Save the Fanueil library

In the late afternoon of Thursday a week ago, M. and I took a walk through the nicer parts of our neighborhood, meandering along the streets of the river-facing slope of the hill atop which our apartment sits. In the sunshine, the houses shed their wintertime drabness and seem cheery and quaint, and we are able to imagine Brighton as a real neighborhood, rather than a noisy entrepot jumbled with students, pseudo-yuppies and working stiffs.

We didn't have a fixed destination guiding our wandering, but as we neared Oak Square we decided to check out the small branch library on Fanueil Street. It's rather tiny, but stocked with an excellent selection of books from every leading digit of the Dewey Decimal System. The new fiction section didn't necessarily boast the month's latest releases, but I did find several books that had only been published in the last four to six months, and of course classic literature was well represented. And there were a lot of detective novels and a decent set of science fiction books (though not so many by the old grand masters) available.




The library was even full -- there adults being tutored for the GRE, census workers, internet browsers, readers like ourselves casually scanning the shelves. The art deco children's room, which has a stage for readings, muralled walls and ceiling, a fireplace, and beautiful old wooden bookshelves, was full of quietly busy children, several apparently well known by the library staff, who took their phone calls: "Jerome, it's your mother. She wants you home. Right. Now." The front foyer was plastered with flyers advertising concerts, art lessons, museums, and volunteer opportunities -- working with distressed veterans, reading to the blind, spending time with homeless children. The atmosphere was wonderful, and it stirred neighborly feelings for our fellow Brightonians.




Thrilled as we were to discover a relatively convenient library branch, one with plenty of books to read and movies to watch, we were dismayed to learn, from the same bulletin boards, that the library is slated for closure due to budget woes. If it is closed, we will have no active library branch within walking distance. The main Brighton branch, which lies a hair closer to our apartment, albeit in an uglier direction, is a moldy cinderblock dropped beside the local courthouse, and it has been closed for renovations all year, with no outside indication that it will reopen anytime soon. The closure decision is not yet final, but multiple-choice budget cut proposals presented to the public seem slanted towards just this outcome. The numbers for the past few years---budget reductions of 60% accompanying a 30% increase in library use---seem crazy. I'd happily pay an extra percent in sales tax if I knew it went to the library. Or even a library tax on book sales in Boston. Whatever -- save the library! It's one of the few nice things Brighton has going for it!