Monday night at 280 Cadman Pl, the site of the Brooklyn Heights Library was held a meeting with folks from the community along with reps from the Library and reps from Marvel Architects for the purpose of choosing color shades and the decor for the new but, a 1/3 of the size library being proposed at the site of the Library that’s been there since 1962. The Brooklyn Heights library was built by the same man, Francis Keally, who also built the library at GAP, Grand Army Plaza at the north end of Prospect park.
The meeting was formatted for the attendees to pick features they would want in their new library like they were picking out features they would want in a new car or what shade of blue for the new babies room. This meeting was apparently the 3rd in a series with more to come in the future, the next one to be held on May 27th.
There were approx 8 tables with 8 or so attendees at each table with a kind of blue print of designs people could pick for their new library. Did they want more light or a cafe space? The teen section separate from toddlers? More PC’s, more books? A place to socialize?
The business section of the 52 year old library would be relocated to the GAP library which has a lot of the residents up in arms. A lot of people in the area use the business section at this branch and do not want to see it moved and the library shrunk.
The plan is to build high rise condos, demolish the library which the library reps and the architects say the library is no longer sound and is in great need of repair. One of the repairs needed is a new air-Conditioning system which has broken down causing the library to have to close down to the public on occasions last summer. The plan is to rebuild a new library that is 1/3 the size of the current one, and above it build a 33 story, Elite, high rise condo. The developer of the project was “required” to also build off site affordable housing for the “poor”, the “poor” the system creates by tipping more and more of society in favor of the “rich”.
The meeting was attended by a group from Citizens Defending Libraries and others from the public. Many people were not at all in favor of this new project and simply wanted to have the current library renovated and left as is, one woman, “Janice” told me”.
After the table discussions one person from each table was to take to the stage and present their wishes and design for the new library which, supposedly has not been approved and is still in the process of going through the channels.
Michael White from Citizens Defending Libraries confronted the presenter, Guido Hartray of Marvel Architects, and Mr. Woloch who worked for the library, making sure the plan was not yet a “Done Deal”. Having people pick out their design for the library gave many the impression the plan was a Go when it has not been approved of by the public and voted on by City agencies.
A group began chanting, “not a Done Deal, Not a done deal”, out loud because they felt as if it was, in fact, being done against their wishes.
2 people from one table got up to do their presentation and expressed their disapproval and called it “playing the Game” of going along with the design of the library and began expressing their ideas of what a library should be. But, not before expressing their feelings of wanting the current library renovated and left the way it is.
Then “Lucy” introduces “David”, who is an architect, to talk about “the phoniness of this whole process”. David says there were so many examples in the drawings that don’t work. He took out a scale and the test fit, “doesn’t work”. He called it “insulting” and a “disappointing presentation”.
One woman I later interviewed, “Nydia” of CDL who called the charette a “charade”. “it’s not about the library”, Nydia said, it’s about the huge building they want to build, the luxury high rise and the library will be cut down to a 1/3 of what it is now”. “They’re basically LYING to people”. In referring to the blue print plans for the new library that were on each table, Nydia said the idea was to put a red sticky dot on the designs you don’t like and a green one on the designs that you do. “It doesn’t matter because they’re not giving us the #’s of how big the space is going to be”. “It’s about making it seem like there’s community input when there isn’t”. Nydia said she got 20, 000 signatures from people who want the library refurbished and not demolished. Nydia said it’s a game from the Bloomberg Admin so they get the real estate developers in and take over the land, shrink the libraries down and have their Luxury High Rise. Mayor DeBlasio promised us he was “completely opposed to selling the Library”. “We’re going to go to DeBlasio and remind him of his promise”.
One woman who was speaking when I went back inside was saying, “How will the architect and developers feel putting up a building that is hated by so many people?” “How sad it is that they’ll be ripping down this beautiful Library”.
While one woman was on stage giving her presentation and challenging the plan by talking about how they wanted to tear down a public asset to put up a luxury high rise,, another woman Carolyn, interjected saying, “Stealing public treasures is against the law”. “It’s immoral and it’s reprehensible. You might be successful at stealing public treasures but, you will be a failure as a Human Being”.
Carolyn McIntyre told me in an interview with herself and Marilyn Brochan that it wasn’t just the Brooklyn Heights library that was to be demolished and replaced with luxury high rises, that other libraries are being sized up for the same fate. Pacific, Sunset park, and Red hook libraries are all being looked at as potential sites for these big real estate deals disguised as a library re- building. A company called Space Works, created by Bloomberg, was given a children’s room from a Library in Williamsburg without ANY Public input. “There’s a consciousness of arrogance, we can do what ever we want to you. It’s not being done in the best interest of the public. If you want your Air-Conditioning back, you have to sell your library”, Carolyn said the people were being told. “That is extortion”. The people at the Red Hook meeting were against it and were told “they would not get air-conditioning unless they agree to sell the community owned library”.
Marilyn Brochan said “Every time they want to sell a library it’s always an air conditioning problem and they give the same cost no matter what the size of the library, they give the same cost for the AC. It’s amazing what they can fabricate”.
“Any time we mentioned we wanted to help raise funds to fix the AC we were shot down.” said Carolyn. “They refused $ that was offered to help fix the AC and now they use that as a reason to sell a library, that it has a broken AC, and they’re saying the same thing to Sunset park and Red Hook, that’s Extortion”.
