First of, let me apologize for the absolutely awful title of this blog. Lungs are so biological and wet and you wouldn’t want to touch them with your bare hands and to look at one might remind you of the more gross scenes in an episode of House or, worse than that, Bones.
Yet -- it makes a point, doesn’t it? Lungs are vital not only for keeping us alive, but keeping us mentally alive. Unlike muscles, your brain cannot store energy. It needs a steady flow of nutrients and oxygen to function normally. Oxygen deficiency can decrease your alertness, memory and judgment.
This is why I think it is vitally important, if you are a resident of Los Angeles, to vote YES on Measure L in this Tuesday’s (March 8th) municipal elections.
Here’s what Measure L says:
Shall the Charter be amended to incrementally increase the amount the City is required to dedicate annually from its General Fund to the Library Department to an amount equal to .0300% of the assessed value of all property in the City, and incrementally increase the Library Department’s responsibility for its direct costs until it pays for all of its direct and indirect costs, in order to provide Los Angeles neighborhood public libraries with additional funding to help restore library service hours, purchase books and support library programs, subject to audits, using existing funds with no new taxes?
Here’s what that means:
Measure L will not require residents or property owners to pay more taxes or fees: While the amount of funds the Library receives from the city is based on a percentage of property values, Measure L will only increase the Library’s share of existing city funds. Measure L funds are subject to audits.
Measure L will progressively increase the Library’s share of existing funds: Within 4 years, Measure L will increase the Library’s Charter‐required funding from the current .0175% up to a maximum of .0300% of each $100 of assessed tax value on property within the city and provide the funds needed to restore 6‐day and 7‐ day a week library service citywide.
Measure L will increase the Library’s responsibility for the cost of its operations: It will increase the Library’s responsibility to pay for all of its direct and indirect costs, until the Library pays for all of these costs, which include utilities, building maintenance and other operation costs.
Measure L will respond to recent reductions in library services that have resulted in: Library hours cut 3 times in the past 12 months; library service cut from 7 days a week to 5 days a week for the first time in the Library’s 139‐year history; and Library staff cut by 28%
Here’s some facts about the Los Angeles Public Library:
Includes the Central Library, 72 neighborhood branch libraries and a Website with on‐line resources.
The Library budget ($150.7 million) is 2% of the total city budget ($6.7 billion).
In FY 2008‐09, a record number of people visited the 73 libraries 17 million times; borrowed 18 million books and other items; used the Library online 155 million times.
Library programs and services include (A complete list is available at www.lapl.org):
6.4 million books and other items 2300 public computers Adult Literacy Centers in 21 libraries.
Online homework help and a safe place to do homework.
Online job search guide and resources.
Programs for children, teens and adults.
Okay, stop snoring. I know a recitation of facts is boring but, damn it, they’re important. So look, let me catch your attention with a disaster movie scenario:
In 2008 the City Council and Mayor decided to start shifting certain costs over to the Library without additional funds. The first two years of the shift resulted in certain budget restrictions, reduced hours and layoffs. In 2010, the third and most recent year of the shift, $22 million was taken from the Library budget and sent back to the City General Fund to pay for indirect costs. This amounted to essentially a 25% reduction. As a result the Library eliminated 28% of the staff, cut services and closed libraries two days and two nights a week.
That’s the back story -- if Measure L doesn’t pass here’s the real disaster:
If Measure L does not pass the Los Angeles Public Library system is expected to lose another $28 million. The loss of $22 million devastated the Library this year; an additional $28 million would essentially destroy the public Library system in LA.
They would be forced to close 64 of the 72 branch libraries, leaving only 9 libraries open only 5 days a week a maybe less. That would be accompanied by massive layoffs essentially firing another 50% of the librarian work force and support staff. To be clear that would mean that 64 libraries would stand as monuments to our city’s decision to abandon the Public Library system as we know it.
The closures would leave one Library to serve all of East Los Angeles, one Library to serve all of South Central Los Angeles and three libraries to serve the entire San Fernando Valley. This would return the Library to where it was at the tun of the century! No, not the last turn, the one before -- it would take one of the the best library systems in the world and reduce it to where it was in 1900!
There is such a thing a blast from the past -- but this ain’t one of them.
The unique aspect of Measure L is that the additional funding our library system would receive would not come through the raising of taxes or the accruing of debt through a bond, but from a shift of allocation of funds already in the city budget. There is, of course an argument to consider against Measure L, for you can’t shift towards something without a shift away from something. There are those who decry the fact that other city services may suffer because of this shift. The most prominent city service mentioned is our police department, not a service to hamper. But as Charlie Beck our Chief of Police supports Measure L, that doesn’t seem to be a major concern.
Chief Beck probably supports Measure L for a lot of good, hard, practical reasons, such as providing a positive place for the young to gather, rather that on the streets, or internet access for many who do not have it at home. This being the early 21st Century and not the early 20th, such access can help the disadvantage search out and apply for jobs or services, which can possibly make them a little less disadvantaged, thus a whole lot less frustrated, a condition that could lead to less of the civic peace Chief Beck has been hired to keep.
I very much like the fact that our library offers such services for they are undeniably important. But what I love is the little bursts of inspiration and revelation and life changing moments that libraries can offer to individuals. Literary treasure Ray Bradbury has made this statement:
“When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years. I read everything in the library. I read everything. I took out 10 books a week so I had a couple of hundred books a year I read, on literature, poetry, plays, and I read all the great short stories, hundreds of them. I graduated from the library when I was 28 years old. That library educated me, not the college.”
Any diminution to the effectiveness of our libraries to give comfort and succor and the fresh good oxygen of creative and mental stimulation to future Ray Bradburys is a sin against civilization. No city, indeed no community of any size, can truly consider itself as civilized without outreaching, welcoming, comprehensive and open libraries.
If you live in Los Angeles I urge you to vote YES on Measure L on March 8.
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