Philadelphia regattas this fall – the Head of the Schuylkill claims to be the nation’s biggest regatta – may be cancelled.
Upsetting as that is to a rower, that’s not the worst. Philadelphia libraries may close.
That’s a system that’s something like 240 years old, founded by Benjamin Franklin. I grew up on it – I’d be a different person today and a worse one without that library system. And as heartbreaking as closing those libraries would be, I can’t even spare tears because it’s not the worst that would happen if the city doesn’t get budget relief from the state, because they’re just out of money. Fewer streetlights, less trash pickups, fewer police and firefighters, no services for seniors or at-risk children – it’s unimaginable that some solution won’t be managed, but if it’s not I will be very worried about my parents and friends in the city.
Ted asked what measures the city has taken so far, or how they’ve mismanaged money to get to this point, and I don’t know the answers. I get the feeling no one really expects the “Doomsday” scenario, because the news I can find on it seems to be astonishingly uninformative. What does “closing libraries” mean? Laying off librarians? Furloughing them? What happens to the books? the buildings?
Here’s hoping.
Closing the libraries means just that: many of my friends who work for FLP will receive pink slips, will be laid off, will no longer be employed by the city. All the libraries will close. I don’t know what will happen to the materials or buildings – lie dormant, I suppose, until they can be sold or used by the city for something else that requires no money to run or manage.
I’m sick to my stomach about this.