News Coverage of Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc. Lawsuit Against Brooklyn Heights Library Sale

This page will be updated.

On Friday, June 10, 2016 there was a New York Supreme Court hearing on the lawsuit against the sale of the Brooklyn heights Library filed by Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc.

Here is coverage (comments are possible):


    •    News12 Brooklyn: Group files suit against library reconstruction, June 11, 2016 (includes video).

The group adds that there is also a federal depository at the library where citizens can look up government documents, which would be moved to a central library.

Martha Ramos

Marsha Rimler

Reporter Katie Cummings

Rimler and Ramos

Included in this News12 report, filmed for an earlier News12 report with Citizens Defending Libraries, this compares two similar deals, the sale and shrinkage of the Donnell Library for a luxury tower (left) and the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library for a luxury tower (right)

    •    Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Judge mulls suit to block sale of Brooklyn Heights Library, by Mary Frost, June 13, 2016

Roughly 20 library supporters filled the seats in the courtroom of Friday, along with a phalanx of attorneys representing the city, the library and the developer.

* * * *

In papers filed by the group's attorney Richard Lippes, Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc. challenged the project's environmental assessment under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

Some of the environmental issues that received inadequate consideration in the city's review, according to Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc.'s legal petition, include the already high level of local traffic, and the cumulative impacts on traffic from other nearby projects going on at the same time. These include the repair of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Brooklyn Bridge upgrade. The group also says that the project will cast a shadow on nearby Cadman Plaza Park.

Another impact listed is the loss of the Business & Career Library as well as the federal document depository. These facilities are moving to the Central Library in Prospect Heights.

In addition, the group argues that the city never considered the importance of either the library's architect, Francis Keally, or the artist that did the stone friezes on the library façade, Clemente Spampinato.

"More than just the name of the architect and artist needs to be discussed in order to meet the `hard look standard,'" the petition says.

According to legal documents filed by the city, however, the project's 271-page Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS) was prepared according to the standards of the City Environmental Quality Review Technical Manual, which governs environmental review in New York City. The EAS received input from "numerous city agencies," according to the city.

    •    Brooklyn Paper: Dark Forecast for Green Space- Sunset clause: Activists sue to stop shadow-casting Heights Library tower, By Lauren Gill,

Amongst other issues, the suit charges, it only considered how the building's shadow will affect vegetation in local parks, but not how it will disturb parkgoers' quest for sunshine.

"The fact that when these shadows occur a citizen of New York might be able to sit in the sunshine by going to a different park or moving around with shadows to other parts of the park belies the effects of the shadow on park users," reads the lawsuit filed by anti-library-sale group Love Brooklyn Libraries, which will go before a judge on Friday.

* * * *

But the activists' suit claims the city ignored several ways the community would suffer, and now they're demanding the court halt the work - set to begin in fall - for a more rigorous study.

The city disregarded not only how shadows would affect residents, but also the extra traffic construction trucks and new citizens would bring, the suit alleges.

Additionally, the assessment didn't consider that the new branch inside the tower won't have room for the old business library section, and disabled residents and seniors will have trouble reaching its new location in Prospect Heights' Central Library, as it's not near any handicap-friendly subway stops, the activists allege.

* * * *

Finally, the city did not seriously explore whether the branch's existing facade - a mid-century Beaux Arts number designed by Italian sculptor Clemente Spampinato and architect Francis Keally - is eligible for state and federal landmark status, the lawsuit claims.

PRESS RELEASE: Brooklyn Public Library Trustees Looking To Put Writers Out Of Work Create Story That Writes Itself- Their Bios

PRESS RELEASE: Brooklyn Public Library Trustees Looking To Put Writers Out Of Work Create Story That Writes Itself- Their Bios

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York City

WHAT: Readers find the simple collection of biographies of Brooklyn Public Library trustees more engrossing than very best detective and suspense fiction.
WHEN: Now
WHAT ELSE?:  Citizens Defending Libraries is available to provide facts about the conduct of the Brooklyn Public Library trustees and their sale and shrinkage of libraries, elimination of books and librarians.

What do the Brooklyn Public Library trustees have against those who put pen to paper to earn a living?  Having shown an increasing hostility to books the trustees now seem to be looking to put writers out of work by setting up the story that writes itself; their collected biographies together with those of library administration officials they are hiring to run the libraries, including Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson . . .

. . .  Just a few weeks back, Citizens Defending Libraries posted a page with the collected biographies of the Brooklyn Public Library trustees . . . apparently people are finding it ulta-ultra fascinating reading:

Brooklyn Public Library Trustees- Identified + Biographical and Other Information Supplied

http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html

It’s just a set of bios, but it’s the best reading in town, and not because of the passing reference or cameos here and there to associates of fame like Jay-Z or Beyoncé; it’s because over and over it raises the fascinating question: Why are these people running a library?

“Some of the reviews of the new Bernie Madoff mini-series have commented that the series is `underwritten,’ but the life of Bernie Madoff is so sensational it writes itself.  It’s the same thing with these library trustees; you just wouldn’t believe where they are coming from,” says Michael D. D. White co-founder of Citizens Defending libraries, the group formed three years ago to fight the sale and shrinkage of city libraries, the underfunding of libraries with the elimination of books and librarians to create real estate deals that benefit developers, not the public.

Since the biographies has been posted, Citizens Defending Libraries has been crowd sourcing information and contributed leads for additions and has been updating the page accordingly.

People are waking up to the fact that people from Wall Street, the real estate industry, and other profit oriented and monopolistic organizations can be extremely ill-suited to running organizations that are supposed to be charitable, public spirited, education and democracy oriented.  Citizens Defending Libraries has set up a companion page with links to some of the previously written articles raising concerns in this regard and reviewing how these concerns apply in particular to who we chose to be in charge of libraries.

Why Nonprofit Boards May Stray From Their Core Missions And Obligations To the Public- Considered Generally And Particularly With Respect To Libraries

http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/why-nonprofit-boards-may-stray-from.html

“The biographies of the trustees might just be scintillating reading, irrelevant to anything of consequence in the long run if it weren’t for the outrageous behavior of the trustees seeking to disenfranchise the rest of us with the inexcusable sale of libraries at a fraction of their value,” says Carolyn E. McIntyre, another co-founder of Citizens Defending Libraries, and spouse of Mr. White.  “They are acting just as you would expect them to act if you predicted it based on their bios, which raises the question: What were people thinking when these people were appointed to run the library?” says Ms. McIntyre.

The appointment of these trustees go back to when Bloomberg was mayor and plans were being formulated to sell and shrink libraries and think of them as raw meat for real estate developers, but there are also a number of new trustees appointed by Mayor de Blasio (although unannounced) who, while campaigning, opposed the plans of the Bloomberg era.

Presently, the BPL trustees have been pressing hard for the sale of the central destination Downtown Brooklyn Heights Library.  The library, Brooklyn's second largest, would be sold by the trustees for a fraction of its value, less than they would get for a vacant lot.  At a time of escalating library use, the recently expanded and fully upgraded library would cost over $120 million to replace, but the BPL trustees would sell it to net probably less than $25 million at best and would replace it with a shrunken library of less than 42% the current size with much of the public space moved underground.

The sale of the library was supposed to be considered by the Brooklyn Borough Board on February 2nd (Groundhog’s Day), but, breaking news on this front, that consideration was postponed when a newly formed group, Love Brooklyn Libraries, filed a complaint with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that the Brooklyn Public Library has deceitfully understated its capital funds in order to promote and rationalize the trustees’ sale of the library.

For more on this see:

Love Brooklyn Libraries Files Complaint With Attorney General Eric Schneiderman That Brooklyn Public Library Understates Capital Funds In Order to Sell Heights Library
    
http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/love-brooklyn-libraries-files-complaint.html

The page linked to above also covers how NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer has already provided a letter observing how the BPL financing scheme the trustees are implementing made no sense.

How questionably the trustees have conducted themselves has been hiding in plain sight in the BPL’s own minutes, notwithstanding that the BPL and its trustees have been stonewalling investigation.

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

                                                                  #   #   #

Citizens Defending Libraries
(718) 797-5207
http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com
@DefendLibraries on twitter
backpack362 [at] aol.com

Love Brooklyn Libraries Files Complaint With Attorney General Eric Schneiderman That Brooklyn Public Library Understates Capital Funds In Order to Sell Heights Library

There is significant breaking news as January turns into February: A newly formed group, Love Brooklyn Libraries has filed a complaint with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that the Brooklyn Public Library has understated its capital funds in order to promote and rationalize the sale of the central destination Downtown Brooklyn Heights Library.  Approval of the proposed library sale was planned to go before Brooklyn's Borough Board February 2nd, but the board's consideration was postponed after the information concerning the complaint was outlined for the Brooklyn Borough President’s office.

Claiming poverty while the city is flush with surplus cash, the BPL is proposing to sell the valuable library, Brooklyn second largest, for a fraction of its value, less than they would get for a vacant lot.  At a time of escalating library use, the recently expanded and fully ungraded library would cost over $120 million to replace, but the BPL would sell it to net probably less than $25 million at best and would replace it with a shrunken library of less than 42% with much of the public space moved underground.

The complaint filed by Love Brooklyn Libraries breaks important new ground and builds upon what has previously been pointed out to public officials about how the secretive BPL is playing games to to promote and find excuses for the sale of the library that amounts to a profound public loss while greatly benefitting a developer making political contributions to Mayor di Blasio and others.

The complaint filed with the Attorney General should also be viewed against the background of the letter from NYC comptroller Scott Stringer noting that, “of particular concern” with respect to the BPL’s proposal is the “lack of a comprehensive public plan to address the capital needs of the library system” and that the Brooklyn Public Library:

“BPL has not provided the public with a comprehensive capital plan that explains how the one-time revenue from the sale of BHL will fix those needs. Indeed, the projected revenue from the BHL plan will cover less than one-fifth of the stated need and will not increase revenue to the library over the long-term.”

The comptroller has recently observed that the city is in a time of plenty with no out-year budget gaps in the future.  Selling off libraries, the de Blasio is acting like these are lean years and the Comptroller noted that: “It is simply unsustainable for the City to rely solely on the disposition of property to cover capital needs without fixing the systematic causes for the capital gap.”

Here is the reporting about the compliant and the postponement of the Brooklyn Borough Board vote.

    •    Brooklyn Daily Eagle:  Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Community group claims Brooklyn Public Library understates capital funds, by Rob Abruzzese, January 26, 2016.

The Brooklyn Public Library has more money than it’s letting on, according to a new organization called Love Brooklyn Libraries (LBL).

LBL was created in an effort to keep the Brooklyn Heights Library from being sold and developed. Aiming to prove its allegations, the group has filed a complaint with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, accusing the library of misrepresenting its capital funds for a real estate grab.

“The Brooklyn Public Library is hiding the money so that they can do the real estate deal," said LBL President Marsha Rimler. [USE THE LINK TO READ MORE]

    •    Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Brooklyn Borough Board to delay Heights Library vote, Borough Hall `needs additional time to review', By Mary Frost

Brooklyn's Borough Board will not be voting as planned on Tuesday on the contentious issue of the sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library site to a developer.

According to the group Love Brooklyn Libraries (LBL), Borough Hall removed the item from the Board's agenda after a meeting between Andrew Gournardes, counsel to Borough President Eric Adams, and LBL officers last Thursday.

A spokesperson for the borough president told the Brooklyn Eagle on Friday that "Borough Hall needed additional time to review the proposal."

LBL filed a complaint letter with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Jan. 15 which contends that Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has been misrepresenting its capital funds in order to facilitate a real estate grab.

The library has claimed to have received a total of $84 million from Fiscal Year 2008 through Fiscal Year 2013, but LBL says that its own research shows a budget of $145 million over the same time span.

LBL's vice president Laurie Frey told the Eagle last Thursday, "Brooklyn Public Library is Pinocchio sitting on a pile of money. Their nose keeps getting longer and longer every time they say 'We don't have enough. We need more.' Love Brooklyn Libraries is calling for the truth."

* * * *

Love Brooklyn Libraries claims that BPL is "gaming" the system by spreading its capital funds among 145 - 150 line-item projects in 48 branch libraries.

"In other words, it appears that BPL is gaming the system to manufacture a work slowdown or "deferred maintenance crisis," LBL says.

"When the false premise of capital `underfunding' is dispelled, there is no longer a reason for going forward and irreversibly harming Brooklyn's public trust for public land," LBL adds.  [USE THE LINK TO READ MORE]

Here is a comment from Citizens Defending Libraries to the first article that for an unsolved technical reason has been repeatedly deleted from the Brooklyn Eagle site, but is available on Facebook:

This is a welcome addition to the critical fight we are waging against the plundering sale of our libraries. The filing of a complaint with the Attorney General should help force Eric Schneiderman's office to cross reference the information LBL supplied with the information we at Citizens Defending Libraries previously supplied to that office about irregularities concerning the proposed library sale and motivate him to get moving seriously on a long overdue investigation. (Also look at the BPL board of trustees: Brooklyn Public Library Trustees- Identified + Biographical and Other Information Supplied)

With the work that has been done there is much more than an obvious trail of bread crumbs to be followed by those who should be investigating what is going on at the BPL with this sale, a precursor to others (itself a recreation of what the NYPL did with Donnell). Those investigating should include, among others, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer's office whose new "Research and Investigation Unit" Comptroller Stringer says he formed because it "will enable us to dig even deeper into the agencies we audit as we fulfill our mandate to root out fraud and save City taxpayers' hard-earned money."

The BPL is proposing to sell the library to net a minuscule fraction of its value (maybe less than $25 million) without ever having considered the value of this asset to the public from the public's perspective, an asset that would cost $120+ million to replace. That is certainly something that those with investigative power such as Stringer and his "Research and Investigation Unit" should be looking into especial since Stringer indicated he formed the unit "not content to merely audit" . . Frankly, this should not even pass a basic standard audit.

We don't know exactly what LBL is presenting about what it has found, but, from consulting with Latinos For Libraries (another group opposing this sale), it sounds consistent with what we know to be significant matters with respect to the BPL's budget that need to be looked at and that were brought to the attention of Councilman Levin who seemed mostly interested in burying the issue and getting Councilman Landers' assistance to bury it. (Lander was a major and key promoter of this and other library sales.)

Big picture, there is absolutely no question there is a shell game going on with library financial matters. Library use is way up, de Blasio has a $4.5 billion budget surplus, libraries cost a relative pittance to fund, and this library sale is blamed on lack of funds?

As for the library spokesperson (Madeline Kaye of BerlinRosen?) saying that the sale "was approved after a transparent and rigorous public review process," that's utter hogwash. The library sale was planned in 2007, not disclosed until 2013, and the public was never given a chance to weigh in on whether this plan benefitting developers, not the pubic, made any sense at all or what alternative should have been pursued. And then there was Steve Levin's last minute unveiling of a backroom deal with City Hall and Development Mayor Alicia Glen raiding department of Education Funds to push this through- Something else to be investigated.

Also relevant to the Brooklyn Borough Board vote is the following with respect to a long overdue letter demanding transparency that City Councilman has promised he will send to the Brooklyn Public Library.

    •     Citizens Defending Libraries: Open Letter To Councilman Steve Levin About His Letter To Brooklyn Public Library Demanding Transparency About Library Sale, Sunday, January 31, 2016.

Below are two tables documenting some of the figures that Love Brooklyn Libraries has brought to light.

Table A- Click to enlarge, printable if you wish

Table B

Addendum to the above: Marsha Rimler referenced as Love Brooklyn Libraries President in the press coverage above did not continue in that position per the letter dated February 6, 2016 below issued by LBL's officers and distributed to elected officials, press and others. 

Love Brooklyn Libraries letter to elected officials and distributed to press and others about status of officers- Click to enlarge or print