The board of the Brooklyn Public Library voted unanimously Tuesday to sell its Brooklyn Heights branch to a real estate developer. NY1′s Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.
Linda Johnson, the president of the Brooklyn Public Library, couldn’t even get a sentence out before an opponent interrupted.
In an interview with NY1, Johnson began to say, “To me, this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring a state-of-the-art,” before an opponent interrupted her and shouted, “Liar!”
A unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees for the Brooklyn Public Library is what’s generating some vocal opposition.
The board voted to sell the land under the Brooklyn Heights Public Library to Hudson Companies for roughly $ 50 million. The board plans to reinvest about $ 40 million into other branches.
Hudson Companies would develop a 20-story structure with 132 market-rate apartments on the old Brooklyn Heights Public Library.
The new library would go on the ground floor and in the basement. It would have about half the square footage of the old library, but more usable library space.
“One, we want to build a fabulous state-of-the-art library in Brooklyn Heights. Two, we want to take the proceeds from the sale and we want to build equally great libraries in other neighborhoods that are equally deserving all over the borough,” Johnson said. “That’s really what it’s all about.”
The business and career library currently in Brooklyn Heights will get relocated to the central library, which is the primary point of contention from opponent Marcia Rimler.
“The center of Brooklyn right now is downtown. The business library needs to be in downtown,” Rimler said.
“The people that come here to central to take advantage of either technology will have the business resources, and people who come for the business and career library will have the advantage of all the technology, which programs that we offer,” Johnson said.
Outside the central library, about a dozen protesters gathered ahead of the vote. The allegation there from one protester, who said, “I’m outraged at the secrecy,” was steadfastly denied by the library president.
This is not a done deal. It still has to go through the land use approval process. If it gets the green light, the scheduled construction completion date would be before 2020.
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