: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 1:00 P.M.
WHERE: Council Chambers, City Hall, City Hall park New York, New York 10007
WHAT ELSE?:  Citizens Defending Libraries will be on hand to provide facts about the decision before the City Council.

The City Council Subcommittee on Planning, Disposition and Concessions (a part of the Land Use Committee) will take public testimony about whether to approve the sale and drastic shrinkage of Brooklyn's second largest library, the Brooklyn Heights Library (the includes the Business, Career and recently expanded Education Library), the central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn.

The taking of testimony is intended to prepare the City Council for the precedent setting vote, the Council's first-ever vote on the proposed sale and drastic shrinkage of a major New York City library with the construction of a 400 foot luxury tower at the site to replace it.

The deal closely replicates (and was planned at the same time as) the infamous sale of the Donnell Library which did not require City Council approval because that library was not owned by the city as is typically the case, although city money had been used to renovate the Donnell not long before to provide a new teen center and state of the media center.

A week ago Saturday (November 7th) was the 8th anniversary of the announcement of the sudden, secretive sale of the Donnell Library.  Last March the luxury hotel, the luxury condominium building, the luxury restaurants replacing the Donnell Library all opened, but the promised shrunken (less than one-third size) "replacement" Donnell library is nowhere in sight. The NYPL's current, relentlessly postponed expected completion date for that library, to be mostly underground and largely bookless, is  "Summer 2016."  Like the proposed Brooklyn Heights transactions a pittance was received for the library's sale.

See: Priorities To Be Replicated?: Private Luxury Now Abounding Where Former Donnell Library Stood, A "Replacement" Library Is Nowhere In Sight,  Saturday, November 7, 2015.

See also our 3+ minute video about proposed library sales:

    Selling Our Libraries!

The Downtown Brooklyn library is a $120+ million public asset that was expanded and fully upgraded in 1993, one of the most modern in the Brooklyn system, but is being sold to net New York City's general fund considerable less than $40 million.  When the math is finally done there might even be a loss.  The library would be shrunk from 63,000 square feet to about 21,000 square feet.  Although the proposed sale would lock in this preordained shrinkage, the Brooklyn Public Library did not design a replacement library beforehand.

Selling and shrinking libraries is an attack on Democracy, but with off-site so-called "affordable housing" to be built "poor door" fashion in another school district (to generate building rights bonuses) the project also raises serious issues of discrimination.  See:

    Evicted From Library And Exiled To Unaffordable Housing

Citizens Defending Libraries finds pubic response consistent and nearly universal. Citizens Defending Libraries collected testimonies from over 2,000 individuals opposing this proposed sale shrinkage in just over two weeks.  Citizens Defending Libraries has over 25,000 signatories to its petitions opposing the sale of this and other NYC libraries.  Citizens Defending Libraries also has a widely signed letter of support calling for New York City libraries to be properly funded not sold, signed by, among others: The Committee To Save The New York Public Library, The Cobble Hill Association, The DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the Boerum Hill Association and the Park Slope Civic Association.

CONTACT:
Carolyn E. McIntyre, Michael D. D. White
Michael White, 718-834-6184, mddwhite [at] aol.com
Carolyn McIntyre, 917-757-6542 cemac62 [at] aol.com

Follow us on Twitter: @defendinglibraries

 For photos and videos of prior Citizens Defending Libraries rallies opposing the sale, shrinkage, underfunding of New York City libraries, and elimination of books and librarians in the two and a half+ years since its founding, see:

PHOTO GALLERIES- PAST EVENTS

                                                                  #   #   #

PRESS RELEASE & NEWS ADVISORY- NYC planning commissioners challenged to recuse themselves on Monday's library vote.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York City

WHAT: New York City Planning Commissioners, with many commissioners asked to recuse themselves, has calendared a precedent-setting vote on the proposed fire sale of a major public asset, central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn
WHEN: Monday, November 2, 2015, 1:00 P.M.
WHERE: Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street, New York, New York 10007
WHAT ELSE?:  Citizens Defending Libraries will be on hand to provide facts about the Commissions' decision and its significance plus the need of certain commissioners to recuse themselves.

The New York City planning commissioners have calendared a vote for this coming Monday, November 2nd, on whether to approve the sale and drastic shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library, the central destination library in Downtown Brooklyn.  The precedent setting vote will be the first-ever New York City Planning Commission vote on the proposed sale and drastic shrinkage of a major New York City library (proposed to be turned into a real estate deal).  The deal closely replicates the infamous sale of the Donnell Library which did not require commission approval.

Citizens Defending Libraries has identified multiple as yet unacknowledged business relationships connecting a list of the commissioners to those involved in the real estate deal flowing out of the library's proposed sale and shrinkage.  Accordingly, Citizens Defending Libraries has asked commissioners who could be influenced to act contrary to the public's interest to recognize these conflicts and recuse themselves from this very important vote.

Two Commissioners Already Recused

Citizens Defending Libraries is gratified that two city planning commissioners recused themselves immediately and are not participating in the vote: Commissioners Michelle de la Uz and Joseph Douek.  Ms. de la Uz is recused because she heads the Fifth Avenue Committee which is looking at purchasing other Brooklyn libraries and is presently engaged in another transaction, redeveloping of the Sunset Park Library into a mult-use facility, which the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has tied to the Brooklyn Heights Library sale, asserting that it could benefit from the Heights library sale.  Mr. Douek is recused in part because he is currently one of the trustees of the BPL which is advocating for the real estate deal selling  and shrinking the library.   Mr. Doueck also has a relationship to the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) another of the co-applicants asking for the library to be sold and shrunk:. Mr. Doueck was Brooklyn's representative to the EDC's Board of Directors and served on the EDC board while the formulation of library sale was in progress.

Seven More Commissioners With Similar Conflicts Now Identified By Citizens Defending Libraries Should Also Recuse Themselves   

Seven other of the city planning commissioners should also recuse themselves from the proposed vote because they have significant professional ties and business entanglements with those involved in the proposed transaction that would transform the downtown central destination library into a major real estate deal.  These relationships, not yet the subject of public acknowledgment (or at least a number of them), have now been identified by Citizens Defending Libraries and form the basis of the request for their recusal.

Some of the reasons for recusal overlap with the reasons that two of the commissioners have already recused and dealing with the co-applicants.  Three of the requested approvals concern relationships with Forest City Ratner whose property was combined with the library's for development purposes in 1986 in agreements that the commissioners must approve modification of for the deal to proceed.

The perhaps startling number of commissioners asked to recuse themselves can be accounted for by a number of things deserving public attention: Because so many of the New York City Planning Commission commissioners are deeply enmeshed in their own private real estate careers, *the ubiquity of Forest City Ratner as a developer, and lastly because all of New York City's many libraries have now become an attractive target for transformation into real estate deals.

Commissioners Being Asked to Recuse

Here is a list of the additional commissioners requested to be recused:

    1.    Commission Chair Carl Weisbrod: Chair Weisbrod chose not to recuse himself despite the reasons presented by Citizens Defending Libraries September 22nd, specifically because of the involvement of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in real estate matters relating to the sale of New York City Libraries.  Mr. Weisbrod previously had a position (ending 2011) where he was responsible for the real estate of the Episcopal Diocese of New York owned by Trinity Church while the church's pension fund engaged in transactions that were part of the New York Public Library's Central Library Plan. While Chair Weisbrod did not chose to recuse for those reasons, Citizens Defending Libraries has since learned that Mr. Weisbrod was also a former president of one of the co-applicants in this transaction, specifically the EDC.  During his tenure as president of EDC the high profile deal with Forest City Ratner, modification of which is now before the board for approval, was put into place.
    2.    Cheryl Cohen Effron: Ms. Effron has multiple relationships with many of the people involved in promoting the sale of New York City libraries.  That includes working directly with Linda Johnson, president of the BPL, one of the co-applicants to sell and shrink the library.  It also includes being on the board of the Revson Foundation formulating policy with Sharon Greenberger the former Chief of Staff to Daniel Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor for Development for the Bloomberg amdministartion who as a BPL trustee worked with Janet Offensend to structure this and other library sale transactions.  The Revson Foundation granted money to the Sunset Park Library transaction tied in with this one, a reason Commissioner de la Uz has already recused.  The Revson Foundation has also given money to a number of other organizations promoting NYC library sales, including the Center for an Urban Future whose representatives testified more than once during these proceeding that the Brooklyn Heights Library (and others) should be sold based on reports the center did funded by the Revson Foundation.  Effron has been simultaneously involved on the "Benefit Committees" for Center for an Urban Future galas (for at least two years) working with David Offensend who, as COO of the NYPL sold the Donnell Library while his wife, Janet was involved as BPL trustee structuring the nearly identical proposed sale.  David Offensend was also working to sell the Mid-Manhattan Library and Science, industry and Business Library as part of the Central Library Plan.
    3.    Larisa Ortiz: Like Chair Weisbrod and Commissioner Douek who recused himself, Ms. Ortiz has a significant relationship to one of the co-applicants, the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC).  EDC is her "Select Client."
    4.    Orlando Marín: Because of professional relationships with the Bluestone Organization (at whose office he sometimes answers the phone) the commissioner should recuse himself: Bluestone is a partner with The Hudson Companies, a co-applicant, in the Gowanus Green project.  The Hudson Companies, David Kramer's organization, is the proposed purchaser of the Brooklyn Heights library who would develop the luxury tower (a vastly shrunken library at its base) to replace it at that site.
    5.    Irwin G. Cantor, P.E: Because of business relationships with Forest City Ratner and because of the Tishman Speyer relationship to the contemporaneously planned selling of the Donnell Library using the same model as this proposed Brooklyn Heights transaction now before the commissioner with an overlap of people involved behind the scenes.
    6.    Kenneth J. Knuckles, Esq: Because of business relationships with Forest City Ratner.
    7.    Richard W. Eaddy: Because of business relationships with Forest City Ratner.

To view letters that Citizens Defending Libraries has sent to the commissioners respecting their need to deal with these conflicts of interest, see:

Friday, October 30, 2015, Open Letter To NYC Planning Commissioner Cheryl Cohen Effron Respecting Her Vote About Selling & Shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library, Other Libraries The Revson Foundation, Center for an Urban Future, And More.

Friday, October 30, 2015, Letters To New York City Planning Commissioners Requesting Recusals With Respect To Vote on Proposed Sale and Shrinkage of Brooklyn Heights Library

The Brooklyn Borough President has recommended the proposed project not be approved.

What does the public want?: Citizens Defending Libraries finds public response consistent and nearly universal. Citizens Defending Libraries has over 25,000 signatories to its petitions opposing the sale of this and other NYC libraries.  Citizens Defending Libraries also has a widely signed letter of support calling for New York City libraries to be properly funded not sold, signed by, among others: The Committee To Save The New York Public Library, The Cobble Hill Association, The DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the Boerum Hill Association and the Park Slope Civic Association.

CONTACT:
Carolyn E. McIntyre, Michael D. D. White
Michael White, 718-834-6184, mddwhite [at] aol.com
Carolyn McIntyre, 917-757-6542 cemac62 [at] aol.com

Follow us on Twitter: @defendinglibraries


For photos and videos of prior Citizens Defending Libraries rallies opposing the sale, shrinkage, underfunding of New York City libraries, and elimination of books and librarians in the two and a half+ years since its founding, see:

PHOTO GALLERIES- PAST EVENTS

See also our latest masterpiece video (3 minutes 50 seconds):  Selling Our Libraries!