North Philly neighbors shout down Councilmember Young’s plan to replace their library

Councilmember Jeffery Young sped through his PowerPoint presentation as the heckling and shouting got louder and louder. The crowd of hundreds gathered at Wayland Baptist Church in North Philadelphia chanted “Time is up!” calling for someone to cut his microphone.

Young was speaking at a community town hall Tuesday night on the future of North Philly’s Cecil B. Moore Library, which has been closed since Jan. 21 because of a defunct HVAC system. Young is proposing to demolish the building and replace it with a new library that has affordable housing units above it.

Community members resoundingly told Young that they do not want that to happen, and instead implored him and the Free Library of Philadelphia to move forward with plans to renovate the branch that were designed and approved long ago through the city’s Rebuild initiative. They were angry, and told Young repeatedly that he was not listening to them.

“My job is to look at every resource available to make our community better,” Young said. He promised that despite some rumors, the library would not be permanently closed, and that the city and Free Library officials were working on identifying temporary library spaces for the community.

Teenagers and seniors alike gave emotional testimonies about the importance of the library to the neighborhood. They shared deep concerns about how attached housing could negatively impact the operation of a library branch.

“I grew up in this neighborhood, I learned how to read at that library,” said Cynthia Harris, a local block captain. “You’re not concerned about us … you want to build affordable housing? We’ve got it all around the block and you know what? Most of the housing that you’re building here, the people that live here can’t even afford to live in them.”

“We are against demolition,” said Nadine Blackwell, another longtime neighborhood resident. “You are pushing for mixed-use units above the library. We resoundingly do not want that. We want a library.”

Renovations to the branch through the city’s Rebuild initiative were scheduled to begin in October 2024. These repairs to the library, which first opened in 1962, were initially planned to be more limited in scope and cost about $1 million, but community groups and lawmakers have fought to secure a total of $5.3 million for the project, according to the Save the Cecil B. Moore Library Greater Coalition.

Rebuild has proposed repairs in collaboration with community groups, which include a new HVAC system, plumbing, a new teen space, ADA accommodations, painting and flooring, and exterior improvements. Those designs were finalized and scheduled for bidding last year.

But that never happened.

Instead, Young, who filled outgoing Council President Darrell L. Clarke’s seat in 2024, secured an additional $5 million from the city’s 2025 capital budget and delayed the project. Young offered his proposal to demolish the current branch and attach housing to a new library instead, suggesting it could cost around $20 million. It is unclear where the extra $10 million would come from.

“Those renovation plans are 20 years too late,” Young said at the town hall. He gave examples of other “co-located spaces” in Philadelphia and other cities as support for his vision, like CHOP’s South Philadelphia Health and Literacy Center and in New York City. The goal of these kinds of spaces, he said, is to better connect low-income communities with public resources and create more housing, particularly in Philadelphia where affordable housing is scarce or not actually affordable.

“Real estate is limited,” he said.

When Young said that he wanted the Philadelphia Housing Authority to manage the new units, the crowd bristled, even after Young promised to hold them accountable.

“You can walk up and down this neighborhood and see that PHA ain’t never been accountable,” said a young woman who said she is a lifelong neighborhood resident and library user but did not announce her name.

A young man named Shane, who did not announce his last name, said he was concerned with how a private developer’s involvement, which could be necessary to close the significant funding gap, might hurt the community.

“Time after time, the public is ignored while rich people fill their pockets,” he said. “Who is really benefiting from this?”

This fight is part of the Free Library’s citywide struggle, where branches suffer from a lack of investment and are closing as aging infrastructure becomes unusable. Some renovations that have been planned through Rebuild are moving achingly slow or are outright stalled.

» READ MORE: The Port Richmond library is closed again, as Rebuild roof project stalls

Young’s office recently conducted a community survey regarding possible options for the future of the library. The survey asked whether respondents preferred to renovate the current space, demolish the current library and replace it with a new one, or demolish the library and replace it with the mixed-use building. Of the 137 respondents, the largest group, 43.8%, voted for the mixed-use building.

The survey options described renovating the current space as “leaving the exact same footprint and programming spaces,” and demolition for a new library or the mixed-use building was described as getting “a brand-new state of art 21st century library.”

(The coalition, offering different options for the space, did their own survey with very different results.)

Liz Gardiner, a library worker and AFSCME DC47 union member, said she believed from firsthand experience that the mixed-use proposal would harm the library’s ability to function properly. She worked at Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze, which has apartments above it. Gardiner said that she experienced lots of issues in her workplace, like leaks, fires, and pests, because of the apartments.

“If you love libraries so much, they deserve their own space,” she said. Another young woman spoke about similar concerns about conflicting space, like how her ability to study could be impacted by someone throwing a party right above the library.

“Why is the library closed when you have money allocated right there?” said community member Donna Price.

“Listen to what we’re trying to tell you — no to housing.”