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These NYC libraries will resume Sunday service starting July 14
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jul 5, 2024
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Lev Radin / Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jul 5, 2024
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Just in time for summer beach reading, New Yorkers can visit libraries again on Sundays starting this month.
The long-awaited return to seven-day-a-week service arises from a newly adopted city budget that reversed $58 million in proposed cuts for the city’s more than 200 branches after months of well-organized outcry from the City Council and library-loving community.
At least one branch in every borough will be open seven days a week starting on July 14th, according to New York Public Library spokesperson Lizzie Tribone. She said libraries that had seven-day-a-week service will now be able to resume that schedule.
“We heard from New Yorkers, hundreds of thousands writing to the mayor, to our city leaders, saying we can't have libraries closed on Sundays,” said Tony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library during an event on Monday with Mayor Eric Adams at Inwood Library in Upper Manhattan.
Marx thanked the mayor for walking back the cuts, saying, “We know that you love your libraries.”
In total, seven library branches will reopen on Sundays starting on the 14th. The New York Public Library will open its Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in Manhattan, Parkchester Library in the Bronx and Todt Hill-Westerleigh Library on Staten Island. The Flushing and Central locations of the Queens Public Library will open, as will the Kings Highway and Central branches of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Most of the city’s branches have been closed on Sundays since December, a month after Mayor Eric Adams ordered a $24 million cut that library officials said left them no choice but to reduce operating hours.
Libraries have historically been on the chopping block during budget negotiations, a victim of the annual “budget dance” where mayors seek bargaining leverage against the Council.
But this year’s fight over libraries found Adams, who is facing historically low approval ratings, on the defensive. In the months leading up to the budget agreement, library officials and elected officials mounted an aggressive campaign to restore the cuts.
As part of a $112 billion budget deal, the mayor backed down on some other unpopular cuts, including those to schools, parks and cultural institutions.
Adams spent the early part of this week touting the new budget, a move that prompted criticism from some councilmembers.
“Let the gaslighting begin,” wrote Councilmember Tiffany Cabán of Queens, who voted against the budget because of the remaining cuts as well as the mayor’s handling of the budget.
At the press conference for Inwood Library, which also anchors 174 new affordable housing units, the mayor was asked how it felt to go from villain to hero in the months-long saga of libraries.
As he often does, Adams spoke of his hardscrabble childhood and lessons he learned from his single mother.
“I thought she was being mean when she told us we couldn't have those new pair of sneakers,” he said. “She told me over and over again that, ‘Baby, leadership is about making tough decisions and smart decisions.’”
Tagged
new york city
Politics
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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