new york
Library Murder on the Orient Express
Oh, they shut down the mighty Donnell library, where we used to research term papers in the eighth grade*, to make room for a boom-era hotel owned by Orient-Express Enterprises Incorporated LLC. Now the economy’s gone all bust and the hotel is high-tailin’ it back to the Orient Asia. So what now? The original plans called for a scaled-back mini-library, from 42,000 square feet of public space to 19,000.
What will become of the gutted building? Affordable housing? Archive-style lofts? Spiraling Skyscraper Farms?
*100 note-card minimum, and oh, they had old copies of Playboy at periodicals circulation!
Starchivist alert!!!!
Gothamist recently interviewed rockstar librarian David Smith. Wow what a guy. Here, in bullet-point form, are some reasons we love him, and some reasons we hate on him and therefore love him even more:
Love Him Because
- Was a taxi cab driver in NYC in the 70s
- Gets to do personal research projects for famous people like Diane Arbus, George Carlin, Werner Herzog
- Also helps HS Students, the homeless, random folk
- Wants to bring back rent control (not the fake rent control we have now)
- Would never consider leaving NY
- Likes the B&H Restaurant on 3rd ave
Hate Him Because
- Once paid $135/month rent
- Greatly admires Jonathan Saffron Foyer
- OK this list is a lot shorter than we thought
