The Nazzaro Center Knights were recently all given brand new shirts to be worn whenever they compete and they couldn’t look any sharper. The Knight logo is prominently displayed on the front and is framed by a Nazzaro Center arch over the top and the team name below. “I love these new shirts”, team captain Ryan Read More…
Much to the dismay of the Mayor’s Office and BPL Trustees, a group of State Representatives from Boston, including our local 3rd Suffolk District Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, have co-sponsored three amendments in the State budget that would force the City of Boston to keep all the branch libraries open in order to receive $3 million in State funding. While the North End and West End branches survived the City’s proposed budget cuts, four branch libraries remain at risk of closing. (See BPL Trustees Vote to Close 4 Branches; North End/West End Stay Open).
Note: The 12 State Representatives are: Reps. Forry, Moran, Basile, Wallace, Allen, Fox, Honan, Malia, Michlewitz, Rushing, Sanchez and Walz.
Press Release:
Boston State Representatives Mobilize to Save Local Libraries
Twelve State Representatives from the Boston delegation in the Massachusetts State House co-sponsored three amendments that seek to keep all Boston Public Library (BPL) branches open.
“The Trustees of the Boston Public Library and the Mayor of Boston have made clear their budget priorities,” Representative Michael Moran said. “Today, as a united group of legislators from neighborhoods throughout Boston, we are standing together and clearly stating that our priorities are to keep every branch library open.”
The BPL receives over $3 million worth of funding via three separate line items in the state budget. The amendments filed today would add additional language onto each line item, making their allocation contingent upon all 26 local branches remaining open in 2011.
“We had hoped that the Board of Trustees would do the right thing by keeping each branch open,” Representative Carlo Basile said. “Today we are taking steps to make sure that the right thing for our neighborhoods does happen.”
Carmine Vittoria discusses his book, Bitter Chicory to Sweet Espresso: Survival and Deliverance from WWII in the Naples, Italy, Area 1940-49, which relates events of WWII as witnessed by the author as a child. Where: North End Branch Library, 25 Parmenter Street When: Wednesday, September 26, 2018 @ 6:30 p.m.
This is an email I sent to Sal LaMattina and to our at-large councilors. Please send your own emails to support our library:
I’m very concerned about the citywide library budget crisis. I wanted to share some thoughts with you about our North End branch in particular.
In addition to its remarkable support by an active Friends organization, the branch has recently been upgraded with exterior landscaping that makes its a wonderful outdoor space for residents and visitors to stop, rest and enjoy a book or just watch the neighborhood activity. That project was costly and should not be wasted.
Because the library has a terrific Italian collection, it is a boon to local Italian-speaking residents. It helps reinforce the North End’s Italian roots and tends to keep our Italian residents in the neighborhood, where they keep their culture alive for the benefit of us all.
More importantly, those Italian residents are aging. I would hazard a guess that we have more non-car owning residents in the North End per capita than any other neighborhood in the city, many of them older, possibly physically challenged long-time residents, but also a growing number of young, early-career residents who make use of modern urban alternatives like Zipcar or bicycles. But all of this puts a premium on city services that are available within a convenient walking distance. The nearest alternative branch that would be available to North Enders would be the West End or Charlestown branches, assuming either survives the cuts. Our elderly and infirm residents, not to mention the foot-bound younger residents, would be left without a reasonable alternative.
On a different note, we have a growing student population who need and can make great use of the library resources. This resource should be available to them, supporting the established view of Boston as an intellectual, academically intense city.
The library is also a place where young families find resources that make them want to stay in the city, even as their families grow. With resources such as children’s reading and activities, homework help, tutoring, ESL and other language assistance, not to mention simple fun activities, the North End branch helps stem the outflow of families to the suburbs as they grow and begin to feel the city can’t provide the full range of developmental activities. I fear that some young families would read the North End branch closure as one more signal that they would have to move away from Boston to find services that keep their children engaged and developing.
Of course, we have only one branch in this densely populated neighborhood. Other neighborhoods have multiple branches, and I feel the burden of a closure would be more lightly felt in those multi-branch neighborhoods.
Thanks again for the terrific work you do for the city and the North End. I know you have multiple neighborhoods that are vying for your influence on behalf of their libraries, and that you must feel torn by the various loyalties, but I truly feel that the library branch in the North End is an unusually powerful unifying force in our neighborhood. I hope your leadership can ensure it is preserved in these difficult times.
Best Wishes,
Bill Lane