- Van Stone Youngphillypolitics.com Blooger’s Message To Dan Idiot by Author Van Stone, (610) 931-8810 vspfoundation@yahoo.com
- Last Chance to Help Move Health Care Reform
- This site has had enough Media courthouse stories, without any real ability to know if they are true.
- The District's South Philly High story unravels
- Meehan tries hard to make lemonade from lemons
- Re-published: Special Investigator Probes Possible MEDIA COURTHOUSE- Jehovah's Witnesses, Abuse Scandal
- no snitchin
- Taxi Workers, Nurses and Jobs: Big day in Philadelphia tomorrow
- So, got any plans for this weekend?
- Representative Chris Carney: Keep standing up for us, not the insurance companies
UPDATE: Coalition to Save the Libraries Statement on Court Victory
Submitted by hannahjs on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 4:02pm.
Here's the statement the Coalition to Save the Libraries sent out to press just now.
Hope everyone can make it to the 3.30 PM celebration at Kingsessing Library tomorrow!
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BREAKING NEWS: Judge Idee Fox rules against Mayor Nutter's decision to close branch libraries without the approval of City Council.
Contact: Katrina Clarke misskatrina@mac.com (215) 272-7091
Milena Velis milena.velis@gmail.com (215) 200-3876
The Coalition will sponsor a New Year's Eve celebration of the past, present and future of Philadelphia's libraries at the Kingsessing branch, 51st and Kingsessing, beginning at 3:30 pm, Wednesday, December 31st.
We would like to commend Judge Fox on her decision to issue an injunction halting the library closings. We would also like to congratulate the lawyers and plaintiffs whose hard work helped to bring about this important victory. Most importantly, we recognize the efforts of every resident who spoke at a Town Hall meeting, attended a rally at their library, and was active in their community on this issue. Because of everyone's passion and hard work, we will ring in the New Year with all our beloved libraries open!
This is a victory for every child, senior, and community member who needs the basic services that our Free Libraries provide every day. We look forward to working together with Mayor Nutter and City Council to continue to improve our library services and to ensure that all Philadelphians have access to the education and opportunities that they deserve.
Support the libraries
It is encouraging to see citizens recognizing the value of the libraries to the city. Ben Franklin would be proud, but he would also organize his fellow tradesmen and citizens to lend financial support to such a valuable public enterprise. Even old suburban liberals like me might be goaded into joining the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, and supporting our local libraries as well. Perhaps it's true that progressives organize and liberals write checks, but each has a role to play.
tsmiththi
Allentown
Make Contributions Contingent On Branch Libraries Remaining Open
Please make any contributions to the Free Library of Free Library Foundation contingent on the 11 contested branch libraries remaining open as fully functioning branch libraries without any city attempts to shut them down.
As things now stand, the contested branch libraries are open, but only on brief probation.
Judge Fox will issue a written opinion on January 4, 2009 or January 5, 2009, and then the City of Philadelphia will soon appeal her decision to the Commonwealth Court.
I would guess that the Commonwealth Court would hear the appeal sometime in January, and issue a ruling sometime in January or February.
Meanwhile, Judge Fox will be free to hold evidentiary hearings as to whether or not the temporary injuction she issued should become a permanent injunction against library closings without City Council approval.
She also will decide whether or not to certify the suit filed by Irv Acklesberg and Sherrie Cohen as a class action, which may open the door for monetary damages for library users if the city is able at any point to get libraries closed without City Council approval through the twists and turns of the judicial process.
The role that the library system is playing in this controversy is mixed. On the one hand, top staffers and volunteer board members say they are anguished at the branch closings. On the the other hand, they dutifully treat the Mayor as having God-like powers and wisdom and say they are compelled to carry out what I and many others consider to be uninformed mayoral whims on this issue.
It is far from certain that there really is a city fiscal crisis at this point. As a result of its cuts, the city Finance Director Rob Dubow now claims the City will run a $40 million surplus by the end of June. And that figure assumes that there will be a drastic plummeting of tax revenues, something which he admits privately is not obvious from the revenue figures for the first 25 weeks of the fiscal year.
I would not at all be surprised if the final surplus for this year's budget winds up closer to $100 million than $40 million. A good thing about dragging the library closing decision out through litigation is that doing so generates real information on the city financial condition, and makes more much more difficult attempts by the city to confuse projections based on false assumptions with reality.
So, if anyone writes out a check to the Free Library Foundation for an amount large or small, tell them the contribution is contingent on the 11 branch libraries staying open and unchallenged by the city government. The more money they get with these kinds of strings, the more pressure they will feel to come out squarely against the Mayor on this issue.