Kids Help Librarians Scare Chicago Politicians to Save Jobs

[The Straight Story]

CHICAGO—On Halloween morning, several dozen pre-school and early elementary-age children, many in their costumes, sat on the floor outside Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's fifth floor City Hall office. There they listened excitedly to a group of librarians read children's books, such as Where the Wild Things Are and Go Away, Big Green Monster.

They were cute, not scary, in their princess and cartoon character attire. But they might have been just frightening enough—especially to members of the City Council--to save "story hour" and other threatened services of their local public libraries.

The "green monster" in their real lives—aka Mayor Emanuel—recently proposed a budget that would cut a third of the full-time equivalent library staff to save about $8 million in a $6.3 billion budget (in an effort to fill a projected deficit of $636 million). Although former Mayor Richard M. Daley built 58 new libraries, two years ago he cut back staff and left hundreds of positions vacant. Emanuel proposes eliminating 268 currently vacant positions and laying off about 284 employees. Emanuel has alternatives for filling his budget deficits, such as diversion of surplus local property taxes accumulating in tax increment financing districts.

Chicago aldermen normally would avoid being seen with a protest against the mayor, but seven (out of 50) stopped by to associate themselves, however loosely, with the photo- and telegenic protest: Pre-schoolers mimicked the hundred-plus librarians, parents, patrons and
supporters present and pumped their tiny fists in the air, chanting, "No more cuts," as they delivered a petition signed by 4,000 more opponents of library cuts.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12226/kids_help_librarians_scare_politicians_to_save_jobs_story_hour/