The Village of Sunset Park, a nonprofit community-based organization, rallied this Saturday to save the Sunset Park Library from developers. If a deal is made, the current one-story Sunset Park branch of the Brooklyn Public Library will be demolished. In its place would be an eight-story building with 49 designated affordable apartments. The library would occupy the first floor, the below ground level and part of the second floor, increasing its floor space from 12,200 square feet to 21,000 square feet, the first time an expansion has been included in a deal like this.
The community group is unsatisfied with the potential building expansion, saying that it isn’t quite what it seems. “We’re really not getting that. We’re getting a shell, meaning we’re not getting the walls, the flooring, the electrical. We’re not getting anything else,” said local attorney Richard Villar.
The proposed library will be placed at the bottom of a residential building. Therefore, it will no longer be public or owned by the city. The Sunset Park Branch, which would be redeveloped for the third time, would never see another expansion. Library supporters worry that the size of the new library may not fit the needs of the growing community in the future.
The organization and its supporters also fear that this development will further gentrify the working-class neighborhood.
Javier Nieves, the former state assemblyman for Sunset Park, referred to affordable housing as, “a very, very slippery slope.”
“Affordable housing for who?’ is the question. This time, they’re holding our kids hostage to talk about building on top of this site. I think we really, really have to look at this very closely. We really need not only affordable, but low income housing. Because the majority of residents in this neighborhood are not even going to qualify for the housing that they are planning for this site.”
Wally Alvarado, a local attorney and Sunset Park resident, stressed that the organization is aware of the need for affordable housing in the area. “But not here. Not here. Not at this location. The endeavor of affordable housing can be implemented in so many other locations throughout the community. But not at the expense of this essential service that is our library,” said Alvarado. He also agreed with Nieves that low-income housing would be more beneficial to the residents.
The Village of Sunset Park and its supporters are distrustful of the developers and feel that they were kept in the dark about the condominium proposal. The community became aware of the proposal after Citizens Defending Libraries, a blog in support of funding city libraries, published the information.
“What we’re here to support and push for is more community involvement and engagement in this process. The community has been kept in the dark. Decisions are being made without our know-how, without our input, without us,” said Denis Flores, the co-founder of El Grito de Sunset Park, a local community group.
Michael White, a representative of Citizens Defending Libraries, spoke at the rally. He told the crowd that the blog was started when it came to his attention that library administration officials were moving away from the core mission of the libraries towards real estate deals. White said the officials seem to care less about the public and more about what can be done for developers. White instructed the crowd to look back at the discussions and minutes of old meetings to uncover the truth.
According to White, the plans for the Sunset Park branch go back to 2007, or possibly even 2005. “You will find that the underfunding of the libraries began when the plans to sell the libraries and turn them into real estate deals were being formulated. These real estate deals, in a perverse way, are generating an underfunding of our libraries and we have to say no to that. We have to call for the libraries to be properly funded and then we can do with them what the communities want,” said White.
White warned the community members that the promises made concerning libraries are not always kept, citing the Two Trees Development and the plans by Forest City Ratner to enlarge the Brooklyn Heights Library. “Basically, they’ve joined the side of the insiders because they got this real estate deal on an inside basis, and they’re saying that the insiders should have whatever they want, even at public expense,” said White.
A common thread among the speakers was the concern for what the demolition of this library will mean for the children in the community.
“This is a very interconnected issue that we are dealing with here. With times of mass incarcerations of our young men in our Latino and minority communities, we need places like this to always be available, so that our youth have a place to go,” said Alvarado.
“Our kids are going to be displaced. The reality is that you can put a completion date on [the project] all you want, but with the extras and how the city works, I can tell you two years, three years, can turn into five years. By that time, the kids that use this library will no longer be here using this library. They’ll be in junior high school and they’ll find another place to go,” said Nieves, who cited his background in architecture.
The library offers a multitude of services to the community, providing afterschool programs to the children and computers to those who cannot afford one, a reality for many in the working-class community. It serves as a senior center and a location for work force development. In the summer months, the library also doubles as a cooling center.
“This library services many, many children, many seniors. It’s busy all day long. Children are here after school doing their homework. For many people, this is their only access to internet,” said Christopher Robles, a local lawyer and supporter of the Village of Sunset Park.
Maria Roca, founder and chair of Friends of Sunset Park, had strong words for the Brooklyn Public Library. Roca read their mission statement aloud, stressing their stated commitment to providing, “the people of Brooklyn with free and open access to information for education, recreation and reference.” Sunset Park’s commercial strip has been growing over the past 15 years, according to Roca, and she speculated where the money has gone. Roca mentioned the recent $6 million price tag on the old 68th police precinct, which was supposed to be a community center, but was recently sold for development of market rate condos.
“The people who said they were going to be responsible and develop that property for the good of the community are going to walk away with $6 million in their pockets. They bought that building with a federal grant. Shame on us. Shame on all of us for perpetrating that kind of fraud in this community,” said Roca.
If the sale of the building were to go through, Alvarado pointed out that the closest library in one direction is in Bay Ridge on 72nd Street and another branch is located on 91st street. In the opposite direction, the closest library is on 9th Street in Park Slope.
Ramon Acevedo, the president of the Village of Sunset Park, spoke fondly of the library and the surrounding community’s efforts to keep it afloat. “We kept the drug dealers out of here. We kept the gangs out of here. We kept this place clean. We had to protect this because this is an institution in which our children receive an education. We come from a working class background. It’s the working class people who are struggling to get an education to further themselves in this life. And they want to take this library away from us.”
However, not everyone in the community is in opposition to the library. Sunset Park City Councilman Carlos Menchaca is in support of the expansion. “I support the development of permanently affordable housing and an expanded library for Sunset Park residents,” said Menchaca. “It doubles the size of the borough’s second busiest library. I applaud the developer’s commitment not to start any construction until an interim library site is secured. This guarantees Sunset Park residents will not experience a lapse in valuable library services.”
The Sunset Park Library is one of the busiest in the city, according to Brooklyn Public Library spokesman Adam Leddy, and has outgrown the community since its construction in 1978. “The new branch will be larger and better equipped to meet the modern needs of library patrons, such as access to technology and shared work spaces. Additionally, the project will create 49 units of affordable housing, nine of which will be reserved for victims of domestic violence.”
It may prove difficult, however, to sway the opinion of the Sunset Park community. “We’re here to let developers know, and everybody else know, that our community is not for sale and our library is not for sale,” concluded Robles.
