Progress being made toward possible library in Broadway-Fillmore: Investigative Post

A community activist who met with the Erie County Library director to discuss Broadway-Fillmore’s book desert suggests a city-owned annex library at the market.

Broadway Market. Photo by Garrett Looker.

After years of inaction, progress is being made to bring library books to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood — with a branch library at Broadway Market suggested as a possibility.

John SpearsDirector of Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraryand Chris Hawley, a community advocate, met last week to discuss ways to address the book desert that exists across much of the city’s east side.

As a short-term solution, they discussed the possibility of expanding the library’s bookmobile into the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. As a longer-term goal, they talked about establishing a “physical presence” in the community, Spears said.

While no specific plans are being considered at this point, Hawley suggested before the meeting opening a branch library at the Broadway Market, which is owned by the city of Buffalo. The county funds the library system, and the city is responsible for owning and maintaining branch library buildings within its boundaries.

“It was a very productive meeting,” Spears said. “We are in complete agreement on the value a library would bring to the Broadway-Fillmore area.”

Spears declined to provide specific details of the meeting, stressing that discussions were still in their early stages. Hawley was not available for comment after the meeting.

A desert strip of books

For decades, the Dr. Francis E. Fronczak The Broadway Branch Library served the neighborhood before it closed after Erie County cut the library system’s budget in 2005. The Fronczak branch was one of 16 branches closed countywide, including five on the east side.

An analysis by Investigative Post Last year, the closures led to what experts call a “book desert” in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. Today, the nearest library is nearly a three-mile walk away.

Without easy access to libraries, a number of problems arise, experts said, such as Low literacy rate among children – a problem Buffalo has been facing for years.

“What effect would that have on a child’s sense of hope?” he asked. Susan Neuman in a previous interview. Neuman worked on the No Child Left Behind program during the George W. Bush administration and has studied book deserts for more than a decade.

“What effect would that have on their aspirations? On their goals? If they’ve never seen a book, why would they want to become literate? There’s no reason. I mean, the environment has a huge impact on children’s learning.”

The return of a library

The Central Terminal Neighborhood Associationof which Hawley is a member, has been lobbying the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library and elected officials to return a branch library to the neighborhood for nearly two years.

In September 2022, Hawley and the neighborhood association wrote to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz “to kindly request a new public library branch for Broadway Fillmore.” Poloncarz responded that he understood the benefits a library would bring to the community, but that the decision was up to library officials.

Last year, the county increased its library budget by $1.6 million, a 5 percent increase.

The pressure from the neighborhood association has been relaunched after Investigative Post analyzed the effects of book deserts across the city.

Inside Broadway Market. Photo by Garrett Looker.

For nearly a year, Hawley and Spears have been hoping to meet to discuss potential opportunities to increase access to the library.

They met from July 1st to “better understand the challenges that will need to be overcome to reopen a library branch at Broadway Fillmore,” Hawley wrote in an email.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for the library and this community to come together,” Spears told Investigative Post. “Regardless of whether a library ends up there, it’s a wonderful way to explore all the different ways we can better provide library services to this community.”

An immediate solution, Spears noted, is the library’s bookmobile – which offers more than 3,000 books and other materials and travels throughout the department. It could visit the neighborhood for events, he said.

The most ambitious solutions face greater obstacles, such as operating and personnel costs.

The reality is that the path to a new library in any neighborhood would be fraught with obstacles.

“There would have to be a lot of things happening. It would require changes to our operating budget, it would require working with the city,” Spears said. “But I think we agree that if everything lines up, we would like to strive to make that happen.”

Now that the two have met, Spears said the most important thing is that the library has built a bridge to another community in hopes of increasing access to education and information.

“The players are starting to come together,” Spears said.

published 11 minutes ago – July 12, 2024