Statement before Glenn A. Walsh

Pittsburgh P.O. Box 1041

City Council: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041 U.S.A.

Abandonment of Telephone: 412-561-7876

Historic Hazelwood & Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@andrewcarnegie.cc >

Lawrenceville Internet Web Site: < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >

Library Buildings 2004 March 30

Good morning. I am Glenn A. Walsh of 633 Royce Avenue, Mt. Lebanon. Today, I am representing no formal organization.

Despite the opposition of the majority of residents in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Hazelwood, on March 13 The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh closed the historic Hazelwood Library building built by Andrew Carnegie in 1900. And, now, the historic Lawrenceville Library building is next on Carnegie Library’s hit-list. According to the Library staff, they plan to have a neighborhood meeting about moving the library out of the historic 1898 building in May or later in the Summer.

The Lawrenceville Library is a true library pioneer:

Ø First of more than one hundred neighborhood branch libraries built by Andrew Carnegie in the United States

Ø First specifically designed and constructed library Children’s Room

Ø First library specifically designed to allow the public direct access to the book stacks, including a central circulation desk

Ø Building design became a model for Carnegie Libraries throughout the world

Next to the historic Lawrenceville Library building is the Stephen Foster Community Center, which includes a senior citizen center and scheduled programs for youth, including a Tiny Tots program which takes pre-school children to the Lawrenceville Library frequently! What better place to have a library than next to a multi-purpose community center!

Although Carnegie Library complains there is little parking near the Library, Library patrons regularly use the community center’s parking lot next to the Library, including during special events in the Library’s large auditorium; Stephen Foster Center staff told me they have no objection to this. All that is now needed is for the Library to obtain permission to use the parking lot after the 4:00 p.m. closing of the community center.

At last year’s Carnegie Library budget hearing before the RAD Board, Library Director Herb Elish said he would not move the Hazelwood Library until the neighborhood was consulted. Yet, at the neighborhood meeting in September, he told the audience that the decision to move the library had already been made! How can this, truly, be considered “consulting with the neighborhood”?

In December, right in this chamber during Carnegie Library’s annual budget hearing, Councilman Len Bodack told Library Director Herb Elish that the Lawrenceville neighborhood wanted their library kept in the historic library building. Yet, Library management is still planning to move the Lawrenceville Branch.

I ask that this Council tell, yes tell, Carnegie Library that they must hold at least one widely-publicized meeting, open to the general public, before any official, or even unofficial, decisions are made to move a library. And, unlike the token neighborhood meeting in Hazelwood last year, you must tell Carnegie Library that they must really listen to the wishes of the majority of residents of the neighborhood. In the case of Lawrenceville, it is urgent that this be done right away.

If this Council does nothing, you will be allowing a bureaucracy to utilize taxpayer money with no accountability to the people—once again, taxation without representation!

Thank you.

gaw