Brooklyn Heights Library KO’d By AC Outage

By on July 6, 2012 8:42 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Education, War On Fun, Weather

The summer 2012 reading list wasn’t supposed to be quite this steamy. An air conditioning outage at the Brooklyn Heights Library has closed the local branch at 280 Cadman Plaza West for much of the week. The shutdown began at 2 p.m. Tuesday, before the library—which also contains the Business and Careers Library—was officially closed for Independence Day Wednesday and Thursday. Patrons who then discovered that the branch would remain closed until Monday are hot under the collar, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

A volunteer with Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Library tells BHB, “The AC in the library is broken as it is wont to do every summer. Last Friday it was too hot for the ladies to work even though the library stayed open using fans.”

The cranky AC is hardly an unusual occurrence, according to Eagle reporter Don Evans, who says he’s written about the, uh, condition, many times: “The air conditioning broke down, they had a crew come in to make repairs, then it would happen all over again. On a warm day the staff wouldn’t work, so they closed it. People would go there and discover it was closed, with just a hand-written notice on the door.”

Councilman Steve Levin’s chief of staff Ashley Thompson said his office would be following up to see “how we can fix this. It’s not acceptable if the library closes every single hot day.”

(Photos: Library/Brooklyn Bridge Eagle; Sign/McBrooklyn)

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  • lori

    Another cooling center is unavailable this summer – the Senior Center located at 55 Pierrepont Street. Because of renovations being done to the residence next door, there is NO AIR CONDITIONING at the senior center until the end of July. Seniors are suffering thru a hot lunch room, some programs have been suspended and it has been closing early.

  • Muskrat

    Excellent point: while the library is obviously more than a cooling center, many do rely on it for heat relief in the summer, warmth in the winter, and simple quiet space all year around. Not to mention that it’s the place where summer school work gets done, people search for and apply for jobs, and then there’s the old fashioned content aspect (books et al for borrowing). I hope that through the press and others highlighting this critical gap, funds can be made available to fix the AC!

  • http://n/a Barbara Shernoff

    The Brooklyn Heights Business library was granted re-funding. i would think this applies to proper maintenance and upkeep of it’s building.

  • sonny

    I was walking by the library this past Saturday night around 9:30pm. I noticed a couple stop by these signs, the woman pulled out a pen and started defacing them. I stopped to read what she had written, as they blatantly walked down to the next sign to do the same thing. What she wrote was pretty profane language – S**. Mother f**, some $$ and other language – in broken English, so I wasn’t exactly sure if she was targeting the library or something else. I asked them why they were vandalizing the signs. She told me to mind my own business, called me a few choice names and told me I don’t understand or know what I’m talking about. She swore some more, as the man just stood there, and then they walked on down Tillary.
    So not sure what her anger was about or why she chose to take it out on the signs. Maybe she was pissed off at the broken AC or the library for not fixing it?? In any case, no excuse to deface the signs or have the nerve to tell me to mind my own business when she was blatantly committing an act of vandalism.

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    sonny,
    The woman was obviously not in her right mind and you put yourself in danger by approaching her.