As we fought with server issues, I missed the chance to note that on December 23 we passed the one year anniversary of the library lawsuit being filed in Common Pleas Court.

So much had to come together for that whole thing to work, including:

• The outrage of citizens all over the city at the announced closures;
• The botched and ever changing rationales of the administration;
• People organizing all over the city;
• And finally, seven brave women and AFSCME signing on to a lawsuit, joined a day later by Councilman Green.

I sat in the Courtroom as the hearing concluded; it was incredibly tense. As Judge Fox started making her ruling, it was really not clear who was about to win. Then, amidst a Hollywood like mix of murmuring, buzz and then loud applause, she said something like this:

The decision to close these eleven branch libraries is more than a response to a financial crisis; it changes the very foundation of our City. Two of the libraries scheduled to close, Haddinton and Holmesburg, will result in a reversion of the property back to the original grantor because of deed restrictions. No one questions the economic crisis which has rocked both the City and the Nation. However, we are a Nation of hope. A "crisis" evokes something temporary. Defendants argued there were more than enough libraries in Philadelphia. "Philadelphia has more libraries than any other city in the country." Our library system is more than a century old yet in three short months an economic crisis results in permanently closing eleven branches. This court does not envy the Mayor and the tough decisions he has had to make in this financial crisis. Yet, as this court is bound to follow the law, so is the Mayor. The permanent closing of neighborhood branch libraries is changing the very structure of the Free Library of Philadelphia and not just responding to a "financial crisis."

Fast forward a year, and not all is well with the libraries, by any means. But, they have survived, poised to rebound at a time when budgets and tax revenues return to normal. And, one year later, I think the Mayor would agree that libraries- Libraries!- have become the third rail in Philadelphia politics.

I've attached some documents of the actual criteria used by Siobhan Reardon and the Free Library to decide on the 11 Reardon and Mayor Nutter are slating for closure.

Firstly, thanks to Sam Durso for obtaining those documents at the first of the town hall meetings in South Philly High School. Secondly, there are more documents. A general "Vision Statement" for the Free Library System, for example, and maps of the individual City Council districts showing the closings. According to Reardon's comments to Sam, City Council districts were the "last thing" considered in picking the 11 closings but the mere presence of the maps being generated would indicate that the Council districts was obviously a consideration.