Mayor cuts an old friend

Trims funds for library he uses

Mayor de Blasio is slashing millions in funding for the city’s public libraries after using the Park Slope branch as his personal satellite office for years.

The mayor has worked from the Park Slope Library at least 52 times since taking office in 2014 through this past January, according to his public schedules. In all, he’s held events and meetings at libraries across the city on at least 73 occasions during that time, though the Park Slope branch is by far his favorite.

The neighborhood library first became a postgym workstation for de Blasio in November 2015.

The branch is conveniently located across the street from the Park Slope YMCA in Brooklyn — where de Blasio still insists on working out despite living an 11-mile drive away at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan.

After exercising, the mayor often walks to the library to use an upstairs office for radio and TV interviews, as well as have powwows with high-ranking City Hall staff.

De Blasio logged 43 appearances on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” from the branch between November 2015 and April 2018, his schedule shows. The mayor’s done seven other radio and TV hits from the library and hosted a video conference with students to promote the city’s “college access for all” plan once.

In October 2016, de Blasio even held a meeting with his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray, at the library, with seven other top aides on speakerphone.

The mayor still proposed cutting $10.4 million in operating funds from the city’s three public library systems as part of his latest budget proposal, a City Council analysis found.

“It’s fundamentally wrong and hypocritical to take so much from our libraries only to slash their budgets in return,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, chairman of the Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee. “All libraries ever do is try to help every New Yorker in any way possible, and that includes Mayor de Blasio."

De Blasio’s budget proposal takes the extraordinary step of including the library funding cuts in future budgets. “That’s unprecedented,” Van Bramer said.

The Brooklyn Public Library system alone faces a $3 million cut. This means that the Park Slope Library and other branches could lose roughly $50,000 each a year, according to an estimate from David Woloch, an executive VP for the Brooklyn Public Library.

“We’re looking at less staffing – librarians, security – and fewer branch hours,” Woloch said. “We’re going to have to make some tough decisions.” Asked about the mayor’s habit of working from the Park Slope branch, Woloch said simply: “It’s great he likes the library."

City Hall spokesman Raul Contreras said city funding for libraries grew by $88 million on de Blasio’s watch.

“This includes funding for six-day service in every borough, and investing more than $1 billion over the next 10 years for facility improvements across the three systems,” Contreras said.