DC 37 Local 1321 President John Hyslop From Queens Public Library is “Cautiously Optimistic” About Dennis Walcott as new Queens Library Chief- Really?- When Library Defunder Michael Bloomberg Is Installing Him?

Infamous library defunder former mayor Michael Bloomberg presides over the installation of his man, Dennis Walcott, as new Queens Library chief

Sunday night March 13th, District Council 37 Local 1321 President John Hyslop from Queens Public Library was on “State of the Union,” the half-hour weekly radio program produced by District Council 37 saying a number of interesting things- you should listen for insight about the libraries and their funding- among them, that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the installation of Dennis Walcott as the new chief of Queens Library system. . . .

. . .  Why should Mr. Hyslop be optimistic when the ceremony for Mr. Walcott's installation as chief was presided over by former Mayor Bloomberg that mayor who could not be more infamous for an unprecedented underfunding of libraries and the stealth launching of a program to sell and shrink New York City libraries?

Maybe DC 37 is in a position where it must ostensibly be honeymooning with the incoming chief (who has absolutely no library experience and doesn't meet the state regulations to oversee a library), but at Citizens Defending Libraries we must suspect that the installation of a Bloomberg man with Bloomberg ostentatiously presiding is bad news.

Mr. Hyslop does sound very cautious during his interview (listen HERE, starting at about the 16:00 midpoint) repeatedly searching and asking for assistance to be circumspect about the words he chooses to describe, among other things, the way that, as of 2010, the Union was dissatisfied with former president Thomas Galante's hiring practices and the unfolding of the multiple front investigation that unseated Galante and dislodged about one third of the Queens Library trustees that had supported the union-opposed Galante, but who had also been standing up to the former Mayor Bloomberg.  The Queens system was the only one of the three library systems that continued to expand while the other two, Brooklyn and the NYPL did 180 degree turn-arounds to start selling and shrinking libraries.

Listening to Hyslop's caution statements we also learn:

•      About how NYC Comptroller went after the Queens library for hiding and misrepresenting funds, something the Comptroller has not yet started to involve himself in with respect to how the Brooklyn Library is cooking its books to hide money, claim poverty while ostensibly seeking funds as an excuse to sell off libraries.  See:  New York Post: ‘Broke’ Brooklyn Public Library sitting on $100M cash pile: activists, by Aaron Short and Jennifer Gould Keil, February 28, 2016

•      That the library budget dance is very much with us and that, no, not enough funds were obtained from the City Council and the Bloomberg administration last year when everyone swung from the rafters with misleading cries of "victory!"  For more on this see:  Thursday, August 13, 2015, Was Library Administration Officials’ Campaign For Restoration of Library Funding Done With Great Fanfare A Victory? No. Was It Even A Great Campaign? No.

We all agree our libraries need to be properly funded, properly run, and we shouldn't be selling them off or shrinking them.

As Bloomber is not out of the picture. . . .

. . . .he should not be out of mind!

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Mayor de Blasio: Rescue Our Libraries from Developer Destruction