Press Release: Ralph Nader Asks Mayor Gray to Appoint Citizens Task Force on MLK

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November 18, 2011
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Robin Diener
202 431-9254

Ralph Nader Asks Mayor Gray to Appoint Citizens Task Force on MLK

Washington, DC — Ralph Nader and Robin Diener of the Library Renaissance Project have asked Mayor Gray to appoint a Citizens Task Force on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, in a letter of November 16.  The Project has been calling for a citizen-based look at possibilities for the central library since 2006 after legislation to sell MLK backed by then-Mayor Anthony Williams was defeated. 

The renewed call for a citizen task force is particularly timely since Library officials, who have repeatedly rejected the suggestion as “premature,” have now out of the blue commissioned a study of the MLK Library by the Urban Land Institute (ULI).  The ULI will release a full report in 60 days but made public its preliminary findings today:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/73133152/Urban-Land-Institute-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Memorial-Library-Building-Presentation-111811

The ULI study has come under fire for having no local residents on its panel, for being costly ($120,000) at a time when the city was scraping bottom to find the $318,00 needed to keep MLK open on Sundays, and for being biased towards a predetermined outcome.

Text of letter follows:

The Honorable Vincent Gray
Mayor, District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20004

November 16, 2011

Dear Mayor Gray:

Library Trustees President John Hill recently announced the recruitment of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to “assess” the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library building.

Unlike the American Institute of Architects Urban Design Committee study of MLK in 2000 performed pro-bono, ULI is charging the Library $120,000 for its study. Just a month ago, we were searching for $318,000 to keep MLK open on Sundays.

Further, we learned that no District residents will be seated on the panel. While we might understand having “fresh eyes on” the situation, we don’t accept the disenfranchisement of residents and library users from assessing the “value” of their central library building.

In 2005, District citizens and their representatives, including you, rejected legislation to dispose of the MLK building. Ever since, our organization and others have called for a Citizen Task Force on the Future of MLK to plan and fundraise for a renewed central library.  Library officials have repeatedly rejected this idea as “premature.”

Now, out of the blue, Library officials say a new “review” is needed.  If so, it should be delivered to a Citizen Task Force as part of comprehensive planning for the remainder of the library system — including MLK.  The library system, a ready-made network of “town halls” throughout the city, is ideally suited to gathering input.

Five years into the “Transformation” of the DC Public Library system, much has been accomplished. Let us now take the opportunity to evaluate the transformation and plan the renewal of the remainder of the system, including MLK central library.

We call upon you, Mr. Mayor, to appoint and convene The Citizen Task Force on MLK that, among other things, would consider any ULI findings or recommendations.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader, Founder                                      Robin Diener, Director

No DC Residents on MLK Advisory Panel

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November 9, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact Robin Diener
202 431-9254

No DC Residents on MLK Advisory Panel

Washington, DC — None of the eight panelists named to participate in an assessment of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) live in or near the District of Columbia, according to descriptions on the DC Public Library (DCPL) website. http://www.dclibrary.org/node/28663

Five of the eight are based in California. The closest is from Richmond.

The panelists are leading a process to “assess and review the value” of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library building, and to “make recommendations on how to leverage the value of the building to benefit the District of Columbia,” according to a DCPL press release. The process will consist of interviews conducted by the ULI panel with parties invited by Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper. Only invited parties will have the opportunity to be interviewed by the panel.

DC residents and library users are, however, invited to direct comments to the Board of Library Trustees on Wednesday November 16 at 6 PM at the Southwest Library, located at 900 Wesley Place, SW, a short walk from the Waterfront metro stop. Comments can be emailed to [email protected]

The public is also invited to the ULI panel’s presentation of findings and recommendations on Friday November 18 from 9 to 11 AM in the Great Hall of the MLK Library, located at 901 G Street, NW, a short walk from either Metro Center or Gallery Place metro stops.
__________________________

Sent from Robin Diener
Director, Library Renaissance Project
1530 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202 431-9254

Tommy Wells Announces Book Discussion Group

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Councilmember Tommy Wells, Chair of the Libraries, Parks, Recreation and Planning Committee has chosen Triumph of the City, by Edward Glaeser as the first selection for his Tommy’s Traveling Book Club. The inaugural session is scheduled for Monday December 5th at 6:30 PM at the Shaw/Watha T. Daniel Library. Joining him in leading the discussion will be Harriet Tregoning, Director of the DC Office of Planning. The book club is a joint partnership with the Federation of Friends of the Library and will meet quarterly at different libraries around the city.

The public is invited to participate.

Click on the below link for information and to sign up for the initial meeting
http://www.tommywells.org/events/TommyBookClub2011Dec

Triumph of the City is nonfiction, intended for the general reader.  Edward Glaeser is an economist based at Harvard.  The book argues that cities attract dense concentrations of educated people who collaboratively innovate, create jobs, drive investment, keep rents low, and expend less energy per capita.  Marshaling history, anecdote, and economics, the author creates what has been called a “paean to the city.”

Trustees Hire Urban Land Institute to Advise on MLK Library

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October 31, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact Robin Diener
202 431-9254

Trustees Hire Urban Land Institute to Advise on MLK Library

Washington, DC — The DC Public Library issued a press release on Friday formally announcing the hiring of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to lead a panel to “to review and assess the value” of  MLK Library, and to “make recommendations on how to leverage the value of the building to benefit the District of Columbia.”
http://www.dclibrary.org/node/28735

The ULI will receive $120,000 in payment from the Library, out of its capital budget.

Earlier this month, MLK faced closure on Sundays due to a shortfall of $318,000.

Two days before the first scheduled closing, Mayor Vincent Gray located monies to keep the central library open on Sundays, at the urging of Libraries Committee Chair Tommy Wells, and numerous other individuals and groups.

__________________________

Sent from Robin Diener
Director, Library Renaissance Project
1530 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202 431-9254

Election, Accomplishments, and Future Priorities featured at Annual Meeting of Federation of Friends of DCPL

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At its Annual Meeting on October 20, the governing board of the Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library elected new officers, reviewed past activities, and prioritized future ones amid an atmosphere of high accomplishment.

Chief among the Federation’s achievements were an inaugural “Preview” event that kicked off the Citywide Book Sale in September, a second year of financial support for Summer Reading programs, and a thorough revision of the group’s bylaws.

  • The Citywide Book Sale was augmented for the first time by book donations and volunteers from Friends groups across the city. The Preview event raised $4500 in two hours on a rainy Thursday, and was much enjoyed as an occasion to bring Friends groups together.
  • Funds from the Preview will go to DCPL’s 2012 Summer Reading programs.  The Federation supported programs with $27,000 in funding from local Friends groups in 2011.
  • A thorough revision of the bylaws included the creation of a new executive officer position of Membership Secretary and designated the alternating of officer elections in odd and even years.

President Susan Haight of the West End Library Friends, and Secretary Wendy Blair of the Literary Friends of DCPL were both re-elected.  Acting President of the newly formed Friends of MLK Library LaToya Thomas was elected to the newly established position of Membership Secretary.

All terms run for two years.  However, per the new changes to the bylaws, elections will now alternate — with the aforementioned positions to be elected in odd years, and the Vice President and Treasurer in even years.  Rosalyn Christian of Friends of R L Christian serves as Vice President of the Federation.  Robert Hass of the West End Library Friends is Acting Treasurer.

The governing board consists of designated representatives from each member Friends of the Library group.  The Federation has active participation from most of the library system’s 24 branches and the MLK central libray, as well as citywide groups like the Literary Friends, and also welcomes non-voting associate members like the Library Renaissance Project.

Officers of the Federation of Friends of DCPL:

  1. President:                           Susan Haight, West End Library Friends
  2. Vice President:                   Rosalyn Christian, Friends of R L Christian
  3. Secretary:                           Wendy Blair, Literary Friends of DCPL 
  4. Treasurer (acting):              Robert Haas, West End Library Friends 
  5. Membership Secretary       LaToya Thomas, MLK Library Friends

Federation website:  http://www.dclibraryfriends.org/

 

 

Mayor Gray Finds Funds to Keep MLK Open on Sundays

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For Immediate Release

Mayor Vincent Gray’s office Friday announced that Sunday hours at the MLK Library would not be cut.  The central library had been scheduled to close on Sundays for the coming fiscal year beginning this weekend October 2. (Press release from Mayor’s Office at link below.)

http://mayor.dc.gov/DC/Mayor/About+the+Mayor/News+Room/Press+Releases/Mayor+Vincent+C.+Gray+Restores+Funding+For+Sunday+Hours+at+the+Martin+Luther+King+Jr.+Memorial+Library

A rally to protest the closure will become an occasion to announce the restoration of funds. The Library has invited the public to a celebration on Sunday at 1 pm at the MLK Library. Council member Tommy Wells and Mayor Gray are expected to be on hand.

Wells, the newly assigned chair of the Committee on Libraries, Parks, Recreation and Planning, took the lead in publicly pressing the Mayor to reconsider a move that would have left the District without any Public Library open on Sundays. All neighborhood branches libraries have been closed on Sundays since 2009.

The Federation of Friends of the Library — a citywide advocacy group — also played a large, ongoing role in the restoration. Members from across the city testified at budget hearings and lobbied insistently behind the scenes.  During their Citywide Book Sale Preview at MLK on September 8, Wells was publicly asked to keep the building open.

A few days later, at the Board of Library Trustees meeting, Wells vowed to “do everything in my power” to find the money to keep the MLK library open on Sundays. At a breakfast meeting with the Mayor and  DC City Council a few days ago, Wells pointedly raised the subject, causing a tweeting furor by reporters that further raised the profile of the issue.

One day later, the DC Federation of Civic Associations issued a resolution calling for the Mayor to “reverse this decision.”

Over the last several years, the city has spent approx $180M in capital funds to rebuild or restore 14 libraries throughout the city, while at the same time severely cutting library operating funds.

“This is the first step towards reversing the cuts in library hours sustained in recent years.  We should commit to keeping these valuable buildings in operation as many hours as possible — a relatively small cost — to fulfill the promise of a costly building program that is succeeding in bringing patrons back to the libraries in droves,”   said Library Renaissance Project Director, Robin Diener.

“The new libraries have dramatically increased usage. That was the goal in building them. We have to support that.”

 

Tommy Wells to Address MLK Library Rally This Sunday Oct 2

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For Immediate Release — Washington, DC

A Rally will take place at the MLK Library on Sunday October 2, at 12:30 PM, to protest the elimination of Sunday hours at the central library – the only District library open on Sundays.

Councilmember Tommy Wells will speak at 1 PM. Wells was recently designated Chair of the DC Council Committee on Libraries, Parks, Recreation and Planning.

At a breakfast with DC City Council today, Mayor Vincent Gray remarked that “everyone has to sustain cuts.”  Wells raised questions, however, when $700,000 for the Washington Economic Partnership came under discussion. The Economic Partnership is a nonprofit organization that  “promotes business opportunity, attraction, and retention,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

Library officials have said it would require only $312,000 to maintain Sunday hours at MLK for all of FY2012.

Ironically, at their Board meeting last Wednesday, Library Trustees announced a $120,000 expenditure to hire the Urban Land Institute to make recommendations about the future of the MLK Library.  The city has long been interested in selling the Mies van der Rohe designed building, now landmarked.

MLK has been the only library open on Sunday in the entire District system.  In 2009, then-Mayor Adrian Fenty cut Sunday hours at all 24 branch libraries, but officials promised to keep MLK open to for use by library patrons from across the city.  The central library is served by all 5 Metro lines and numerous bus routes.

Sunday is the busiest day per hour open and is considered the most important day for homework help.

The Rally is being organized by the Library Renaissance Project.

 

Tommy Wells Vows to Save Sunday Hours for MLK Library

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For Immediate Release — Deanwood, Washington, DC

Addressing the Board of Library Trustees meeting at the new Deanwood Library last night, Councilmember Tommy Wells (Ward 6) said he strongly supported keeping the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library open on Sundays, “and will do everything in my power to get the $320,000 needed.”

The MLK Library is scheduled to be closed on Sundays in FY2012, which begins October 1, 2011. Wells was recently appointed chairman of the Library, Parks, Recreation and Planning Committee, after budget hearings were concluded.

“How encouraging that the new chair of the Library Committee is standing up so forcefully for the Library,” commented Wendy Blair, of Ward 6, President of the Literary Friends of the DC Public Library.

Marcia Carter, of the Friends of the Georgetown Library said “closing MLK on Sundays would be tragic — not only for its effect on the general public — but because of the many special needs students who rely on services available only at MLK.”

Susan Haight, President of the Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library and also of the West End Library branch summed up, “We look forward to working with Councilman Wells, Mayor Gray, the CFO, Library Trustees and Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper to make this happen by Oct 1, and reversing the current direction.”

 

Calling All Book Clubs and Reading Groups

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The Literary Friends of the Library and the Friends Groups at branch libraries have joined forces to sponsor eight literary events in April and May as part of DC’s BIG READ.

The BIG READ is a month-long, citywide series of events centered

on one classic novel. The concept originated at Seattle Public Library in 1998 as

“If All of Seattle Read the Same

Book," and was later promoted by the Library of Congress Center for the

Book as “One Book, OneCity.”

After a 2004 study, Reading at Risk,found that reading for leisure was declining even among

literate Americans, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, poet Dana

Gioia, adopted the popular idea for the NEA, which this year will provide

funding for more than 80 US cities and towns to hold BIG READ’s.

The DC Humanities

Council, recipient of an NEA grant to develop the series for DC, chose Their

Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston — an important writer of

the Harlem Renaissance who lived part of her life in DC.

Each event will feature readings or a speaker, followed by a discussion, and end with sharing experiences about reading groups. Book clubs and reading groups are a special focus of the series which will highlight the role libraries can play in supporting those groups. Individual members as well as whole groups are encouraged to attend.

Friends of the Library events are as follows:

Date Library Featuring
Wed April 25 at 6:30 pm Northeast Branch 330 7th Street, NE at Maryland Ave Pontheola MAck Abernathy and the Reverend Paul Abernathy
Wed May 2 at 6:30 pm Woodridge Branch 1801 Hamlin Street, NE at Rhode Island Ave Actress/playwright Joy Jones
Sun May 6 at 2 pm Petworth Branch 4200 Kansas Ave, NW at Georgia and Upshur
Mon May 7 at 6:30 pm Mt. Pleasant Branch Author Gayle Wald and Jennifer James

Signs of Life Unheralded

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A couple of Wednesdays ago, amid sunlight and freshly planted pansies, DC Public Library marked the grand opening of an “interim” library facility in Anacostia. The Mayor and Council Chairman were in attendance, as were many school children, happy about the field trip. But Committee Chair Harry Thomas was absent, as was most of the press. Wouldn’t DCPL want as many people as possible to know that, at long last, bookworms have reappeared in the library park on Good Hope Road?

New Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper told me she was “disappointed with the media coverage,” but in the eight months that she’s been here, Ginnie Cooper has proven she knows how to get things done. So what gives?

Could it be Library Trustees don’t want any more attention drawn to the fact that the community in Anacostia has been without its branch for more than two years, as have those in Benning and Shaw? (A storefront interim library in Tenley had an intentionally unpublicized “soft” opening in late November, to allow staff to work out the kinks, a mere 23 months after that neighborhood’s library closed.) If Library Trustees had proceeded to rebuild four libraries as originally planned when they allowed them to be closed in December 2004, new full service libraries would be opening now. And had the bookmobiles intended to provide interim services been delivered as promised more than two years ago, these expensive interims would not have been needed.

Still, even an “interim” is a sign of life from the formerly moribund DCPL. Chief Cooper, who is overseeing its creation very directly, aims for the Anacostia interim to offer a taste of things to come with a fresh look, large open service desk, and 20 public computers — the old branch had only four, when they were working. At least one Anacostia mother was delighted in the fact that her son had been ensconced at the interim every night since it opened on March 12.

In another community with a closed library, Benning, where even the interim hasn’t yet arrived, residents want their old branch reopened. They’re not just fed-up with delay. They fear that their library, located half a block up from the valuable intersection of Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue, both of which are included in the Great Streets project, will be sold off to developers. Residents have every reason to be worried in light of the LEAD Act of 2006, which authorized the sale of all DCPL property, and every reason to be skeptical of the Trustees’ plans. One way to earn the Benning community’s trust would be for DCPL to commit to a meaningful process of public input for the new redesign of the branch — leaving everything on the table, including renovation/expansion.

Given all the time already wasted, and in view of the good start Chief Cooper has made, holding off on demolition in order to consult the community is the only decent course.

Read more about Benning

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