Desperate to find revenue, the Nutter administration made the difficult choice to shutter 11 libraries and save $8 million.
The hope was that the remaining libraries, left to function unimpeded by further cuts, could still serve the city without too much inconvenience.
What city officials might not have calculated was the outrage fomented in communities that see the facilities as havens meant to protect and edify children, and as tiny oases of culture that improve life in worsening times.
Community protests already have begun, with more being contemplated.
If the plan holds, Philadelphia will be the only major U.S. city responding to the sickened economy by closing a large number of its library branches, a leading library authority says.
click here for complete article by Alfred Lubrano
published Friday, Nov. 14, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page A1
More History:
A Library Legend - The Fishtown Branch was saved once before.
This past Monday night, more than 100 people rallied outside the tiny Fishtown Library on Montgomery Avenue to show their support for the institution and to protest Mayor Nutter's recent announcement that, due to a budget shortfall, it and 10other neighborhood branches would be closed.
The library staff — clearly happy to see the support, but also rattled by the invasion — watched a little nervously as the crowd poured in and out of the small building to sign petitions.
Amid the throng sat an elderly man, plopped comfortably in a chair and chatting with people as they went by and paid polite respects.
"He's kind of like the patriarch of Fishtown," one woman explained to me.
The man, who is 84 years old (he adamantly refused to allow his name to be printed, saying he didn't want people in Fishtown to think his head had gotten big; let's call him Frank) had come out with his neighbors to support the library, of which he is a grateful patron.
"I like thrillers!" he declared. The possible closing of the library, he said, was "very distressing."
But living in the same neighborhood for more than 80 years lends a bit of perspective. And this, he explained, wasn't the first time the library had been in trouble.
"The last time it happened, there was a lady, Mrs. Stepnowski," Frank said, "who saved it."
click here for complete article by Isaiah Thompson
Published: Nov 12, 2008
Philadelphia City Paper