Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Library presidents call for efficient city partnerships in construction and maintenance
1:05:54
ยท
3 min
Library presidents discuss the need for more efficient city partnerships in library construction and maintenance. They emphasize the challenges of working within the current system and the need for reform.
- Tony Marx states that libraries need a working partner in the city
- Linda E. Johnson highlights the need for a partner to handle maintenance tasks efficiently
- Dennis Walcott suggests a comprehensive review of the city's building processes across various departments
Tony Marx
1:05:54
To do all this, we need a partner in the city that works, and I'm not sure that we have that.
Linda E. Johnson
1:06:01
That that's a great way to put it because we are actually we want to do the projects especially the large overhauls and we've demonstrated that we can do that and we can do it, as Tony said, more efficiently and under budget or at least at a much smaller budget.
1:06:22
But we can't do all the work.
1:06:24
We're not development corporations.
1:06:25
We need a partner that's going to take care of the roofs and the boilers and the HVAC systems.
1:06:31
Otherwise, you know, it's a big distraction from the work that is at the core of our mission.
Gale A. Brewer
1:06:37
So they're good partners in some cases is what you're I
Linda E. Johnson
1:06:41
don't wanna overstate it.
1:06:42
What I'm saying is we need a good partner who will be able to do that work in efficient ways so that we're not closed in our branches any longer than we need to
Dennis Walcott
1:06:51
So it's easy to beat up on DDC, but it's not just DDC.
1:06:56
There has to be a better way.
1:06:58
And I think OMB is a part of the discussion as well as far as the role OMB plays.
1:07:05
And this is not dogging DDC.
1:07:07
It's just unfortunately the reality we have to face.
1:07:09
We just briefed a council member around a project in this council member's district in Queens and this council member is not term limited.
1:07:19
And so this council member has the opportunity to see the renovation of his library before he leaves.
1:07:29
But a lot of times that's not the case.
1:07:30
That's not the way to do business.
1:07:32
And again, it's not dog in DDC, it's just the way the system is set up.
1:07:36
There has to be a better system to allow us to do buildings in a way that makes it both cheaper, more efficient and quicker.
1:07:46
It shouldn't take eight years from the time a shovel goes under the ground to a library being renovated.
1:07:53
You can renovate buildings or build buildings.
1:07:56
We have a building that's going across from central library in a parking lot that in three years it was put up.
1:08:04
I mean, that's just the way it is.
1:08:07
We are open to partnering as Tony indicated and Linda is an expert on and obviously Iris and our teams are all part of this as far as how to improve the system, but also the city should play a role I think in taking a comprehensive look as far as all the components that are part of building whether it's parks, it's libraries and other types of buildings in the city and making sure that barriers that exist to prevent those buildings from being built in a timely manner and in a cheaper manner are eliminated.
1:08:41
And it's not the people at DDC, it's just the bureaucracy of how we have to operate as a building institution in the city of New York that prevents us from building libraries in a timely manner.
1:08:59
One final thing, you know, you guys know I was chancellor at one point and I always use this as a counterpoint when we talk about libraries and then building with
Gale A. Brewer
1:09:10
SCA did a good job.