How Did They Do It? Audio interviews with 5 organizers from the Coalition to Save the Libraries on winning and the struggle ahead

In the beginning of December, the Coalition to Save the Libraries celebrated its one-year anniversary. Sarah S. conducted interviews with five coalition members to create an audio piece telling part of the story of how the Coalition was successful in keeping all of Philadelphia's libraries open, and the work that has followed that initial victory.

Although all of the libraries are still open, budget cuts have resulted in random closures and an overall decrease in open hours in neighborhood branches. Like most other city services, the libraries will continue to face state and city budget cuts in the upcoming year.

Protest Against the DOOMSDAY BUDGET Thursday Sept. 17 inside City Hall

Click HERE to listen to an audio recording from the protest.

STOP THE DOOMSDAY BUDGET!

Join the Coalition to Save the Libraries, Acorn, District Council 47
(City Workers Union), Philadelphia Fight and other organizations this
THURSDAY Sept 17 at 9AM for a rally as City Council returns from summer
recess!

Thursday, 9 AM - Outside City Council Chambers (Room 400), City Hall!

STOP THE DOOMSDAY BUDGET!

Stop the Mayor from closing every neighborhood library, every
recreation center and two health centers, and laying off 3,000 city
workers (layoff notices go out this Friday!)

Instead of passively accepting Plan C, City Council must immediately
take responsibility for the city's economic security, and raise
revenue -- by rolling back recent cuts to the gross receipts tax and
wage tax -- that would remove Plan C from the table. Please Please
spread the word and come out to the rally.

Friday 9/18 Speak out / Open Mic / Peaceful Protest

Steps of the main library. 5:30pm, grassroots open mic...join me and
others this Friday (9/18) for a Speak out/ Open Mic / Peaceful
protest. Steps of the Library Main Branch at 5:30. Bring signs. Bring
friends. Bring stories of how this has / will affect you. And this
isn't just about the library. Foster care funding, Elder Care, Aids
patient care, rec centers, jobs..

Save Our Libraries! Again.

Save Our Libraries! Again.

Think Philly is in trouble now? Watch how much worse it gets if the libraries close down.

By Brendan Skwire
Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Sep. 13, 2009

Unless legislators take quick action, the Free Library of Philadelphia will close all of its branches in a few weeks.

Well, it looks like the libraries, once again, are on the chopping block. And this time, it's ALL OF THEM.

Honestly, do we have to go through this exercise again? Let me be blunt and brief: libraries are more than just places to borrow a book or a DVD. They are a crucial part of the fabric of our community. They provide Internet access for low-income individuals and families, including access to help-wanted ads and online job applications. They provide free space for after-school programs for kids and community classes for adults struggling to earn their GED or learn English.

And they provide books. Remember them?

People who use Philadelphia's libraries are suffering right now: I know of several English as a Second Language (ESL) classes held at branches of the Free Library that have already been canceled due to shorter hours, disrupting the lives of immigrants trying to achieve citizenship -- and putting adult education teachers, already poorly paid, out of work.

Here's another reason the libraries are so important: Philadelphia is home to an astonishing number of poorly-educated adults: about 400,000 of our neighbors don't hold a high school diploma and 22 percent of the 1.1 million adults who live here don't even have basic literacy skills: that's around 250,000 people who can't make it through a comic book.

Before you go pointing your finger and crying "Tough luck for them," think about the impact. If you can't read or do basic math, you can't get a good job. If you can't get a good job, you don't earn as much. You don't earn as much, you can't contribute as much revenue to the economy and tax base. Heck, maybe you can't get a job at all, so you have to get welfare, which everyone pays for. Or maybe you start selling drugs (and I'm not talking about pot, which should be legal), which brings crime to your community and drives down your neighbors' property values. And hey, maybe you get arrested and now everyone has to pay for your three-hots-and-a-cot.

What's more, kids tend to emulate their parents. Low literacy and low educational achievement is handed down from one generation to the next, a vicious circle that has no benefit to anyone.

You wanna complain about taxes? Check this recent analysis from the Philadelphia Youth Network (PDF):

High school dropouts in Philadelphia city made a combined tax payment (including federal and state income taxes, Philadelphia city wage tax, social security payroll taxes, federal government retirement contributions, local property taxes, and state sales taxes) of just $4,250, which represents less than 40 percent of the mean combined tax payment of all adult residents of the city ($10,320). The mean combined tax payment among high school graduates was $9,320 or nearly 2.2 times higher than the amount paid by high school dropouts. Philadelphians with a bachelor’s or a higher college degree paid an average of $17,180 in tax payments.

But hey, we can't afford the libraries.

By the way, this says nothing about how the city's embarrassing low literacy rates affect us on a macro basis either. Let's say you're the president of some big corporation and you want to relocate. Besides tax rates and other expenses, one thing you're looking for is a skilled workforce. So where do you want to set up shop? (PDF) Boston, where in 2006 about 40 percent of residents had a bachelors degree; Stamford,Conn., where more than 42 percent of residents graduated from college; or Philly, where only 31 percent did?

Or what about the city's immigrants, whose numbers skyrocketed over the past couple of decades? According to the 2005 American Community Survey, 24 percent of Philadelphia’s immigrant population -- about 83,000 individuals -- live below the poverty line. Fully 150,000 working-age immigrant adults have limited proficiency in English, including 55,000 Spanish speakers and an astonishing 51,000 of immigrants from Asia. The National Institute for Literacy reports that of those families that speak Spanish in the home, more than 32 percent either have poor English skills or don’t speak the language at all. Now apply all that stuff above about the costs of unemployment and tax receipts to a population that relies on places like libraries for language instruction.

Here, I'll make it easy: according to a study done by the U.S. Department of Education, those in the lowest literacy levels were less likely to be employed, worked fewer hours in a week, and earned lower wages than those with higher literacy proficiency. In Philadelphia, this problem is compounded by the loss of manufacturing jobs, and the increase in service, medical, and technical jobs, all of which have made fluency in the English language more important than ever in obtaining and maintaining employment.

The geniuses in the Pennsylvania Legislature and in our own damn city administration may say "Well, we can't afford those libraries anymore," when the fact is we can't afford NOT to have them.

It's a flaming disgrace, and there is no shortage of bad actors to blame, from City Council for underfunding the pension plan, to the mayor who, according to community activist and former candidate for council Marc Stier, "only very haltingly and at the end of the process, tried to engage the public in fighting along side him for the city," to (who else) the batshit crazy Republicans in the State Senate who have this unholy fetish with robbing unionized workers of their right to bargain collectively, and who delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed some more before choosing what has been aptly described as "budget terrorism and blackmail."

Enough already. Enough. Layoff notices go out in just a couple of weeks, and it's not just "going to be a disaster for the city of Philadelphia" if the Senate fails to pass the budget, but a disaster for the entire state.

The Daily News and Inquirer keep reporting that a deal is near, but I am less sanguine. So as usual, I encourage you to call your legislators in Harrisburg: you can find your senator here and your representative here. Tell them to save our libraries.

Dom Pileggi Holds Philly Hostage

The state majority leader uses one hand to strangle city services -- while the other hand is in our pockets.

By Brendan Skwire

Aug. 20, 2009

Dear Sen. Pileggi:

I can call you Dom, right? Even as state senate majority leader, you're still a public servant, answerable to me and everyone else in Pennsylvania, so I don't mind being a little informal with the help.

Thanks to your intransigence and obstruction holding up both the state and the city's budget in the Pennsylvania State Senatet, nonprofits are running out of money, the city's cutting jobs and delaying police training, and counties from east to west are owed money. All because you missed YOUR deadline: and now everyone has to suffer because you're in a pissing match with the governor?

And it's not like anyone's gonna break even once the impasse is over: a number of human services providers are forced to take out loans to bridge the gap and there will be interest to pay. I thought you Republicans and conservatives were good with money?

It's no different here in Philadelphia, Dom. On Thursday, Mayor Nutter submitted his "Plan C" budget to the City Council. Effective September 1, we're facing "doomsday" cuts --hundreds of cops laid off, fire engines idled, all rec centers closed, trash left to rot in the streets-- because of your inaction. We sent you our budget in May and you're only now getting around to it? Mayor Nutter already cut $20 million, two months worth of revenue, because of your delays.

To read the rest of the article, click here:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/brendan-calling/Dominic-Pileggi-Holds-Philly-Hostage-53819312.html

Free Speech Radio News story about pool protest

Philadelphia community groups protest closure of swimming pools
Andalusia Knoll
Fri, 08/07

To listen, click here: http://www.fsrn.org/audio/philadelphia-community-groups-protest-closure-swimming-pools/5187

With temperatures reaching the high 80s, Philadelphia’s pools are a popular destination for the city’s youth and adults alike. However, Mayor Michael Nutter’s budget decisions have delayed people’s swimming plans in 27 neighborhoods across the city, where pools are closed for the year. Residents from these neighborhoods, along with a broad coalition of community activists, are demanding that the city open all of the closed pools. FSRN’s Andalusia Knoll has more from Philadelphia.

All for the Taking blog on the movement to save the pools

Not On the Backs of Our Children: Residents demand Mayor Nutter to "turn on the tap"

by Dana Barnett
Tue, 07/14/2009
From allforthetaking.org

On Tuesday July 14th nearly a hundred people gathered outside of Philadelphia City Hall, standing behind an empty kiddie pool bound in paper chains, to protest the closure of several public pools...

...with signs reading "Pools for the People", and "From the Libraries to the Pools, People Power Rules". Residents from several neighborhoods that have suffered pool closings including, Mantua, Fishtown, Stinger Square, Chew, and representatives of advocacy groups such as PUP, Acorn, ACT UP, and the youth led nonprofit Mantua Cares, were brought together by the continued organizing efforts of the Coalition to Save the Libraries and the Coalition for Essential Services. Both citywide coalitions have become leading forces of mobilizing and raising the voices of the many people in Philadelphia who are feeling the budget cuts.

Under the banner of: Don't Balance the Budget on our Backs, people gave speeches about pool, library, hospital closures, as well as connecting these issues to the larger systemic conditions of racism and economic oppression. Some held signs saying "closing our pools will 'change the complexion of the city' relating the matter of closing pools in poor communities to the overt racism of recent incident at Valley Swim Club. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-kilkenny/philadelphia-private-swim...

About 50 youth, teenagers, and adults filed slowly through the security procedures of city hall and up to the 2nd floor, with inner tubes, floaties, and signs in tow. The crowd assembled in front of the office of the Mayor, kids in front, megaphone in hand, and demanded a meeting. As they waited over a half hour for an impromptu meeting with a city official residents like 13-year-old Marcus Burbage from Chew pool in south Philly led the group in chants such as "keep philly cool, save our pool" and "Pools keep us safe, this is a disgrace."


Samatha Mackin a youth from Fishtown expressed the sentiment of the group when she said "I feel upset that they think that their paychecks are more important than us." The hot, jam packed group cheered as Katrina Clark, a teacher from Mantua who was a key organizer in the fight to keep libraries open, encouraged the youth that were there saying "People are going to try to take things from you all your lives, but you have to stand up. I know it's hard and there is alot that you would rather be doing, but I want you to know that what the Mayor is doing is wrong and you are on the side of justice." Meanwhile the exasperated city hall police kept asserting their power by reminding rambunctious group to clear a line for the hallway.


The protest almost became an occupation when it was announced that the Mayor would not be meeting with the group. When told that they would be meeting with the Clarence D. Armbrister, the Mayor's Chief of Staff, a chant of "we want the Mayor" erupted from the crowd. Protesters threatened to stay until the Mayor appeared, but were eventually appeased when told that the mayor was in Harrisburg. "He snuck out the back door to Harrisburg," Irene Russel of Stinger Square declared.


As Armbrister tried to quiet the crowd by saying that the Mayor does care about pools and that he thought community members would be celebrating the work that the Mayor had done to keep more than the originally announced 10 public pools open. Armbrister insisted that the condition of the budget was not their fault and that they were doing "the best they could" to "balance the interests of children and safety." One after another residents tried to explain that the reason why they were in city hall was not about the abstract process of balancing budgets, it was about real lives of youth and real disastrous effects on the safety and vitality of neighborhoods.


In response to Armbrister's pleas for understanding at the difficulty of balancing the budget, community members asserted that they have suggestions and need to be included in the budgeting process. They made it explicitly clear that cutting money to public resources in neighborhoods which are already under funded was not an option.

Connections were made by the protesters between pools and other cuts to neighborhood resources. The protesters spoke to the ongoing assault on their communities presently and historically in budget after budget. One resident reminded the Chief of Staff of the attempted closure of the 11 neighborhood branch libraries in December of 2008. When the representative responded "but the libraries are open" the crowd was unified in retorting that libraries were indeed open "only because we fought for them." It was clear to the city residents that if they do not fight for their children, families, and neighbors city hall was not going to look out for them.

A woman in the crowd tried to make the numbers into people when she asked Armbrister to explain to her two-year-old granddaughter why her neighborhood pool was not open. While the city officials attempt to illicit sympathy for difficult numbers, community residents continue to show that what is actually being crunched with budget cuts are people and neighborhoods and that they will not accept cuts to public resources as a solution!

(Photos by Pat Grugen and Rev. Jesse Brown)

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NEIGHBORHOODS RALLY AT CITY HALL TO DEMAND THAT MAYOR NUTTER ‘TURN ON THE TAP’!

DAY CAMPS FACE DISCRIMINATION AS THE CITY LOCKS THEM OUT OF LOCAL POOLS

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Over 100 Philadelphia residents converged on City Hall today, joined by over 10 other city organizations and labor unions, to demand restoration of 1.1 million dollars in funding to open all of the city’s 27 closed public swimming pools.

The closed pools, which serve over 500,000 residents, also provided hundreds of summer jobs for adolescents and served thousands of Philadelphia summer campers, who have had their programming canceled as pools and libraries receive cuts in funding.

“We are here today to demand that Mayor Nutter turn on the tap and restore the 1.1 million dollars taken from pools in our communities!” said Martha Jones-Smithey, a local leader and rally organizer from the Fairhill neighborhood.

Just last week the Creative Steps Day Camp was discriminated against by the Huntingdon Valley Pool + Club after their local swimming pool was closed by budget cuts.

“The discrimination faced by Creative Steps was just a more explicit version of the racism the campers faced when they were locked out of their neighborhood pool,” said Eric Braxton, an organizer with the Coalition to Save the Libraries.

In the weeks leading up to the rally, public outrage at pool closings has lead to five neighborhood demonstrations in the threatened communities of Grays Ferry (Stinger Pool), Point Breeze (Chew Pool), Girard Estate (Marion Anderson Pool), Fairhill (12^th+ Cambria Pool), and East Germantown (Lonnie Young Pool).

Many neighborhoods have felt the consequences of pool closings as youth violence spikes during the summer months and children are forced to make dangerous trips to swim in other areas.

“These pools are vital to our neighborhoods. They keep our kids safe. They provide jobs for young people. They bring our families together. That’s why we’re here – to fight for our community!” said Nadine Rykard, a resident and leader from Grays Ferry.

CONTACT: Zachary Hershman at avrakedabra@gmail.com for more info + list of participant organizations.

Inquirer article, June 27: Under summer heat, some pools remain shuttered

Under summer heat, some pools remain shuttered

By Kia Gregory

Inquirer Staff Writer

On hazy, sun-soaked afternoons last summer, Andrew Christman, 35, regularly took his young son, Jozef, to the Fishtown neighborhood pool to splash in his water wings. But, because of city budget cuts, that recreation center pool is now closed. So is the Hancock pool, also a few blocks away. And so is the Cione pool, roughly a mile from his home.

read the rest at

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/49328362.html

Spirit Community Newspapers article June 24

Fishtown, Cione, Hancock and Northern Liberties Pools are closed for the summer!
24.JUN.09

Is there any method to the madness? How did the City decide which pools to open and which to keep closed? In some districts, all or nearly all of the pools are being reopened and in some, not even half of them will be opened this summer. District 6 (Lower NE-Northern Liberties, Fishtown and part of North Phila.) falls into the latter category with only 5 of their 14 pools reopening....

read the article here

Star article, June 18: A 'Splash' in the bucket

Thu, June 18, 2009

A 'Splash' in the bucket

by Hayden Mitman

Ask people who have grown up in Fishtown about their memories of summertime, and a common response might be the sight of an open fire hydrant spewing water into the street and the smiling faces of their young friends running through the spray.

It's a summertime memory of a bygone era but, thanks to Philadelphia's budget crunch, residents might see the sight returning to neighborhood streets.

That's because when Mayor Michael Nutter announced the results of the "Splash and Summer Fund" earlier this month, Fishtown's community pool wasn't on the list.

Read the rest at http://www.philly.com/community/pa/philadelphia/star/48526622.html

Philadelphia Weekly on Swimming Pool Closings

The Dead Pool
by Brendan Skwire
Does the closure of more than two dozen Philly pools presage a violent summer in the city?

Read this great Philly Weekly article at:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Pools-money-48729067.html

Here is just a snippet from the article:

...And what do you think will happen when kids in the 19125 zip code, who have lost ALL of their pools, go wandering into other neighborhoods seeking a cool dip? Does anyone in the city want to have a repeat of 2006?

And the crazy thing is, the city agrees there will be turf wars as a result of pool closings. Their solution? More cops in the affected neighborhoods!

June 14th Rally at LOVE Park for Programs Not Prisons!

Photos by Reverend Jesse Brown


























This is a rally against State Bill 850, which will

1. Eliminate Funding for Violence Prevention
2. Decrease Funding for the customized job training bt 50%
3. Decrease 50% of Funding for Early Childhood Programs (Head Start and Pre-K Counts)
4. Eliminate Funding for the Family Savings Account Program, Self Employment Assistance Program, and completely Elimainate the PA Community Development Bank.


Sponsoring Organizations include:

Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC), BluePrint for a Safer Philadelphia, Nu Sigma Youth Services, Philadelphia Anti-Drug?Anti-Violence Network (PAAN), Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program (YOACAP), MEE Productions, the Offfice of State Rep. Dwight Evans, the Office of State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson and the Office of State Senator Anthony Williams

Rally to Save Stinger Pool!

Nadine (above, speaking) from the Greys Ferry community organized this June 16th protest to save the neighborhood pool at 32nd and Reed.

Rally for Chew Pool

Betty Beauford (above) organized this June 8 rally to protest the closing of the Chew Pool, at 19th & Ellsworth

May 21 Press Conference inside City Hall as the "Rich People's Budget" is passed

30 LEADING PHILADELPHIA ORGANIZATIONS REJECT THE BUDGET AT PRESS CONFERENCE

COALITION FOR ESSENTIAL SERVICES MEDIA ALERT: 5-21-09.

In his March budget address, the Mayor promised to deliver a “Peoples’ Budget.” Instead, he is giving us a “Rich People’s Budget” in which working people pay more and get less. With the Mayor’s sales tax increase, poor taxpayers pay nine times more than the wealthiest Philadelphians.

Contrary to the statements put out by City Hall, the proposed budget includes major cuts to many essential services. CES representatives will speak on how cuts to pools, libraries, summer camps, health centers, youth education and violence prevention programs will hurt our most vulnerable neighborhoods.

If the state does not approve the sales tax, even more services will face the axe, and poor people in Philadelphia will face an even heavier burden.


The Coalition For Essential Services is composed of over 30 community-based advocacy organizations and labor unions in Philadelphia including the Coalition To Save the Libraries, Asian Americans United, AFSCME District Council 47, Fire Fighters Union Local 22, and the Vote for Homes! Coalition.

Eleanor Childs (Durham branch) testimony at City Council May 9 (transcript)

MS. CHILDS: Good morning to President Verna and to the rest of the 23 Councilpeople and their representatives that are in the room today. We're glad that you're here. My name is Eleanor Childs. I'm here representing myself. I'm a citizen of Philadelphia. I'm also representing my school, Montessori Genesis II, which is a non-profit, small, private, independent school in the Mantua community. I'm representing the Coalition to Save the Libraries and I'm representing the Durham branch of the Free Libraries.

(Applause.)

MS. CHILDS: First of all, let me just thank the Council, because the last time I was here, I was with 50 people. It was my whole school, 16 three-year-olds all the way up to the 17 ten-year-olds, all of my staff, and we 18 were sitting in the gallery and we were so happy and felt so blessed that the Council voted on that day a resolution to put off the closing of the libraries until there was time to further discuss the issue and how it could be taken care of. And so we stood. We gave you our applause. We were very proud of you, and I wanted to thank you personally today.

During the interim between that time and now, that same school, along with schools, children, teenagers, adults, seniors of all races and creeds, those of us who are pierced and those of us who are tattooed and those of us who are not, those of us who are artistic, those of us who are number crunchers, I mean, throughout this city there was a ground swell of interest and concern about the closing of the libraries. People rose up. We had our pitchforks. We were rebels, we were rousers, and we fought to keep the libraries open, and we were very pleased that Judge Fox stood with us and the libraries were kept open.

Since that time, many people have felt that, Oh, thank goodness, the libraries are safe, but, in fact, we know that libraries are more than buildings, and so to say that we're going to keep those buildings open is not adequate unless we are going to give the resources both in people, in skills, in material. Unless those resources are going to be there, then those libraries are in fact not there. They are in fact, or de facto, closed.

And so we are here today, I am here today to say that my Durham Library is in jeopardy. We worry about whether or not our doors are going to be open. We worry about whether we are going to have enough staff people to do all of the myriad of jobs that they do. We worry about whether or not there will be those resources for the people of the Mantua community and the Powelton Village community, who together make up the community of the Durham branch of the Free Library.

There are so many uses that that library facilitate, and as I'm sure most of you know by now, because there have been just an uncountable number of articles that have been written in our major media as well as our minor media, the libraries are fulfilling a need at this point in time that we don't know whether they were ever meant to fill. They were always meant to offer the freedom of information, the ability to educate one's self, the ability to just enjoy the word. They were always meant to do those things, and as we know, they are a time-tested, cost-effective successful way of doing all of those things.
We don't have to have a special hearing to prove that. We don't have to have blue ribbon commissions to prove that. That's a known quantity.

But what they are doing at this point is making it possible for the citizens of Philadelphia, the citizens of the United States to find jobs, to follow up on the procedures for getting a job, to even hear back from an employee whether or not they got the job.

What the libraries are doing now is that they are offering not only a safe haven for children, but a respite place for adults who are under tremendous stress and strain during this very time of economic downturn, that they need a place where they can feel safe, where -- I'm talking about the adults -- where they can feel safe, where they can feel that someone cares about them and someone will help them to work through all of the things that they need to do to take care of themselves and to take care of their families.

Many librarians are at this point saying that they are becoming stressed because so much of this job is falling on their shoulders. This is not the time to pull back from the libraries. This is not the time to cut their resources. This is the time to say thank you, thank you that someone has been smart enough to create an entity like a public library that was flexible enough to move into this area of help and support for all of our citizens.

So I'm here today to ask you, number one, to be aware that when 20 percent was cut from the Durham Library and ten other branch libraries, it was in a way a decimation of our libraries, and that I would wish that you would put that 20 percent back.

I'm also here –

(Applause.)

MS. CHILDS: -- today to say there is absolutely no way that you can take anything else out of the libraries. It is not going to work to have my Durham Library buddy up with another library, be open three days a week and then the staff run back and forth between libraries. That's not going to work.

(Applause.)

MS. CHILDS: That is not going to work. We need our library to be safe. We need our library to be secure. And I mean the library itself. We need the staff, the professional librarians, the materials, the books, all of the other resources that a library has. We need those things to be in there and functioning at the best of levels.

One of my students, he's six years old, he's in the first grade. He is a mischievous little boy and gets in a lot of trouble. So sometimes when I see him, I have jaundiced eyes and I don't know what I'm going to be facing that day. But early last week, he came into school. He had a handful of money. This is it, $2.50, one dollar bill and lots of change, and he handed it to me and he said, Ms. Childs, I want to give this to the libraries to keep them open. So I was asked today by Channel 10, Oh, well, isn't that a good way for maybe the libraries to stay open, if everybody gives money. Well, I would like every child in the City of Philadelphia to bring a penny or a dime, but we know that all that would really do would be a practice in allowing children to learn that they can stand up for things that they believed in and that they in fact could contribute, but when it comes down to the true funding of our libraries and our other essential services, it has to be us, the adults, who make the decision of where to place those finances in order to have those services available to all of our citizens.

Thank you.

(Applause.)