http://www.mediafire.com/download/gm6cif7by1fcvqd/FINAL_Press_Conference_Library_Privatizatio.mp3
Please air it!
NYC is selling on-the-cheap its public libraries to private real estate developers, which are then slated for demolition and sometimes rebuilding on a much smaller scale.
The Brooklyn Borough Board will be voting TODAY on the deBlasio administration's proposal, which has already passed the City Council and now goes to the Brooklyn Boro President and Brooklyn Boro Board.
The NY Post has run detailed investigations for the last two Sundays into the corruption involved in disposing of these properties, and the lies of Brooklyn Public Library Chair Linda Johnson -- a Bloomberg era appointee - who makes a whopping $400,000 a year salary, and who was brought in precisely to implement the privatization schemes that continue -- and indeed are expanded -- under Mayor deBlasio.
Mitchel Cohen filed this report from Brooklyn Boro Hall.
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I broke the story on WBAI radio beginning last November about the sale of our public libraries, in 4 segments. Jillian Jonas followed up on WBAI. For the last 2 Sundays, now, the NY Post picked it up, broke new ground, and absolutely clobbered deBlasio on it. (see below)
First report: <https://archive.org/details/FINALSHORTLIBRARYREPORT>Report on November 18, 2015 City Council Subcommittee hearing
Second report: <http://www.mediafire.com/listen/zbn2xl0z209n5eo/Selling+off+the+Libraries+-+Interview+with+Steve+Levin.mp3>November 30, 2015 Interview with Steve Levin About Selling off the Libraries This includes Steve Levin's denial that a compromise deal to sell off the Brooklyn Heights library was in the offing. It also include the story (activism and Domino project related) of how he met his wife.
Third report: <http://www.mediafire.com/listen/4xzod717373ixlb/LIBRARIES+-+OUTSIDE+LEVIN%27S+OFFICE.wav>Report on Citizens Defending Libraries December 9, 2015 Event Gathering Outside Councilman Steve Levin's Office evening BEFORE the City Council vote,
Fourth report: <http://www.mediafire.com/listen/g585k6q38bxdc6q/FINAL+-+LIBRARY+TO+BE+SOLD.wav>Report on Citizens Defending Libraries December 10, 2015 Event Gathering Outside Councilman Steve Levin's Office evening AFTER the City Council vote This includes Councilman Mark Treyger explaining councilmen votes and discusison of Stephen Levin's sellout of the community.
Upcoming: Report on another sweetheart deal in regard to the Sunset Park public library and the despicable role of "progressive" Park Slope City Council member Brad Lander, who used to head the Fifth Avenue Committee that pitted affordable housing against community gardens, and now is doing the same re: libraries. He's behind the Fifth Avenue Committee being awarded a No-Bid contract to "develop" so-called "affordable" housing on top of the Sunset Park Library. The Brooklyn Heights library fiasco follows the Bloomberg administration's sale of the Donnell library some years back, which Lander and deBlasio are running with in setting the precedent for the Sunset Park and other public libraries.
Here's from Michael D. D. White <mddwhite at aol.com>:
Today's (Sunday's) NY Post has an eviscerating story about the sweetheart details of de Blasio's giveaway of the Brooklyn Heights library:
Not only was Kramer (the Hudson Companies), de Blasio friend and political contributor, a low bidder, he was 20% lower than another of the two bids that surpassed him.
The competing bidders put the "affordable" units on site, unlike Kramer putting them two miles away.
The Story:
New York Post: Developer with ties to de Blasio scores job, despite being outbid, By Aaron Short, February 21, 2016
http://nypost.com/2016/02/21/developer-with-ties-to-de-blasio-scores-job-despite-being-outbid/
In the article:
- Library hand-off is "directly contrary to de Blasio's stated goals for development projects."
- "sweetheart deal to politicallly connected supporter"
- Kramer "was not going tto be the winning guy pre-de-Blasio."
- "real-estate insiderss were flabbergasted."
- "This is the only project I ever did that didn't go to the highest bidder," one source said. "I've never seen it before."
Remember, all this has to be put in context: Kramer was the low bidder for a library that should not even be sold. He was only bidding for the value of the site as a vacant lot. He was bidding only for the "tear-down" value fo the library. His bid was no way and no how even related to the value of the library to the public from the public's perspective, because de Blasio and the BPL were selling off the library with no appraisal of the value of the library from the public's perspective.- This is a recently enlarged and fully upgraded library that would cost more than $120 million to replace.
This reporting is great news. We knew from, and pointed out baaed on the City Planning Commission hearings that Kramer was not the low bidder, but the release of these additional details should be devastating to de Blasio and those who have plotted to sell the library.
This is also an example of exactly why it is so absolutely atrocious that there has been no insistence on greater transparency with respect to this deal, something that, among other things we have been publicly chiding Stephen Levin about because it is his basic duty as a City Councilman to insist on it.
Again, stay tuned for more!!
Don't forget to use social medie to pass this along.
It's been Tweeted https://twitter.com/DefendLibraries
And it's on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CitizensDefendingLibraries/photos/a.494569923934652.109236.494274553964189/1037431176315188/?type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/CitizensDefendingLibraries/photos/a.494569923934652.109236.494274553964189/1037436549647984/?type
MICHAEL D. D. WHITE Citizens Defending Libraries http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/ Noticing New York http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/ National Notice http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/ W: (718) 834-6184 C: (917) 885-1478 mddwhite at aol.com
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Mitchel Cohen's letter to City Council member Laurie Cumbo:
I sent the following inquiry to Laurie Cumbo .... Never got a reply:
Hi Ms. Cumbo,
I am continuing a series of stories aired on WBAI on the proposal to sell the Brooklyn Heights public library to a real estate developer, who will build a 36-story luxury condo tower on the site and replace the existing library after a number of years with a much smaller one to be located in that tower. As you know, that proposal was passed by the City Council a few weeks ago.
Those WBAI stories included an interview with Council member Steve Levin, whose office is on Atlantic Avenue and just across Bond St. from WBAI.
While many council members were clearly uncomfortable with voting in favor of the proposal (and a number stated privately that they actually opposed it, even though they voted for it), several expressed that they felt obligated to go along with it because, they said, it was Steve Levin's call as it was taking place in his district and they'd need his vote when proposals in their own districts come up.
On the other hand, you expressed no such difficulty. You explained your YES vote in the following way (and I quote):
"Over the last few months I have watched as you [Steven Levin] have stood in the face of adversity. You have been ridiculed, insulted, threatened, and even bashed in public hearings and meetings. And is that is not the Brooklyn that I know, and that is not the Brooklyn that I love. You have stood strong and have made this deal a better one. ... So I thank you for your courage. I thank you for your bravery. I thank you for standing strong, because you had a difficult decision to make. Thank you."
The group "Citzens Defending Libraries" also points to this as one of the more bizarre quotes by City Council members. They write:
"Cumbo supplies the time frame of multiple months of abuse and throws in made up details about Levin getting abuse in various forms including even at public hearings and meetings. ... It never happened! ... It never happened because the public never knew that Levin was selling them out. No part of "Brooklyn" was excoriating Levin and that's because the public just found out days ago. But it looks like Laurie is letting the cat out of the bag about what she knew months ago. She seems to view it as a long process of his "standing strong" with his decision, a decision unwelcome in the community."
When I interviewed Levin a week before the vote (Listen <http://www.mediafire.com/listen/zbn2xl0z209n5eo/Selling_off_the_Libraries_-_Interview_with_Steve_Levin.mp3>HERE), he stated unequivocally that there were no new proposals offered, no negotiations going on, and that the overwhelming majority of people in his district opposed the proposal. He did not mention that he had received any ridicule, adversity, or threats from those who'd opposed the proposal -- and why would he, as he repeatedly stated that he himself was not in favor of the proposal as it stood?
I'll be reviewing all of this in my next story for WBAI. So, I am asking you whether you want to stand by your comments, withdraw them, or explain them, given these circumstances. Do you have any specific details for your accusation against opponents of the deal, that they engaged in ridicule, adversity and threats against Levin for months?
In addition, were you privvy to any plans to amend or supplement the original proposal before they were introduced by Levin?
(Note: I included, quite favorably, comments you made a year ago in a story WBAI aired on a demonstration against police brutality and murders that blocked Flatbush Avenue & Fulton St. following an event at BRIC ... you can hear that report <http://www.mediafire.com/listen/hcehz875nw4q449/BROOKLYN_PROTEST_December_7_2014.mp3>HERE.)
Thank you.
Mitchel Cohen WBAI radio news