Why Is New York City Planning to Sell and Shrink Its Libraries?

Defend our libraries, don't defund them. . . . . fund 'em, don't plunder 'em

Mayor Bloomberg defunded New York libraries at a time of increasing public use, population growth and increased city wealth, shrinking our library system to create real estate deals for wealthy real estate developers at a time of cutbacks in education and escalating disparities in opportunity. It’s an unjust and shortsighted plan that will ultimately hurt New York City’s economy and competitiveness.

It should NOT be adopted by those we have now elected to pursue better policies.

Monday, December 28, 2015

TOP TEN REASONS TO BELIEVE THAT COUNCILMAN STEVE LEVIN WAS REALLY ON THE DEVELOPER’S SIDE PROMOTING A SELL-OFF RATHER THAN PROTECTING THE PUBLIC AGAINST A BAD LIBRARY SALE

Levin said that 95% of his constituents were against the Brooklyn Heights Library sale and shrinkage.  Then he pushed it through with a backroom deal unveiled at the last minute.
There is something about Councilman Steve Levin, that makes us yearn to believe in him, a sort of school boyish charm.  He presents himself as seemingly sympathetically beleaguered by the stresses of his job.  We did believe him, and unfortunately, it turns out the trust we placed in his assurances was to our significant detriment.

We have complied a list of reasons, our top ten reasons, to believe that Councilman Steve Levin, contrary to reports, was actually working to promote the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library for some time with little concern directed to what his constituents wanted or what would be in the public interest.

The supposed narrative that did not pan out was that Steve Levin, scared of the real estate industry was keeping his head down, but that he still was really interested in doing the right thing.  Doing the right thing meant neither selling nor shrinking an important central destination Brooklyn Library that has been recently expanded and fully upgraded.  We still actually believe Mr. Levin knew and knows that not selling the library was exactly the right thing to do; we just no longer believe he was intending to do the right thing for a long time. . .

. . .  So the idea was that Levin was holding back so as to appear impartial* and that he then planned to act as as a final arbiter, hearing the facts and then acting as a defender of the public interest.  This meant he would, in the end, weigh in to declare the unsavory boondoggle for what it was, delivering a quick the coup de grace to the proposal.  It even seemed appropriate that he might would use as his instrument to deliver that blow a crushing citation to the Brooklyn Public Library’s utter lack of transparency about it plans to sell libraries and similarly “leverage” libraries all around Brooklyn for the benefit of developers, not the public.
(* a notion he is still attempting to foster with an open letter about the library sale.)
 Sure, that's what we thought?  . . . .keep dreaming.

Here are the top ten reasons to believe that this narrative was all quite false and that Councilman Levin was actually secretly working against the public interest to promote the real estate deal, probably for well over a year now.

TOP TEN REASONS
TO BELIEVE THAT COUNCILMAN STEVE LEVIN
WAS REALLY ON THE DEVELOPER’S SIDE PROMOTING A SELL-OFF
RATHER THAN PROTECTING THE PUBLIC AGAINST A BAD LIBRARY SALE
    10.    Levin abruptly at the last minute canceled his previously scheduled appearance at an April 2013 Library Week Citizens Defending Libraries rally where he was to appear alongside then fellow Council Member Tish James and speak against selling of the Brooklyn Heights Library.  Levin initially cited a “family health” issue.  Then he said it was actually because heavyweights and library trustees were pressuring him with incessant phone calls.

    9.    We remember the way that Levin kept running away from library advocates at various public meetings and always seemed, in terms of body language, very uncomfortable in their presence.

    8.    When we worked to put Tish James, the Pubic Advocate, in touch with Levin to work with him so that she could give him back up to insist on transparency from the Brooklyn Public Library Tish came back less committed to action than she had seemed before.

    7.    There was way that various elected officials kept saying suspiciously, perhaps ominously warning us: “Where’s Levin on this?”  City Council member Laurie Cumbo may have retroactively let the cat out of the bag about what other elected officials knew and when they knew it as she explained her vote on the proposed library sale and shrinkage at City Council (12/16/2015) by thanking Levin for "standing strong" and for his "courage" and his "bravery" as she watched "over the last few months" as he "stood in the face of adversity . . .ridiculed, insulted, threatened, and even bashed in public hearings and meetings" getting the project through ULURP.  Cumbo could only have been half correct: Levin suffered no abuse from the public during this time period because the public didn’t know he was working against their interest or to get the sale through ULURP. (ULURP began June 2015). That "courage" and "bravery" could only be interpreted in terms of Levin's intention to defy the wishes of his constituents.

    6.    Then there was that way that when a new group, Latinos For Libraries, showed up with new incriminating information about the BPL’s accounting, Levin, rather than using it, suggested that the information be taken straight to Councilman Brad Lander, one of the key honchos pushing for library sales, and most especially for this one.

    5.    This is the second library in Levin’s district that has been shrunk by the Brooklyn Public Library: The second floor of the Williamsburg Library was given away and Levin seemed not to care about this saying that a good portion of the population in Williamsburg “doesn’t read books” and that Paul Parkhill, the head of Spaceworks, the Bloomberg created private firm to which the second floor was given, was his “friend.”

    4.    The fact that although Levin went on the record denying that a compromise was in the works it turned out that he had been working for weeks, probably months, on what he would present as “the improvements to this project that I announced."

    3.    The fact that Levin was feeding the community information that the de Blasio administration didn’t care particularly about the seeing the library sale pushed through when, in actuality, he was working with de Blasio’s top development aid,  Deputy Mayor for Development Alicia Glen (from Goldman Sachs) who is said to have adopted the library sale “as her own” pushing to "get the project across the finish line.”

    2.    The fact that when speaking of the price at which it might be acceptable to sell the library, Levin studiously avoided considering the value of the library from the public’s point of view  (the recently expanded and fully ungraded library would cost $120+ million to replace).  With blinders, he insisting only on looking at the “tear-down” value a developer would pay for it, essentially what a developer would pay for an empty lot, not what someone would pay for property with a valuable building on it.  (Actually, a developer would probably pay more for an empty lot since it would save demolition costs and other hassles.)

    1.    The most important Number One reason to believe Levin was working on the other side is this?:  Levin promised in December 2014 that he would do his duty (an absolute minimum for an elected official) and insist on transparency from the Brooklyn Public Library.  Then, despite a concerted effort at follow-up to hold him to this promise, he never honored his promise.  Why?  One might first suppose that insistence on his part to enforce transparency could have enhanced Levin’s ability to “negotiate” for the public's benefit.  You might think so, wouldn't you?  Actually, Levin probably understood differently, that because of the nature of the transaction such transparency was something that the proposed library sale and shrinkage would could not withstand.  Transparency would have killed the project, and as that is something Levin almost certainly understood, he avoided it.
Note: #7 above is really two separate reasons (taking the list over “ten,” which is also to note that there are more than enough reasons that can be added up to believe that Levin was working against the public to push this deal through for some time.

5 comments:

  1. Levin turns out to be another elitist progressive crony capitalist, like the de Blasio admistration and the City Council. It comes as a shock because Steve's so easy to like -- which makes him easy to believe, even when it turns out he's lying. You can say he's politically gifted that way. Tish James mailed this one in, just as she did the "save" of the Pacific Street Library. She was ready to let that fall to Two Trees but an avalanche of constituent mail caused her to cut it out of the deal at the last minute. She was City Council for the 35th and her enthusiastic vote enthusiastic vote for BAM South brought the Council along. The behemoth now obscures BAM and the Clocktower. Nor did Ms James, Public Advocate, even answer constituent outrage over the HPD handover of 15 Lafayette, next to the Mark Morris Studio, catty corner BAM, to the Jonathan Rosen Companies for $1 this year. To build luxury apartments tax-free for 30 years. The Public Advocate never answered --- and we understand HPD has a lot of other properties in the chute ready to bestow on developers. The lines are perfectly drawn: us against them. Them are developers and their expediters in office. Us are the morons who vote for them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Levin turns out to be another elitist progressive crony capitalist, like the de Blasio admistration and the City Council. It comes as a shock because Steve's so easy to like -- which makes him easy to believe, even when it turns out he's lying. You can say he's politically gifted that way. Tish James mailed this one in, just as she did the "save" of the Pacific Street Library. She was ready to let that fall to Two Trees but an avalanche of constituent mail caused her to cut it out of the deal at the last minute. She was City Council for the 35th and her enthusiastic vote enthusiastic vote for BAM South brought the Council along. The behemoth now obscures BAM and the Clocktower. Nor did Ms James, Public Advocate, even answer constituent outrage over the HPD handover of 15 Lafayette, next to the Mark Morris Studio, catty corner BAM, to the Jonathan Rosen Companies for $1 this year. To build luxury apartments tax-free for 30 years. The Public Advocate never answered --- and we understand HPD has a lot of other properties in the chute ready to bestow on developers. The lines are perfectly drawn: us against them. Them are developers and their expediters in office. Us are the morons who vote for them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It has been crystal clear for some time now that despite our initial hopes for Stephen he is just not up to the job. I was one of his first supporters and people come up to me all the time with complaints about his office. Run by Casey Adams who was for the library sale on day one the office simply does not get back to the citizens it is supposed to serve.
    Stephen has been adrift since his mentor Vito Lopez left the scene. Vito provided stephen with the "cover" he is always looking for. Now he depends on Brad Lander. He once described Brad to me as "being so smart that when he starts speaking policy the guys from the Bronx do not know what he is talking about" Despite personal assurances he gave to me about saving the library
    and back dealing by a former staffer of his I knew
    where he would eventually go on this. He knows it is wrong but he goes to the power and it is with Lander ( who is planning on being the next speaker) and DeBasio and the real estate moguls.
    In my living room he once told me " I will not believe my own bull..s.it" . Well he just did
    We need to work to replace him and the others who are willing to give away what we own of developers for 1/3rd of their value.
    DumpLevin 2017@aol.comand on twitter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dumplevin2017@aol.com and on twitter. Join us- if we all work together we can get rid of Lander too. Why should either of these guys get a third Bloomberg term. I say 8 years of any politician is enough.
      Marsha Rimler

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete