Library Thing

DCist picks up the story here. As Sommer notes, the library has 99 problems. And now there's this gaping hole in the OCC footprint to think about. But it's easy to bury the lede in this story: Mayor Williams hoped to slip under the radar an ambitious restructuring of the DCPL. From the beginning his plan has resisted scrutiny, and the press has mostly not bothered. The Mayor released his Blue Ribbon Task Force report on the future of District libraries, a 370-page monster, the day before the Council's scheduled markup session on the legislation. And all this happens the week of Thanksgiving. I mean, come on.

Today Kojo Nnamdi—oh, go ahead, treat yourself, trill his name! You know you can't resist lolling those mellifluous tones over your tongue—will talk with new library chief Ginnie Cooper. Given that NPR just mentioned the tabled library bill in its hourly news roundup, I'm betting the question will come up. (NPR's angle, for what it's worth, was that the caucus found that the OCC site was too profitable to be given over to a public library. That's definitely Carol Schwartz's reasoning for opposing the Mayor's plan, but not Gray's position, that is, not his position before the vote. Now, it's harder to say. Barry's position is, as ever, mysterious. You know, I think I might have even said something like this to NPR's cub reporter.) Just a few more minutes of listening to poor Art Buchwald slowly dying on air on the Diane Rehm show, and then I'll be updating.

Here's the Mayor's response:

It's disappointing that the Education Committee did not approve our library plan but it's a good sign that the members tabled it rather than voting no. That suggests to me that they see the value of a new, clean, high-tech, child-friendly modern central library that is worthy of our great city and want to revisit this issue again soon. I will be redoubling my efforts over the next few weeks to work with Councilmembers to respond to any unanswered questions they have about the project.

I understand that yesterday Mayor Williams called Marion Barry three times before the committee vote, so phones will be ringing off the hook—now, he has to convince nine members to introduce the library bill as emergency legislation, if he has any hope of establishing the library transformation as part of his legacy.

Posted by Kriston at November 22, 2006 11:09 AM