Detroit Libraries Closing: 4 Branches Will Shutter Due To Budget Cuts

While the Detroit Public Library's main branch got a $2.3 million renovation earlier this year with new chairs, light fixtures and fireplaces, other branches are not so lucky. Four are set to close this week, a blow to book lovers across the city.

Last month, the DPL Commission announced that a shrinking budget due to declining tax revenue made it necessary to shutter the Lincoln, Mark Twain, Monteith and Richard branches (see map below).

Advocates for the city's libraries rallied at a commission meeting Tuesday, trying to save the four branches with a temporary reprieve, but to no avail.

Detroit libraries aren't the only ones hurting; across the country libraries are in crisis.

Sill, the local scheduled closures are much less drastic than original plans. One possibility was closing 18 of Detroit's 23 branches.

It's hard to imagine how such a dramatic reduction would affect the city's library patrons. Fortunately, that plan was based on a misconception that tax revenues would decline 20 percent through 2015, the Detroit News reported. The library commission misunderstood a statement from the city that 20 percent of the city's property taxes go uncollected.

While DPL did stave off the 100-plus layoffs that were slated for June, the better financial forecast wasn't enough to save all the branches. They now suffer from under-staffing after layoffs and the retirement of 81 employees in March, as well as an expected $11 million deficit.

The library considered other potential solutions, according to the Library Journal, including closing six branches, reducing hours and closing branches on alternating days.

"We didn't have enough staff left to man all the sites," library director Jo Ann Mondowney told the Library Journal. "The staff has been stretched very thin, but no one wanted to close the libraries."

Union members of UAW Local Union 2200 argued that the best way to resolve understaffng would be to recall laid off workers.

The closed branches' collections are slated to be split among other DPL branches. It remains to be seen what will happen to the four soon-to-shuttered branch buildings, three of which are owned by DPL.

"It is the most difficult decision to close libraries especially during difficult economic times when people need their libraries the most,” said Judge Edward Thomas, president of the Detroit Library Commission.

Look at the map below to see if the branch nearest you is affected, and leave your memories of DPL branches in the comments.

View Libraries Closing in Detroit Dec. 22 2011 in a larger map

Comments

[Cory Jack]

05:53 PM on 01/18/2012

And this is happening under a Republican appointed Republican city emergency manager.

If one doesn't see the patterns here, you're not paying attention.

Why is public education under attack? Why are community colleges getting less and less funding affecting millions of students? Why is NPR and Public Television under attack? Why is SOPA and PIPA now up for legislation?

And now after considering that, look at education rates and voting patterns.

I'm not saying this to be a snob, I'm not of the ilk that people who vote Republican aren't bright. I am under the ilk, though, that people who vote Republican have been woefully misled.

It's not a truism for all, everything I stated in my previous paragraph, but it's a pattern and well documented.

You can easily fool people into voting against their own self interests when they're unaware that they're actually doing so. Attach religion to it after stealing it from people, and what do you have? This.

I realize this is insulting, I'm not blind to that, but I couldn't find better words to describe it.

I apologize for my post. truly. but I also meant every word.

[mozart12]

07:23 AM on 12/26/2011

No winners

[mozart12]

07:22 AM on 12/26/2011

There are no winners here

[mozart12]

07:14 AM on 12/26/2011

There no winners here.

[Cory Jack]

05:55 PM on 01/18/2012

Unfortunately in the long run people who want to keep us "in the dark" and ignorant of things are winners here.

[ttsgw]

03:30 PM on 12/23/2011

Why should the tax payers pay for libraries. It is as stupid as they should pay for education or health care. This should of course be paid by the user.

[frosty6731]

12:47 AM on 12/28/2011

Read a book.

[ttsgw]

03:12 AM on 12/28/2011

As books make people knowledgeable, they should of course be forbidden among common people.

[Cory Jack]

05:58 PM on 01/18/2012

He's being ironic and proving a point at how people on the right think. I too had a visceral reaction to his post thinking "what's wrong with this guy?" lol before realizing where he was coming from and its getting us talking. I call that pretty damned effective.

I'm not saying this to be mean to you frosty i do apologize if it comes off that way.

[Plaintruth]

04:12 PM on 12/29/2011

And taxpayers should not have to subsidize sports stadiums either :)

Let the users and sports promoters pay.

[chergoyle3]

10:45 AM on 12/23/2011

The sign over the library door says all that is necessary to understand why libraries are under attack. Knowledge is Power. The only power this government wants is the power IT holds over ordinary citizens. Political factions may rewrite history all they like, but the truth lies in the volumes housed on the shelves of any PUBLIC library. Of course, they and the flunkies they shove into office want to keep that truth from the American people. An ignorant and brainwashed electorate guarantees to keep them in power forever. A COMPLETE audit of local and state government will find many wasted funds that can be spent on truly public institutions like libraries and parks. A survey of citizens will find many volunteers who will undertake some of the burden of running those institutions. The aim in closing libraries is not to do the people's work, but to reduce their resources.

[Cory Jack]

06:00 PM on 01/18/2012

HUGE amen!

And on a personal level, I live in Texas now, but grew up near Detroit in Flint and this story broke my heart.

[Dianne M Daniels]

09:43 AM on 12/23/2011

Sad to see this...I remember when the branch nearest my childhood home in Detroit closed. It was a blow to me and to my family - the library was one of our favorite places to visit. I'm no longer living in Detroit - and I'm very sad to see this happen. We have to make re-opening the libraries a priority...

[Cory Jack]

06:13 PM on 01/18/2012

I can't help but think how much this is like New Orleans.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but I see this as yet another attempt by Republican lawmakers to further disenfranchise African Americans.

In New Orleans, a natural disaster happened, but the REAL disaster was how the government treated it. And Kanye West was perfectly accurate in his assertion that "George Bush doesn't like Black people." If Katrina had happened in Darien, Connecticut, the response to help "those poor people" would've been overwhelming.

But what happened instead? New Orleans, as we knew it, is no more. And that's by design, make no mistake. And, like New Orleans cities like Flint and Detroit have an African American majority, and what happened in those cities? A diaspora of African Americans displaced all over the country just like New Orleans. Basically: the message I'm getting from our culture is that "Black cities aren't as valued as non-Black cities."

Yes, I realize looking at the map that one of the branches is in a very affluent area, but honestly: I think that's a smoke screen to keep people from seeing the phenomenon I'm seeing.

And as a native Flintstone (I still like calling ourselves that. lol, it's a Flint joke), it breaks my heart this is happening and value truly the education I received in Flint, including public libraries like the ones being closed in Detroit.

Sorry this was so long. I'm just very upset about this.

[Wolfman Thomas]

08:36 AM on 12/23/2011

why not, everything else is shut down in Detroit

[Howard53545]

08:20 AM on 12/23/2011

The end is near!

[clr1390]

12:06 AM on 12/23/2011

Republicans obsession to not pay taxes is catching up. We pay less taxes now than we did back in the 50's. That is percentage of taxes paid. Not paying taxes ...the only ones laughing all the way to the bank are the extreme wealthy. they are loving it...LOL

[Doosmom]

06:51 PM on 12/22/2011

I grew up in Detroit in the late fifties/early sixties. I remember how beautiful our library was in the Redford High area. Sad they are all gone now.

[looksyoung2]

10:12 PM on 01/06/2012

I hear that. I went to Redford 64-68 and now I hear it`s gone too. Makes me glad I left Detroit in 78.

[Cory Jack]

06:18 PM on 01/18/2012

I left Flint just like you left Detroit. Making those cities dwindle in population is the goal of these conservative lawmakers and those in the 1%.

[James Hill]

01:12 PM on 12/22/2011

Sad story, not least b/c in the first paragraph you say, "a blow to book lovers across the city." Part of the problem is a misunderstanding of a modern library. Books are only part what libraries do. Meeting rooms, programming (including story times), computer access, shelter, etc.

[Friends of Monteith]

12:14 PM on 12/22/2011

The Four Branch Libraries are open Today. There is a surge of interest in keeping them open among Patrons, Staff, Tutors, Friends, Politicians, Clergy and other Community Leaders. Please do what you can to keep a positive discussion flowing about how to keep these Community Resources Open.

[waypd]

08:49 AM on 12/22/2011

Shame on you Detroit..............................

[walkerhds]

09:42 PM on 12/21/2011

and oddly enough, all of the branches being closed are in or on the border of neighbourhoods that could use a lending library most.

[Cory Jack]

06:19 PM on 01/18/2012

I'm glad you noticed that too. Except the one in Grosse Pointe. I think that was closed too so they can say "see we're not racist, we closed one in the white area too."