DC Statehood Green Party leaders join Ward 7 demands for restoration and reopening of Benning
Library
The DC Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Friday, May 11, 2007
Contact:
Scott McLarty, DC Statehood Green Party Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty@greens.org
Rick Tingling-Clemmons, 202-397-2277, Mirico5@aol.com
DC Statehood Green Party leaders join Ward 7 demands for restoration and reopening of Benning
Library
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Community leaders may seek an injunction to stop destruction of the Benning Library building
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Statehood Greens ask, why do branch libraries in lower-income neighborhoods remain closed,
while Georgetown gets promises of quick restoration after the fire in April?
WASHINGTON, DC -- DC Statehood Green Party leaders are supporting demands from Ward 7
community leaders that plans to tear down the existing Benning Library be canceled, and that
the DC Public Library system take steps to restore and reopen the facility.
"Local residents, especially ANCs, have been shut out of the decision-making process," said Rick
Tingling-Clemmons, a Statehood Green Party activist who serves as Advisory Neighborhood
Commissioner for Single Member District 7D05. "We've been given no plans nor the opportunity to
make any input into whatever plans there might be for the library. It's
clear that the closing of Benning Library was motivated by a land grab and
official generosity to developers and contractors. We've learned that [City Council
Chair] Vincent Gray has stated in several community meetings in this area that
his idea is to tear our library down and have it relocated in the new government building that is currently
under construction for DOES among other agencies on Minnesota Avenue, NE. This has made it
crystal clear that the principal scheme is to gain control of our land."
Despite public opposition, Mr. Tingling-Clemmons noted that "in 2004, Benning Library was boarded
up, the books moved out, and the heating system ripped out. The community was outraged that
there hadn't even been thought given to the fact that the library was a polling location that had
not been replaced; our award-winning chess club had been disrupted, the
loss of that safe place resulting -- either directly or indirectly -- in
the death of one of the young men in the club; a local child care program had lost its graduation
space; many seniors had lost their daytime haven; the community had lost a decade-old
exercise class; our children had lost their homework help; and many other community supports thoughtlessly
disrupted."
Statehood Green leaders compared the closing of Benning, Anacostia, and Watha T. Daniels branch
libraries and lack of local library services to promises by city officials for quick restoration
of Georgetown Library after the latter was severely damaged by a fire in April.
"If restoring library services for Georgetown residents is so important, why isn't it important
for people in Ward 7?" asked Eddie Rhodes, former Benning Neighborhood library volunteer, former
Ward 7 ANC commissioner, activist, and former candidate for the Ward 7 seat on City Council.
"If anything, Ward 7 residents -- many of whom don't have the financial
resources to purchase books -- need their local library even more urgently than Georgetown residents do."
"We need all our libraries open and functioning, especially for our children," agreed Ann Wilcox,
former School Board member for Ward 2 and Statehood Green Party leader.
Statehood Greens also called for the reopening of Anacostia Library in Ward 8. A temporary
structure was opened there in April, with over 20 computer stations in constant use, with waiting
lists. In a ward where speculators are salivating over the prospect of school buildings
being declared "surplus," schools are without their own libraries, and the "great weight"
provision allocated to ANCs has been violated, community leaders are calling it an "act of
brutality" that the DC Public Library Commission left the Anacostia and Benning libraries closed
for over two years, with no plan to date for permanent replacements.
"We want our library reopened in the building it is in, with the equipment, accoutrements and
staff to again function," said Mr. Tingling-Clemmons. "When that happens, we will
then entertain other ideas about what we want done with our library. The bankrupt practice for
folks who are not from this community to keep telling us what we need in our community --
generally for their own benefit --must stop. We will no longer allow anyone to tell us what we
will do with our buildings or our property. This will no longer be tolerated by the taxpayers of
this or any other ward of the city. We are prepared to go to court over this issue, and
we'll ask for an injunction if the city moves to tear down Benning Library."
MORE INFORMATION
The DC Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org