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June 12, 2010
Barclays/Nets Community Alliance now supports Brooklyn Public Library
Atlantic Yards Report
After getting on the charitable map with contributions to playgrounds and to the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance is now supporting the Brooklyn Public Library's summer reading program.
(For perspective, the donation is far, far less than what the library needs to keep its doors open if planned budget cuts go through. Supporters of the city's three library systems are having a 24-hour read-in at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library beginning today at 5 pm.)
The summer reading program
As stated on SummerReading.org:
Target is the lead sponsor of Brooklyn Public Library’s Summer Reading 2010 program. Barclays/Nets Community Alliance, Astoria Federal Savings, National Grid Foundation and Con Edison have also provided generous sponsorship support. Additional funding is provided by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. In-kind support is provided by Con Edison, Scholastic, Sesame Workshop and Tops Trumps USA.
...And how much are they giving? It doesn't say, but consider that lead sponsor Target last year donated between $25,000 and $49,999, according to the library's annual report.
Presumably the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance contributed less. It's a worthy cause, of course, but, given the public subsidies for the project, and the sweet naming rights deal for the Atlantic Avenue transit hub, why not eliminate the middleman?
NoLandGrab: See if you can follow the ironic trail here.
In February 2007, the Brooklyn Public Library re-exhibited a collection of artworks that had first appeared the previous fall in Prospect Heights, entitled Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood. Only they excluded some of the works from the original exhibition, including a portrait of Daniel Goldstein, and photos of a Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn protest taken by our own Amy Greer. Among the Library's lame excuses for the exclusions was that they "didn't take positions on issues currently being decided" and were "publicly funded."
Now, however, that public funding is withering; the city's libraries are being called the "biggest losers" in the mayor's proposed budget, facing almost $75 million in cuts. That, of course, is but a fraction of the bounty that the mayor, and the state, have handed to Bruce Ratner to help him build his Brooklyn basketball palace. And now, flush with the taxpayers' hundreds of millions, he's going to give a few thousand crumbs to the Brooklyn Public Library — which was careful not to offend his eminence back in 2007.
Posted by eric at June 12, 2010 9:13 AM