People of Boston

We are building momentum as we approach the June 3rd City Budget Hearing on the library. Again, it starts at 6 PM at city hall, with a rally beginning at 5 PM in the plaza outside. Rally Sponsorship The sponsorship list for the rally beforehand at Government Center is growing. Our current list of sponsors [...]

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to give people an update on activities surrounding the library last week and what will happen next.  Sorry it has been so long, it makes the update kind of long, but make sure to see what’s coming up next: On Wednesday, the trustees meeting was held and the trustees tabled [...]

Hello All, I was invited to a meeting with Pres. Ryan, the clerk of the trustees (who took notes) and 8 other members of the community yesterday.  News of the meeting has caused a little bit of concern among some of you, so I just wanted to quickly update you on what it was and [...]

Hello All, We had a great meeting last Wednesday.  I know downtown is not convenient for everyone, nor is the time, so if you want to have a meeting in your neighborhood, just let me know and we can set one up. I updated the website and Facebook group to add our updates and here’s [...]

Hello All, We had a great event at the Jamaica Plain Wake Up the Earth Festival and signed up over 100 new supporters.  It is a great sign that people recognize that their services are being cut, even if their branch is staying open, and that everyone is vulnerable again in the next budget cycle. [...]

Hi All, Tuesday’s trustee meeting introduced us to the newest member, Carol Fulp.  She’s a trainee of Paul LaCamera, so now we won’t have any more confusing ties and you can guess which way the tiebreaker will go.  Another millionaire Super Friend on the board.  Is it too much to ask for a Trustee that [...]

This is the Week! After a long, long wait to take action, we will finally see the wheels at city hall start to move on the libraries.  There are signs from the city, state, and federal level that we can save these libraries and jobs and move toward some real reform in the library system. [...]

Coalition to Save the Boston Public Library Rally for A Better Library Budget (One City Hall Plaza – Boston, MA – 6/3 – 5 PM) Boston – A coalition of residents, professional groups, and community groups will be rallying ahead of the June 3rd budget hearing on the Library Department at City Hall.  The rally [...]

Thanks to everyone who came out to rally for the libraries yesterday.  We had some phenomenal speakers and heard the story of so many different points of view.  It is great to be teamed up with folks like Massachusetts Senior Action, AFSCME, Friends of the Faneuil Branch Library, and all of our other sponsors.  Thank [...]

Dear Councillors, I know that the budget season has been much harder on you than on us, so I wanted to thank you for your support and attention at yesterday’s budget hearing.  If our supporters ran long, it is because we have been talking to deaf ears all over the city and were desperately hungry [...]

Hello All, The first budget vote is coming up.  We know they will vote no, so the question is what happens after that.  The fire fighter’s concession is enough to save the libraries and the youth jobs program for the year with just a little extra money from the city.  The councillors are very focused [...]

Hi Everyone, The fire fighters and the city have come to an agreement that prevents the dire financial situation that the city was predicting from the arbitration: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/09/boston_fire_union_reach_deal_on_raises/ As I said last night (a few hours too early, it turns out), an agreement here helps us to push the fact that a fully-funded library system [...]

Actions With another week gone in this already shortened process, the library still will not say how they will spend any money that they city or state (which has yet to complete its budget process as well) may provide to them or when they might meet to consider a plan for extra funds. As the [...]

Hello All, For those who could not attend the Trustee’s meeting today, here are the details on what happened: Shortly before the meeting news broke that branch libraries will not close at the “end of the summer” as previously planned.  The mayor’s next budget will include an “ear-mark” designed to keep the branches open until [...]

Hi Everyone, Well, the budget passed with a lot of running around City Hall today.  It was a hard vote for all the councillors and some of the councillors that we worked closely had to vote YES on this budget even though they wanted to do more for the library.  They had to vote this [...]

Hi People of Boston: I hope that you enjoyed your summers and are looking forward to a wonderful New England Fall filled with all the things you come to expect, except for Saturday and Sunday hours at the Boston Public Library.  At 5:30 P.M. yesterday branches were informed that Saturday hours would not begin this [...]

City council met on Monday for a special post-audit hearing on the Boston Public Library’s FY2011 Budget. I previously posted the questions that councillor Yancey asked on our behalf.  For the most part these questions went unanswered, but written responses are supposed to be forthcoming and I will forward them when we get them. There [...]