BHB Exclusive: BPL President Johnson Talks Brooklyn Heights Branch, Library’s Future

By on July 8, 2014 11:05 am in Brooklyn Heights

Since April, BHB has covered the developing story of the status of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Heights branch on Cadman Plaza West, driven by neighborhood concern over the condition of the building, as well as its ultimate disposition. Will it be renovated? How soon? Demolished? What will rise in its place? A high-rise? How high? How much will it cost? How will it be paid for? How long will it take? What will library users do in its absence?

Investigation into the situation led to a deepening interest in the larger picture of an institution burdened by a massive backlog of unfunded capital expenditures and a ballooning deficit that threatens the Library’s ability to fulfill its mission: the maintenance and nurture of a system of some 60 branch libraries as well as the monumental Central Library at Grand Army Plaza, at a time when library usage has grown dramatically.

BHB spoke recently with Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of the Library, about the current status of the Brooklyn Heights library project and other concerns, as well as future prospects for the system, exemplified by BAM South, an innovative new space in the BAM Cultural District that the Library hopes to bring online in 2017.

What emerged clearly throughout the 45-minute phone interview was Ms. Johnson’s optimism regarding her organization’s future, and the value she and BPL’s executive team place on a strategic planning process they believe has substantially improved one of the country’s largest libraries.

Ms. Johnson did not hesitate to emphasize her credentials. Not only a successful executive and fundraiser at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, she had previously served as CEO of the Library Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the nation’s tenth largest system. She came to Brooklyn knowing the difficulties but attracted by the challenge of leading a prestigious organization in transition, one with an enormous responsibility to the diverse communities in which its branches are located.

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  • Moni

    It’s romantic to think that a small group of locals can stand against the 1% and turn the tide – but that’s not the real world of NYC, which is being destroyed by RE developers and people with too much money. Not only are libraries, hospitals, etc. disappearing, but so are small businesses, even successful ones that have enhanced neighborhoods for 30, 40, 50 years. When a lease is up they are not even offered a new one; they’re just kicked out and a useless tenant, for instance yet another bank branch, moves in, or the demolition crew arrives to clear the way for yet another luxury condo.

  • gatornyc

    Very well said Bethman.

  • gatornyc

    I doubt it. But go back to you name calling (which you rail against until you do it).

  • gatornyc

    If you want to save this rare treasure (I’m a local and I would hardly consider it as such), come up with a pragmatic alternative to the sale. I have yet to hear one despite all the fire and brimstone speech.

  • Michael D. D. White

    OK let’s look at what you are saying: I’ll grant you that the BPL likes to withhold facts (like not disclosing the plan to sell and shrink the Brooklyn Heights Library from at least 2008 until 2013) and that can make the circulation of withheld facts appear rumor-ish, but I propose that you identify what you think is a rumor and I will supply the associated facts. Then we can evaluate your assertions.

    Now, as for your choice to get into ethnicities in your comment: We have long pointed to the effort on the part of those selling the libraries to attempt to “divide and conquer,” so I ask you, with your invocation of “WASP” are you seriously, really are you SERIOUSLY, proposing that there aren’t all sorts of people who are NOT white, Anglo-Saxon, and protestant who don’t approve of the sale and shrinkage of libraries?

    For more on the subject of race with respect to this issue (not exactly pretty) see:

    Tuesday, May 14, 2013, A Consideration of Race, Equality, Opportunity and Democracy As NYC
    Libraries Are Sold And The Library System Shrunk And Deliberately
    Underfunded.

    http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-consideration-of-race-equality.html

  • bethman14

    “… and that can make the circulation of withheld facts appear rumor-ish…”
    Which “withheld facts?” Just because you have imagined a conspiracy doesnt make it true! The BPL has been contemplating this since 2008? Says who??
    And no, Micheal, I don’t except references to your own blog as evidence!! LOL!
    I don’t know why I waste my time arguing with a fanatic…trying to have a conversation with you and your co-chair Ms. Rimmler is like trying to convince Sarah Palin that the earth is round.

  • notonmywatch

    Will do. Thanx for the challenge.

    First order of business is to examine the claimed conditions and maintenance records for the last 10 years to see if it is troubled due to neglect or because, as the BPL claims, the original designers had no idea how to build a building.

    Tredway and Almirall will rise up and smite them shortly.

    http://www.pps.org/reference/alfred-tredway-white/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_F._Almirall

    Or whomever is the architect as it is not listed on the BPL history page.

    http://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/business/photos

  • Daniel Trotta

    When is Linda E. Johnson going to realize the library is not hers to sell? It belongs to the people, and once again she has shown she has contempt for us, the people who check out books, pay taxes and live in the neighborhood. I’m sure Central Park has some great unrealized monetary value, too. Why not sell that? If she is such a great fundraiser, she should be raising the funds instead pimping out our library and complaining that “fix my HVAC” is a hard sell.

  • Michael D. D. White

    Who says the decision was made in 2008? (actually at least by 2008): Deborah Hallen, of the so-called “Friends” group based on information she was given by the BPL and Josh Nachowitz who used this information, handing it to the press, to try to defend the decision. That’s two reasonably good, high-level authorities from your side.

    I am sorry you don’t like the fact that Ms. Rimmler is one of the many who is frequently in agreement with us about a many of the library matters.

  • Mary

    @Moni – Couldn’t agree more. I know from experience that spearhead groups can make a difference, though, if well supported by the community. What I’m seeing is a lack of public, visible protest. Blogging is nice, showing up in numbers is better.

  • notonmywatch

    He was foreshadowing where this is heading (courts).

  • Mary

    @gatornyc – Perhaps you haven’t been local long enough to remember when the BPL actually took care of our branch.

  • Mary

    LOL! as the kids text. Thanks, made me smile.

  • Fritz

    I returned to the Heights a few years ago after living 31 years in Detroit, all below 8 Mile Road. I think I used to go the the Heights branch before this new branch. One of my first steps after moving back was to get a BPL card. Despite my dislike for developers getting rich, I’m less opposed to development than your average Heightser – it’s a question of who gets what. In the case of the Cadman library, it’s deciding whether was are getting a good deal dividing the value of the air rights between the libraries, affordable housing (which there isn’t any on the Heights now), and the developers. Once the air rights are sold, they are sold.

    There are library science programs at LIU, Pratt, Queens College, who knows how many others. I’d like to see their evaluation of these proposals.

    On a more practical level, does anyone know what’s in the unused unpublic square footage in the current building?

  • marshasrimler

    i am not his co-chair

  • marshasrimler

    lets have a town hall to do that

  • notonmywatch

    Already sold to the adjacent property (1 pierrepont) so they could build large. They didn’t use all.

  • marshasrimler

    The bloomberg dominated board.. anthony crowe.ll. . jason borowitz .peter askonozsky, hank guttman, nina collins. miriam kantowitz all need a lesson in democrary and need to fire ms. johnson

  • realitybasedcommunity

    The only thing more hillarious than a blogger complaining about too many computers in libraries is a resident of Brooklyn’s most expensive, exclusive neighborhood complaining about the 1%!!
    This blog is laugh a minute!!!!!!

  • Name

    I just had 10 people over for dinner this weekend. EVERY SINGLE PERSON was in favor of a new condo building with a smaller library that is more community-focused and children-focused. Every one. Have also talked about it out to dinner in the hood. MOST peopole are NOT outraged. That is just pure silliness — and made up.

  • marshasrimler

    so if you are so sure you are right.. what is your name. stop hiding

  • notonmywatch

    Methinks Gravante is the one to hone in on.

  • marshasrimler

    i am working on it

  • Loti

    Agree. She says the neighborhood deserves a world class library but then instead proposes selling off the space to a developer who will NEVER deliver that. We need to first collect on the middle school we were promised in dumbo.

  • marshasrimler

    they will NEVER delver the $ to the other branches either. It is a smoke and mirrors plan

  • Michael D. D. White

    Congratulations! You have challenged my imagination envisioning your capacious dining table and the obviously select and discriminating company you invite to it. Unfortunately, you haven’t challenged my imagination to the utmost by certifying that your collected group didn’t (perhaps even for the most part) include representatives of the real estate and finance industry, the board of the Brooklyn Heights Association, or the so-called “Friends” group complicit in promoting the sale and shrinkage of the library.

    I guess my imagination will have to be sufficiently tested by the way you eschew any name, even a nom de plume to assist us in conjuring up the visions you would have us see.

  • Nidia Birenbaum

    I’m not white, WASP or even in the 1%. I love the Brooklyn Heights library and love books. I am also a defender of public assets. What are about you? What do you stand for? Except insulting, accusing and misinforming people without providing any evidence whatsoever to support your position. How “violently” White twisted the facts” or “take quotes out of context”? It appears that you are the one using “rumors” to use as “fact”. It is quite clear that you are uninformed and know nothing about CDL, Michael White, or Brooklyn Heights public library, You should know that the BH library provide services to a number of nearby communities, as well as visitors from all over the world, not only the 1% BHW as you indicated. Michael White, and CDL work tirelessly to protect libraries and public’s assets. Are you aware that over 16,000 people signed the CDL petition to stop the Bloomberg “greedy bunch” from demolishing the BH library? “The community deserves a fair and honest conversation,” said you. Well, that is the point genius, CDL have been talking to the community from the start of this movement, except you are not listening. Tea Party? That’s! Hilarious!! Fear mongering? Nothing can be further from the truth. I have come to the conclusion that you’re jealous of Michael White. You fabricate lies and false allegations in your attempt to bring him down. Actually you want to be Michael White. Every time you look in the mirror you ask who’s that loser? And then you say, mirror, mirror on the wall make me like Michael White… that’s all. Sad! Come clean. Reveal yourself you will feel better. Stop attacking Michael White and Citizens Defending Libraries.

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