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Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

nypl.org

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Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#41

Post by TimedToasts »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #31
willmeyers wrote: post #14

Shutting down NYPL on Sunday is almost akin to shutting down homeless and rec centers on Sunday. It only hurts the disenfranchised who need the shelter and resources the most.

Personally I hate the fact that libraries have become de facto homeless shelters. It gives them a constant background noise of danger and a lot of these people just sit around watching softcore porn on youtube. I think you'd see more library attendance if the places felt safer to leave kids at alone

I spent a decade as a public library board member.

I saw every possible combination of anti-social behavior from the homeless that would encamp there. Many times I had to 'assist' asking someone to leave. The librarians _could_ have called the cops and had the violators permanently barred from re-entering but they would rarely do that.

It is 100% scaring away families and elderly.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#42

Post by woodruffw »

David_Axelrod wrote: post #9
KerrAvon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, give more money to the cops. That'll fix everything.

The police budget is ~6 billion, out of about a $110.5 billion budget [0] https://www.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/agency-budgets-pro... [1] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/omb/downloads/pdf/fp11-23.pdf

That's before overtime, which the NYPD routinely abuses to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars annually[1].

[1]: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/nypd-overspending-on-ov...

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#43

Post by ghaff »

ilamont wrote: post #30

A lot of American cities are experiencing budget shortfalls thanks to the WFH trend and other factors, and it will exacerbate problems with many important and popular services. Here in Boston, we just found out that the estimated cost for fixing the subway system is $24.5 Billion ( https://www.universalhub.com/2023/maybe-if-we-held-bake-sale... ). It's been neglected and mismanaged for years, and no city or state age…

Ridership of public transit in Boston has slowly improved but it's still down something like 40% since pre-pandemic. I don't know how much is WFH--auto traffic seems and everyone I've talked to agrees as bad as ever or worse. But it certainly doesn't help on the funding site, especially to the degree that low ridership leads to service cuts which make for even lower ridership.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#44

Post by freeopinion »

ipaddr wrote: post #16
CrazyPyroLinux wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is the problem the mayor is trying to get help with. The number of illegal immigrants this year has skyrocketed and it's bankrupting the city.

Well if that all it is, there's a simple solution. Make all the illegal immigrants legal. Then the budget for illegal immigrants goes to $0.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#45

Post by woodruffw »

ilamont wrote: post #30

A lot of American cities are experiencing budget shortfalls thanks to the WFH trend and other factors, and it will exacerbate problems with many important and popular services. Here in Boston, we just found out that the estimated cost for fixing the subway system is $24.5 Billion ( https://www.universalhub.com/2023/maybe-if-we-held-bake-sale... ). It's been neglected and mismanaged for years, and no city or state age…

The NYC subway is run by the MTA, which is a state agency. They aren't included in the city's budget.

(Historically, this has been a large reason why the MTA has been woefully underfunded -- the state has used it as a political lever against the city.)

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#46

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

freeopinion wrote: post #44
ipaddr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the problem the mayor is trying to get help with. The number of illegal immigrants this year has skyrocketed and it's bankrupting the city.

Well if that all it is, there's a simple solution. Make all the illegal immigrants legal. Then the budget for illegal immigrants goes to $0.

Firstly; that would be a Federal problem, not something that the City can do anything about. Secondly; even if they were illegal immigrants (which is undetermined at this point; most of them claim asylum and have had no determination made for their case) they would still have had the right to shelter under City law.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#47

Post by Avshalom »

David_Axelrod wrote: post #9
KerrAvon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, give more money to the cops. That'll fix everything.

The police budget is ~6 billion, out of about a $110.5 billion budget [0] https://www.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/agency-budgets-pro... [1] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/omb/downloads/pdf/fp11-23.pdf

great thats a billion dollars left for them after NYC covers the budget shortfall.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#48

Post by woodruffw »

nostromo wrote: post #37
gosub100 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder why they don't include AirBnB in that? Oh, yeah, I forgot, they're totally not a hotel, right?

AirBNB is all but banned in NYC. So the hotels are full of migrants, not tourists, and there are few other options, which further hurts the local economy.

Tourism numbers are rapidly approaching pre-pandemic highs[1], with the main inertia being Asian tourism, not a lack of hotel availability.

The city really shouldn't be attempting to house migrants in midtown Manhattan, but doing so isn't actually appearing to hurt tourism numbers.

[1]: https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/09/05/tourists-china-hotel-rate...

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#49

Post by lapphi »

TimedToasts wrote: post #41
shortrounddev2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I hate the fact that libraries have become de facto homeless shelters. It gives them a constant background noise of danger and a lot of these people just sit around watching softcore porn on youtube. I think you'd see more library attendance if the places felt safer to leave kids at alone

I spent a decade as a public library board member. I saw every possible combination of anti-social behavior from the homeless that would encamp there. Many times I had to 'assist' asking someone to leave. The librarians _could_ have called the cops and had the violators permanently barred from re-entering but they would rarely do that. It is 100% scaring away families and elderly.

It’s interesting how we (as a culture) tolerate people who have broken the social contract. As Americans we’ve really let the bottom fall out. They’re so far away from society they do not care anymore about norms. And we do not care to do anything except let them exist in our spaces to the detriment of the public.

Re: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

#50

Post by stetrain »

David_Axelrod wrote: post #3

Of course no one is happy about cuts to vital services like the library. But people are also unhappy with a 3% minimum city income tax and a $5 billion budget shortfall. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A quick google says the proposed city library budget was $471.5 million and the total city budget is $107 billion.

That's less than half a percent of the overall budget.

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