Speaking Up for the Chase Branch of the Detroit Public Library

Chase Branch

Neighborhood plans effort to save its library. Detroit's Chase branch is among six slated to be closed. (Detroit News, 9/6/2011)

Excerpt:    It was a perfect summer night for being outdoors. Instead, the Detroit Public Library's Chase branch was packed.

Computer terminals were all in use Thursday, including one by a young mother searching for jobs online with a baby on her lap. A college student was studying near a group of teenagers playing cards.

And 40 members of the Fenmore Street Block Club were packed in a meeting room with a police officer discussing safety issues.

But the neighborhood gathering place could soon close under a cost-cutting plan, which has mobilized users into action, planning protests and letter-writing campaigns to try to save their branch.

"If you let them take this away, what is the next thing that will happen?" asked G. Peggy Noble, the block club president. "We are going to have to get together if you care about your neighborhood."

The branch, on Seven Mile near the Southfield Freeway, is one of six slated to close under a proposal by Detroit Public Library administrators, who say layoffs in March have stretched the staff too thin.

But the plan comes three months after officials abandoned plans that would have closed as many as 18 branches.

The six branches were targeted based on several factors, including building condition, usage and neighborhood population.

The library's Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the plan by the end of September.

Related articles:
6 branches being considered for closure. (8/24/2011)
Library commissioners reorder 10% pay cuts for top 3 library administrators.  (7/8/2011)
Ernie Hallwall memorabilia.  (6/9/2011)
Library commission aism high.  (5/25/2011)
Library u-turn:  no branch closures, no layoffs.  (5/21/2011)
The next thing you know..... (5/20/2011)
My boss has a 2010 Buick LaCrosse....   (5/19/2011)
Detroit Public Library revised its math.  (5/17/2011)
Detroit Public Library does the math....incorrectly.  (5/14/2011)
Residents speak up against branch closings.  (5/8/2011)
The library takes a page from the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.  (5/7/2011)
The news just keeps getting worse. (5/6/2011)
The Detroit Public Library needs some good news (and this isn't it).  (5/5/2011)
Rainy day fund keeps fewer branches from closing.  (4/29/2011)
Proposal to close 18 of 23 Detroit branches sparks anger. (4/22/2011)
Few expenses spared in South Wing remodeling of library.  (4/22/2011)
Downward spiral.  (4/16/2011)
Library reduces staff by 20%. (3/4/2011)
Budget woes. (2/5/2011)