City May Sell Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill Libraries

According to the Daily News, the city has decided to sell of two Brooklyn branch libraries. The branch in Brooklyn Heights on Cadman Plaza West could be sold to a developer next year. The library would remain on the ground floor while apartments would be built above it. The library would shrink from 60,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet. Under the library’s plan, the Pacific Branch on Fourth Avenue in Boerum Hill would be sold in 2016 and the library would move to a building in the Brooklyn Cultural District. Many of Brooklyn’s libraries are over 100 years old, originally donated by Andrew Carnegie, and are need of over $200 million in repairs. Brooklyn Heights Association executive director Judy Stanton asked, “what do you do in the very long interim period when there will be no branch there?” The sales need to be approved by the City Council. GMAP, GMAP

Update: A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Public Library pointed out that though the building that houses the Brooklyn Heights Branch is 60,000 square feet, the neighborhood branch takes up only about 13,000 square feet of space in the building. The new branch will be at least 2,000 square feet larger. And the library has committed to having a replacement branch in place before any closing so a library will always be available to the community.

Brooklyn Public Library Plans to sell Two Dilapidated Branches [NY Daily News]

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