Proposed Statement of Principles Concerning Any Possible Redevelopment of Library-- Sunset Park Branch -

From the excellent NY1 coverage of the Monday, November 3, 2014 CB7 meeting- See the link to the video below

Citizens Defending Libraries distributed the following proposed statement of principles when the Brooklyn Public Library presented plans, Monday, November 3, 2014, to redevelop the Sunset Park Branch Library into a multi-use project with (without competitive bid) the Fifth Avenue Committee. 

Proposed Statement of Principles Concerning Any Possible Redevelopment of Library- - Sunset Park Branch? -
From Citizens Defending Libraries - November 3, 2014 (more information available on web)

1.    Bigger and Better, Not Smaller, Libraries.  Library use is way up.  The city is growing and is wealthier.  New libraries should be bigger, better, not shrunk. So, for instance, the existing Sunset library has one full street level floor plus additional floor space below ground. A new library should have more space, more above-ground space, probably including at least two full above-ground floors.

2.    Effective and Rigorously Fair Competitive Bid.  The BPL should not do deals that hand out library property without competitive bids.  It should get the best deal from competing developers.  Sunset Park should not establish that crony-capitalistic arrangements that hand-off deals to those with an inside track are acceptable here and throughout the rest of the city.

3.    Ensure Net Gain for the Public, Not Losses.  Many library sales, like Donnell, and now apparently also Brooklyn Heights, turn out to be net losses for the public when the numbers are calculated although others may profit.  Numbers should be rigorously reviewed to ensure such deals are off limits.

4.    Avoid Disruption- Construction of New Library At Nearby Site Preferred Course of Action.  Closing libraries for redevelopment involves extended periods of time without library services and multiple moves (plus it increases the likelihood the public will get a replacement library it likes less.)  (Donnell closed 2008 and won’t reopen until at least the end of 2015.) The alternative of moving to a completed replacement library at a nearby site avoids this.

5.    Don’t Simultaneously Close Multiple Libraries.   If libraries are going to be redeveloped, multiple libraries should not close simultaneously.  Slated for closure now: Brooklyn Heights, parts of Grand Army Plaza, Red Hook?  What others?

6.    Keep the Library’s Books.  In terms of use, use of books, mostly the physical books, has gone up more than anything else (59%).  Libraries need to continue to be a place to find and browse book collections.

7.    Don’t Reduce Staff or Librarians.  The BPL is proposing to use redevelopment of libraries (e.g. the Brooklyn Heights Library) as an excuse to keep cutting back on librarians and staff, we think without recognizing their significant value.

8.    BPL’s Mission Should Be To Be a Library, Not a “Development Agency.”  If the libraries can be sold off and traded for other public benefits then we may loose them altogether as public officials play people off against each other for community essentials.

9.    Designated Spaces for Different Uses (Including Public Meeting Spaces).  We reject the idea that shrunk-down library space should be made to “flexibly” do double-, triple- or quadruple-duty creating noise and other problems and believe libraries should, for instance, provide separate community meeting spaces. 

10.    No Hand-offs of Library Assets or Space to Private Companies Like Spaceworks.  The library space we are demanding should be library space, not handed off to private companies like Spaceworks for other uses (even “not-for-profit”). 

11.    Air Conditioning Problems?  Every time the BPL (or NYPL) wants to sell or redevelop a library suspicious air conditioning problems crop up that need to be better explained. 

12.    Total Transparency + Let the Community Catch Up.   The BPL has been working on plans to sell and shrink libraries like Sunset Park for redevelopment going back to at least 2006.  The BPL should be disclosing and give the public time to catch up with everything it was doing in the past including, for instance, releasing for review the “Revson Study” that called for the Sunset Park Branch to be treated as a "Mixed Use Real Estate Opportunity." This meant the library was nearly denied $1,390,000 in construction improvement funds back in 2009.

Para recibir la traducción al español de este documento, que estará disponible de aquí a dos días, favor de enviar un correo electrónico a: MDDWhite [at] aol.com. Gracias.

Here is more information about what happened at the meeting.  Information here will be updated.

City Councilman Carlos Menchaca put himself in an uncomfortable spotlight at the meeting when he decided, rather than spend more time listening to the community's many varied expression of discomfort with the proposal, to lecture about the benefits and desirability of affordable housing (of all things this should be necessary?, albeit it's just 54 units after all the disruption) and the need for new air conditioning for the library.

These articles below concern last night's CB7 meeting where the BPL presented plans to sell and redevelop the Sunset Park Library. DNAinfo was perhaps the first the first to cover the story and, so far, its second article is the best in te print media.  One day later NY1 managed s surprisingly effective, informative, and balanced report in just one minutes and fifty seconds of air time (see the link to the video you can play on web below.)

The community was in a cantankerous, unreceptive mood even though the BPL was proposing that the replacement library proposed for the 8-story building replacement that will take advantage of new zoning now in place would result in an increase from 12,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet.  The BPL's spokesperson said that it would now look at making the library even bigger than that in response to the community demands, particularly if they can put through another zoning change to escalate the density.  (That could get the Sunset Park Library, on the R line, up close in size to the proposed size of the replacement Brooklyn Heights/Downtown Brooklyn Library currently proposed to be 15,000 square feet above ground with 6,000 square feet underground.)

By the night of the meeting the community had a petition with 800 signatures requesting a bigger two-floor library, where both those floors would be above ground.  It used to have a two-floor library before this one was built.  

Here is a comment on the DNAinfo articles from Citizens Defending Libraries co-founder Michael D. D. White (comments are possible).  Basically, The BPL is still secretively tight-lipped and they plan NO- competitive bid, proposing to side-step it through HPD.

LET THE RECORD SHOW that last night the BPL during the question and answer session officially declined (after a brief consultation with CB7's Chair) to answer questions I came and posed on behalf of Citizens Defending Libraries, including:

1.) How long has the redevelopment of this library into a muti-use development been secretly planned by the BPL? (2006 or earlier?)

2.) Will the BPL release (as requested as part of Citizens Defending Libraries Citizens Audit and Investigation) the "Revson Study" going back to at least 2009 calling for this library to converted into a muti-use development.

3.) How long has the Fifth Avenue Committee been granted the inside track on this redevelopment? The BPL acknowledged last night that it was side-stepping putting out a competitive bid to competing developers saying that it was doing so by going through the city's HPD "sole source" approach. (in fact, The Fifth avenue Committee is absolutely NOT the only developer or can or would want to do such a project if given the chance.)

4.) Will the BPL respond to the Citizens Defending Libraries open letter to BPL president Linda Johnson asking for a complete and thorough accounting and calculation of the losses to the community (Like the Donnell it could be a net loss) involved in the proposed sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library, especially given that, according to the BPL, it needs to have net funds left over (not have a net loss) to pay for the redevelopment of the Sunset Park Library (not exactly true either.)

For more on this see:

Sunday, August 31, 2014, Mostly In Plain Sight (A Few Conscious Removals Notwithstanding) Minutes Of Brooklyn Public Library Tell Shocking Details Of Strategies To Sell Brooklyn’s Public Libraries

Open Letter To Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson

Monday, September 15, 2014, Press Release: Citizens Audit and Investigation of Brooklyn Public Library- FOIL Requests

The BPL stressed that any munificence it planed for the Sunset Park Community was predicated upon money they are theoretically getting from the sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library (but about which they will not provide a thorough accounting).  The BPL also offered suspiciously low estimates of what the new Sunset Park library would cost.

People complained that they felt they were being subjected to a "sales pitch," a "snow job," and were unconvinced about all the suspicious air conditioning problems that immediately preceded the announcement of the proposed sale and redevelopment.-  A community collection plate to fix the air conditioning was proposed.  By contrast City Councilman Carlos Menchaca was completely credulous and unquestioning about the air conditioning breakdown and saying that this was a reason so sell the real estate.
Menchaca also made clear he was buying into into the BPL's theory that capital repairs intentionally built up and accumulated under Bloomberg (and apparently exaggerated) should be accepted as a pretext for selling libraries to pay for these things.

Relocating the library to another site was proposed and suggestions were made for where in the neighborhood a new library could be built before the existing one is shut down.

The second DNAinfo article refers to "two years of hearing rumblings about the project" and "shock" expressed by Community Board 7 land use committee chairman John Burns that "the plan was suddenly moving so swiftly" the BPL would not say how long the plan had been in the works and the Director of Housing Development for the Fifth Avenue Committee, Jay Marcus, actually offered that the Fifth Avenue Committee approached the BPL about the redevelopment only two months ago (!!!), something that would be hard to square with what Noticing New York was reporting back in August (based on still earlier research) and everything else knowledgeable members of the community were sussing out before then.

There were complaints about gentrification, the presentation of false choices, and the pitting of the community against itself, housing vs. library users, etc.  (Certainly, there was a BPL effort to pit Sunset Park Branch library users against users of the Downtown Brooklyn Heights Library.)

Consensus was that the community should have a lot more time and many more meeting to absorb and react to the proposal.

Something to be looked at: Since the BPL acknowledges that the current library is undersized why is it currently renting out space in the library for non-library use?

DNAinfo- $525-a-Month Studios Proposed for Redevelopment of Sunset Park Library, By Nikhita Venugopal on November 3, 2014.

DNAinfo- Sunset Park Locals Blast Plan to Add Affordable Units in Library Overhaul, By Nikhita Venugopal on November 4, 2014 (best coverage so far plus slide show)

Curbed- Sunset Park Library's Proposed Rentals Could Be $525 and Up, by Zoe Rosenberg, November 4, 2014,

Brownstoner- Library Mulls Adding Seven Stories, Affordable Housing to Sunset Park Branch,
by Cate, 11/04/14

Brooklyn- The Sunset Park library might become $525/month affordable housing, by David Colon, 11/03/14

NY1 VIDEO- Library Expansion Plans Meet Opposition in Sunset Park, by: Jeanine Ramirez, 11/05/2014.

The NY1 posting of its video includes a transcript.  Here are some excerpts:

Officials want to build a new eight-story apartment building, with the library located on the ground and basement floors.. . .   However, that plan wasn't well received at a community meeting Monday night. 

BPL's David Walloch: ""We don't have another path forward to build a bigger library here"

 * * *

 

"We do not need housing on top of this library, no,"

"We do not need housing on top of this library, no," said another person.

  . . . . Library officials said the housing component helps pay for the construction and that they would have to put in just $8 million, money they said they have because of the sale of their Brooklyn Heights branch to a developer.

I'm also was really distressed how they talk about, 'Well, don't worry. We're going to sell another library, the one in Brooklyn Heights, and we'll take that money and give it to you,'"

"I'm also was really distressed how they talk about, 'Well, don't worry. We're going to sell another library, the one in Brooklyn Heights, and we'll take that money and give it to you,'" said one person who attended the meeting.

". . . the discussion has to be where it's going to be built and what it's going to look like,"

* * *
". . . the discussion has to be where it's going to be built and what it's going to look like," said one community member.

However, the pushback to this plan is strong.

"Just being presented with one option, one process, I think it's very disrespectful to this community,"

"Just being presented with one option, one process, I think it's very disrespectful to this community," said one community member.

"We've gathered together and we've fought different things in the past, and we hope to do the same,"

"We've gathered together and we've fought different things in the past, and we hope to do the same," said another.

"We need to look at other alternatives,"

"We need to look at other alternatives," said a third.

Citizens Defending Libraries YouTube Version-  NY1: Community Scorns Sunset Park Library Plan (click through for best viewing)

Archived Former CDL “Upcoming and Recent Events Page”

[Back To Main Page]  (The main updates to this page now just occur in the calendar below.)

Below is Citizens Defending Libraries publicly available Google Calendar (set up 03/22/2013) where event may appear first before being transcribed into the bullet calendar items that appear before it

 
IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENT: Mayoral forum on Libraries hosted by Citizens Defending Libsaries and the Committee to Save the Public Library from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, Friday August 30, 2013 at the Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill Brooklyn.  Click on calendar even below for further details.

Upcoming Events

•   Please refer to the calendar above for upcoming events.  We have switched over to this (together with periodic emails to signers of the petition) as the primary means of updating people although we may occasionally list put certain future events down below here to get them extra attention.

•   Important Note Respecting One Of The Events In The Calendar Above-  The Jun 8 – 9, 2013 24-Hour Library Read-In by New Yorkers Standing Up for Libraries- Hosted by Urban Librarians Unite.  This is one of the events on the calendar not organized by Citizens Defending Libraries (most are not).   Urban Librarians Unite (created circa 2008) contacted Citizens Defending Libraries to express their wish that Citizens Defending Libraries communicate Urban Liberians Unite's wish that people not come to attend their 24-Hour Library Read-In event if they believe:

    •    We shouldn’t be selling off our NYC libraries the way we are.
    •    We shouldn’t be shrinking our library system assets
    •    It is a matter of public concern that we are getting less than appropriate value when these assets are sold, and/or
    •    Public representatives should assert themselves to protect these public assets.

Urban Librarians Unite also informed CDL that they considered inclusion of this publicly advertised (previously come-one-come-all event) public event in the calender “unacceptable.”  In other words they wanted to Shush us about their "We Will Not Be Shushed Read In June 8 & 9th! Sign Up Now!" event.  Urban Librarians Unite objected to the testimony CCL delivered at the City Council budget hearing on June 5, 2013 and apparently, there was concern on their part that people with negative feelings about library sales and shrinkage might participate in the event to express their opposition to underfunding of libraries, or that such people might communicate with attendees of the event about this related subject. CDL doe not allow those holding public events to dictate exclusion (or inclusions) of information in the calendar about relevant library related events (mayoral forums, library trustee events, etc.), but agreed, in this instance to express the above about ULU's conscientious efforts to exclude public opposition to the library sales and shrinkage from their message. 

 Recent and past Events

•    Sunday, February 17th, 5:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights, Montague & Hicks Streets

 •    Sunday, February 24th, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Monroe)

 •     Thursday, February 28, 5:00 PM:  People should show up early for a meeting at the Brooklyn Heights Library (280 Cadman Plaza) about the proposed sell-off and shrinkage of that library, possibly to Forest City Ratner. It will include attendance by elected representatives, City Councilman Steve Levin and State Senator Daniel Squadron and representatives of the Brooklyn Heights Association.

•     Sunday, March 3, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Monroe)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

•     Friday, March 8, 10:00 AM: (testimony opportunity at 1:00 PM):   (Click the sign-up LINK to let us know us know you are coming - Council green sheet notice in image at right, click to enlarge) There will be a City Council hearing about the city budget for libraries meaning that it will provide a forum for addressing the defunding of libraries and the “demolition by neglect” of the library system preparatory to its shrinkage through the proposed sell-offs to developers.  We are planning a demonstration for 10:30 AM when we expect press to be there.  The public will have to wait to testify last, starting at 1:00 PM.  Citizens Defending Libraries has issued a press release.  Pictures and testimony are available here: Testimony By Citizens Defending Libraries At March 8, 2013 City Council Committee Hearing On Library Budget Issues

 •     Saturday, March 9, 4:30 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Monroe)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

•     Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 5:30 PM: The City Services and Budget Committee of Community Board 5 will meet 5:30 p.m. at the Board Office, 450 Seventh Ave, Suite 2109, to discuss and respond to the Mayor's Preliminary budget.  The Community Board should be asked to oppose the Central Library Plan and the shrinkage of the City’s libraries, particularly the main libraries within their district for the sake of all New Yorkers in the city, to oppose the defunding of libraries being used as an excuse for these real estate deals and should be asked to stand up and demand that Donnell Library (also being consolidated in the shrinkage of the CLP) be restored to it original size or bigger, rather than being shrunk to ½ or 1/3 of its previous size.

•     Wednesday, March 13, 10:00 AM: Join the District Council 37 Local 1930 New York Public Library Guild Rally on the steps of City Hall for an immediate change to a permanent baseline funding for New York City's libraries.

•     Saturday, March 16, 2:00 - 4:00 PM: Canvassing outside Brooklyn Heights Branch and Business and Career Library (weather reasonably permitting).

 •     Sunday, March 17, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Monroe)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

•     Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 6:30 PM: Meeting of trustees of the "Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Library" (not really friends) at Brooklyn Heights Library (280 Cadman Plaza).  Public not invited.

•     Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 10:00 AM: City Planning Commission review and public hearing for the Walentas Two Tree Development BAM South project in connection with which BPL is proposing the closing and sell-off of the Pacific Branch library.  22 Reade Street.

•     Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 6:30 PM: Committee of Brooklyn's Community Board 6 meeting for the BPL's first presentation of its intentions to representatives of the community board (after the City Planning hearing) with respect to its proposed closing and sell-off of the Pacific Branch library and the proposed opening of a library in in the Walentas Two Tree Development BAM South project. 78th Police Precinct, 65 6th Avenue, Court Room (between Bergen/Dean Streets).

•     Thursday, March 21, 5:00 PM:  Meeting (open to the public) chaired by "Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Library" (not really friends) on behalf of Brooklyn Public Library at the request of Brooklyn Heights Association to further the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights library.  Elected's and their representatives may attend to participate. At Brooklyn Heights Library (280 Cadman Plaza).

•     Saturday, March 23, 2:00 - 4:00 PM: Canvassing outside Brooklyn Heights Branch and Business and Career Library (weather reasonably permitting).

 •     Sunday, March 24, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Monroe)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

 •     Saturday, March 30, 2:00 - 4:00 PM: Canvassing outside Brooklyn Heights Branch and Business and Career Library (weather reasonably permitting).

  •     Wednesday, April 3, 6:00 PM: Mayoral Forum.  St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn New York 11201.

 •     Sunday, April 7, 4:00 PM: (We are skipped a week because of Easter) Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Clinton)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed. 

  •     Thursday, April 11, 8:00 PM: Mayoral Forum.  Jewish Center of Jackson Heights.  See calendar above.

  •    Citizens Defending Libraries Libary Protection Week Events- A Series of Events from Saturday, April 13th to Thursday April 18th:  [This week of events is documented in pictures, video and vido links here: PHOTO GALLERY- CDL's Library Protection Week and there is also a press release for the culminating City Hall CDL Press Conference with Comptroller John C. Liu.] Come to our rallies to protect and defend our public Libraries from being underfunded and sold off to private developers. Let our public officials know they need to put a halt to any more sales and restore proper funding to the system!  See events below culminating at City Hall with the New York City Comptroller. 

•    Library Sit Out and Rallies in Brooklyn

NYS Assemblywoman Joan Millman

City Council Member Stephen Levin speaking 

•    Saturday April 13 

Brooklyn Heights Library

Noon to 1:00

280 Cadman Plaza by Tillary

•    Pacific Library

2:00-3:00

25 Fourth Avenue at Pacific Street

Park Slope/Boerum Hill Brooklyn 

For more info (and you can let us know you are coming)

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=137994

 •     (Sunday, April 14, 4:00 PM: Also listed below- Citizens Defending Libraries regular weekly planning meeting, - not officially part of Library Protection Week events- Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Clinton)  NOTE: Comptroller John Liu will visit and speak with use from 4:00 PM to 4:30 PM.)

  •    Monday, April 15, Noon to 1:00

Central Library Plan Sit Out and Rally

In front of 42st Central Reference Library and Mid-Manhattan  Branch

For more info (and you can let us know you are coming)

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=138054

•    Wednesday, April 17, Noon to 1:00

Rally for Donnell Library, An Epic Tragedy

20 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, (meet on 40 West 53^rd)

Home of Winnie The Pooh, rare music CDs, and documentaries

Sold off to a developer in 2008 and still no promised replacement

Come say We Remember and Never Again!

For more info (and you can let us know you are coming)

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=138060

•    Thursday April 18, Noon to 1:00

City Hall Save the Libraries Press Conference With Comptroller John Liu

Steps of City Hall

Comptroller John Liu to speak 

Come early to go through security

Sign up, get info here (and you can let us know you are coming)

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=137892

•     Sunday, April 14, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Clinton)  NOTE: Comptroller John Liu will visit and speak with use from 4:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

   •     Saturday, April 20, 9:30 AM (doors open): Mayoral Forum on Public Housing at Salvation Army Auditorium (starts at 10:30 AM) .  See calendar above.

 •     Sunday, April 21, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Clinton)  Petition signers are invited to click on the link to sign up for this event (on Moveon.org) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

    •     Monday, April 22, 6:00 PM: Mayoral Forum on Sustainability.  See calendar above.

    •     Tuesday, April 23, 8:30 AM: Mayoral Forum on Small Business and Workforce issues.  See calendar above.

    •     Wednesday, April 24, 6:00 PM: Community Board 2 Cultural Committee meeting, presentation from BPL on sale and shrinkage of Brooklyn Heights Library, also report on Clinton Hill and Walt Whitman libraries.  See calendar above.

•     Sunday, April 28, 4:00 PM: Progressive Community Building Event, Community Room in 101 Clark Street, Brooklyn Heights (Clark & Clinton) where next steps in our campaign will be discussed.

 •     Create Your Own Event!!!: It might be canvassing outside your own library or library of your choice.  Or maybe an information event at your school or church.  Contact us if you would like our help or suggestions.  We can post information about your event here.  We will also be happy to coordinate to send a representative to your event.

 CONTACT: To contact Citizens Defending Libraries email Backpack362 (at) aol.com.

You may also leave a comment with information in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

The first petition (gathered over 17,000 signature, most of them online- available at signon.org with a background statement and can still be signed).   On June 16, Citizens Defending libraries issued a new updated petition that you can sign now:

Mayor de Blasio: Rescue Our Libraries from Developer Destruction

You can also paste the following url into your browser.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/mayor-de-blasio-rescue-2?source=s.tw&r_by=5895137 

October 17, 2014 Discussion of Sale of Public Assets

 This page is being updated.

October 17, 2014 Citizens Defending Libraries and the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn’s Weaving the Fabric of Diversity Committee hosted a discussion about the sale of public assets.

The evening began with shared discussion and then broke into group discussions.  At the end of the evening the groups shared in discussion the commonality of challenges and threats being faced by the public in different instances . . . public parks and public buildings built on city-owned land, schools, colleges, libraries, fire houses, playgrounds, police stations, hospitals, housing, memorials . . .

 

Senator Velmanette Montgomery

Below is a list for discussion during the evening.

Starter List Identifying Commonalities When Confronting Sale of Public Assets
Discussion of Sale of Public Assets- October 17, 2014
Unitarian Congregation Undercroft, 50 Monroe Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201

In various areas the public and its watchdogs are confronted by tactics such as the following when public assets are besieged and handed off for sale (help us identify other characteristically common aspects of the threats faced):

            1.    Deliberate underfunding of targeted assets running them into the ground, deteriorating them and driving away their constituencies.

            2.    Manufacturing crisis conditions and seeking to promote a "TINA" narrative ("There Is No Alternative").  This can include overestimating or otherwise inflating repair and maintenance costs.

            3.    Opportunistically taking advantage of income inequality- Picking on and going after assets that have more value to a less advantaged and less politically powerful population than they do to those members of the population with greater influence.  Beneficiaries of these plans tend to be .01% rather than other New Yorkers.

            4.    Underestimate the value of the assets to the public.  As in the example of the sale of the Donnell library, this may result in assets being disposed of at far less than their true value.

            5.    Do top-down designed deals that the public will be the last to know about, part of a general effort to eliminate the public from discussions to the maximum extent possible.

            6.    Stacking decision-making boards with people who are unsympathetic to those served by the targeted assets.

            7.    Rush deals through (especially, as we have seen recently, at the end of the Bloomberg administration).

            8.    Dismiss alternatives to protect and preserve the assets.  (Includes obfuscating and ignoring better alternative courses of action, minimizing the downside of asset sales while exaggerating expected benefits while PR expenditures seek to capture the press and lobbying and campaign money is spent to win over public officials.

Below in basic outline form some other topics emerging from discussion.

FUTURE STRUCTURAL NEXT STEPS?

    1.    Wealth (+Political) inequality

        a.    Diminished commonality/sympathy
        b.    Goals not shared (most goals that succeed politically have backing from a high percentage of the wealthy)
        c.    Reduced taxes diverting and diminishing funds
        d.    Taking unfair advantage of tilted playing field

    2.    Money in politics

        a.    Fair elections
        b.    Ethics and conflicts laws
        c.    Bulwarks for asset protection

    3.    Keeping public purpose entities on mission (pull of money a problem)

    4.    Common narrative

    5.    Too many simultaneous battles- divide and conquer tactic, plus it taxes our attention and effort if nothing else.

    6.    Press and Media (pull of money and ownership a problem)

    7.    Lawyers and law (absence of and lopsidedness of money a problem)

    8.    Develop what other infrastructure for common use? (Doesn’t have to be expensive)

    9.    Same characters- The same political players and operatives overlap, popping up repeatedly in attacks on different public assets.

Open Letter To Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson

It was not announced beforehand that questions from the public would be invited as part of the October 7th :Community Advisory Meeting.  When the public arrived they were told that if they wanted to submit questions they should be on an index card provided for that purpose with the name of the submitter written at the top.

October 15, 2014

Linda E. Johnson, President
Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, New York 11238

Re:  Request for answer to question concerning the unrecognized cost to the public of selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library

Dear Ms. Johnson:

Tuesday, October 7, 2014, was the first “Community Advisory Committee” meeting concerning the proposed sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library where the meeting was officially opened up to (oral) public questions.  This was unexpected.  Although the public was invited to ask questions with an apparent expectation on their part that they would be answered, we write concerning a question that was asked and that remains unanswered concerning the unrecognized cost to the public of selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Michael D. D. White, a co-founder of Citizens Defending Libraries asked the following question of you:

Please calculate the losses to the public associated with the library sale.- Please state what should considered subtractions to the $52 million gross purchase price the BPL will receive for selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library, the transaction costs, the lost value, etc. and then state your calculations of all those amounts and what they total up to.

Mr. White and Citizens Defending Libraries apologize if, while soliciting your response to such questions, we have displayed any inappropriate anger or impatience respecting what we view as the BPL’s efforts to under-represent the value of what it is selling, and to over-represent what it is actually getting back in return.  We always want our actions to serve, as best they can, our foremost goal of protecting our valuable public assets.

In your response to Mr. White you said that you didn’t think he was interested in hearing an answer to his question.  Mr. White insisted that he was and we assure that we do want the answer requested.  While Mr. White noted he has offered his own calculations, he asked for yours.

We do not believe that you can dismiss as inconsequential the fact that you are selling, without replacement, exactly 66.33333% of the publicly owned space in a 63,000 square foot library building under the vague rubric that the space not being replaced is `not accessible to the public.’  (The BPL is also proposing to dispose of additional significant property used by the library and the public at the site.)  All space has value, existing current use value as well as other obvious potential value.  Publicly owned assets should not be sold without identification and assessment of their value.  BPL should, as the federal government does, supply an inventory of any assets you wish to treat as surplus and you should state assessments of the assets inventoried.

For instance, BPL should (supplying floor plans to make your calculations interpretable and verifiable) state how you have measured and give values about any such space you are regarding as subject to elimination because it is, in your term,  `not accessible to the public’ providing specifics, more or less as follows: [INSERT XX] square feet of [FOR INSTANCE “office space used by” INSERT X# “librarians and off limits to the public."]  Value is: [INSERT XX.].

To inform the public with the information requested we ask that you do so for all of the space you are deeming `not accessible to the public’ with statements about why you decided to consider the space `not accessible to the public,’ and who it is used by including without limitation any of the following: 

    •    Office spaces.
    •    Conference room spaces such as the conference room on the second floor
    •    Auditorium space.
    •    Librarian desk and shelving space, such as the front desk space where librarians deal with the public.
    •    Entryway space.
    •    Custodial and closet spaces.
    •    Bathroom spaces.
    •    Elevator space.
    •    Stairway space.
    •    Hallway spaces, for instance the space used for circulation and exhibition displays.
    •    Above-ground bookshelf space.
    •    Below-ground bookshelf space.
    •    Storage space that is not shelf space.

It is entirely reasonable for the public to expect that such inventory would be supplied prior to sizing a replacement library, prior to asking the public to participate in envisioning and contributing its ideas for what the design and content of a replacement library should consist of, prior, in fact, to concluding that the assets should be discarded, and even prior to concluding that the library should necessarily be sold at all.

Similarly, as the BPL now plans to also remove from the Brooklyn Heights Library the space and assets that you have deemed to categorize as space and assets of the Business and Career portion of the Brooklyn Heights Library, we believe it is also entirely reasonable to expect that an inventory of all those assets with their assessed values should be similarly supplied to the public.

That’s just the space interior to the Brooklyn Heights Library.  Also needing to be inventoried with value assessed is all the other property at the site used by the library and the public exterior to the building.

Let us stress that all of what is being given up, and all that is sacrificed by not replacing the existing library with one equivalent in size and with equivalent assets is a loss for the public in this equation. 

Aside from those assets lost, there are the expenses associated with selling and shrinking a library that must additionally be netted out from the gross price to assess where the public comes out in the end.

For instance, it was noted (for the first time) during the course of the CAC meeting, that although no space is being added to the Grand Army Plaza Library to take in and receive the transfer to it of the Business and Career Library from the Brooklyn Heights Library there will be costs associated with that consolidating shrinkage that include the cost of construction at the Grand Army Plaza premises.  This was one cost Mr. White asked about in his question, asking you to provide a figure associated with the loss.  No figure has provided.

Mr. White also pointed out that, per the BPL’s press release, the BPL is calculating that building a new shrunken replacement Brooklyn Heights Library would cost $10 million, but Mr. White noted that using figures associated with building the replacement shrunken Donnell Library, the replacement cost is more likely to easily exceed $15 million.  Given the cost overruns for the Donnell construction reported after the meeting that figure is now up to an easy $15.75 million.

The developer, volunteering, stepped in to answer the question Mr White asked on your behalf.  We do not believe it is appropriate that the developer should be the one answering the question of what losses the public is suffering as the developer has a vested interest in portraying these losses as being as minimal as possible.

The developer answered that the losses to the public are calculated by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and that the developer covers all the public’s losses.  We don’t believe that the EDC has, in fact, calculated the total of all of these public losses on the BPL’s behalf nor required the developer to cover them.  We also believe that it would be inappropriate for the BPL to delegate such calculations of public losses concerning our libraries to an agency like the EDC with such a different mission.  It is also an agency that many would consider to have been subject to “regulatory capture” which results in developer-driven transactions.

We acknowledge that both you and the developer spoke about how the developer is paying additional amounts, another $18 million according to the developer, to cover some losses and costs to the public on this transaction that the developer construes as equivalent to increasing his real purchase price.  In this respect, you ventured to observe this includes the developer paying the rent for a very small temporary (8,000 square foot) library space at Our Lady of Lebanon.  But that partial coverage of a larger public loss with an immediately self-canceling theoretical increment to the $52 million purchase price (i.e. add the rent amount to the purchase price and then immediately subtract it out again as the public loss it is) is not what we are asking you about because we are asking about the uncovered losses. . . Those uncovered losses include the insufficiency of the temporary space.  During the years of construction the public will be at least 13,000 feet shy of having a library even the size of the vastly shrunken 21,000 square foot library the BPL is proposing.  One calculation for just that uncovered public loss alone comes to $6.37 million.

While answering the question on your behalf the developer represented that EDC was requiring that the developer cover an allocable portion of the monies that the BPL has paid to the consulting firm of former Forest City Ratner Vice President Karen Backus in connection with the sell-off.  BPL’s initial first payment to Ms. Backus was $925,000. We must ask whether this is, in fact, true and ask for further details about the specific amounts involved.  (The evening of the meeting the developer represented that Ms. Backus was also a personal friend of his.)

Also, what of the other consultants involved?  Booz and Co. assessed and justified the real estate sell-off plans for the NYPL (including the disastrously ill-advised sale of the Donnell Library and the Central Library Plan with its $500+ million price tag for library sell-offs and shrinkage) and has now done months of work for the BPL.  What of the Ivy Group?

The above were the subject of Mr. White’s as yet unanswered question.  As there was an apparent offer on your part and perhaps the developer's to supplement the answer requested by stating the costs the developer is incurring, the aggregated $18 million the developer was characterizing as an addition to purchase price, we would love to receive details about those amounts too.

The BPL’s own offered calculations of public loss should hardly be considered a determinative final evaluation given the BPL’s record of pursuing its planned real estate deals over the years with various stratagems that included secrecy.  Nonetheless, we feel that the BPL should have done its own calculations of the public losses that subtract from whatever gross cash price it is receiving in connection with the sale and shrinkage of the library.  The BPL’s calculations would at least provide a starting point or reference for the public’s own evaluation.

We think that BPL assessment and figures respecting all of these obvious losses should have been available and ready at the Community Advisory Committee.  They should, we think, have been available long beforehand.  As they have not yet been furnished we request and express our interest in receiving the information now.

Sincerely,


Carolyn E. McIntyre
Co-founder
Citizens Defending Libraries

Postscript Additional Questions:

After the Community Advisory Committee meeting concluded you lingered, offering information in a group that included the developer and Citizens Defending Libraries co-founder Carolyn McIntyre.  There you made several statements:

    •    You said Spaceworks, incorporated at the end of the Bloomberg administration with one of its primary missions being to take over, as “underutilized,” space in New York City libraries, is “not a private corporation.”

    •    You said that Spaceworks, whose Executive Director is Paul Parkhill, is “part of the Department of Cultural Affairs.”  We are aware that at a recent City Council hearing (9/29/2014) about proposed legislation that would involve representatives of the real estate industry in planning cultural matters in the city, the NYC Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Tom Finkelpearl spoke with praise about Spaceworks (as he did at a Land Use Committee meeting in the Red Hook Library where Spaceworks proposed to take over 2,000 square feet of that small, 7,500 square foot library), but we did not hear Mr. Finkelpearl say that Mr. Parkhill reports to him or works under him in his department.  Similarly, when Mr. Parkhill introduced himself at that hearing as the Executive Director of Spaceworks, one of the many non-profit groups in attendance that day,  we did not hear Mr. Parkhill describe Spaceworks as being part of the Department of Cultural affairs although we are well aware that Spaceworks has received funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs, something that we have raised questions about the appropriateness of.

    •    You said that it is wrong and unfair to describe the Spaceworks takeover of space at Brooklyn libraries as being a “selling of library space” and that you do not know why people are referring to it as such.  We are quite aware that Spaceworks and the BPL have sought to characterize the Spaceworks takeover of space at public libraries in the mildest possible terms, characterizing them as only  “licenses,” something we have criticized as a disingenuous maneuver to downplay the legal relationship, especially when walls separating space to be possessed are being built and Mr. Parkhill, a self-described real estate expert, describes, in public meetings, the boundaries of possession at the Red Hook Library as the “demise” lines.  As leases are a form by which real estate is possessed and a way in which such interest are bought and sold we don’t see why you say it is wrong and unfair to call attention to these "long-term" transfers of space from the library (subsequently "subleased") as a form of sale.

Since you made the above three statements very emphatically and did so while expressing their veracity to the President of the Brooklyn Heights Association and a number of individuals who where there to represent various of our elected officials and whereas it would appear that the above statements are not true, it seems important that corrections be made for the record.  Do you agree and will you make them?

CC:     Senator Velmanette Montgomery
           City Councilman Steve Levin
           Congress Member Nydia Velázquez
           Assembly Member Joan Millman
           Mayor Bill de Blasio
           Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams
           Public Advocate Tish James
           New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer
           Community Advisory Committee Meeting