Mayor Nutter

That's actually his name. Full name: Michael Nutter. I can't help but giggle every time I read an article about "Mayor Nutter." It reminds me of the mad hatter.

The last few weeks the city has been locked in limbo waiting to see if Mayor Nutter's Plan C (ie: The Worst Case Scenario Plan) would have to be enacted. For those of you not listening to news about Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is actually the last state to have balanced their budget for this fiscal year. And you thought California was bad.

Here's a little of what Plan C (a.k.a WCSP) entailed: laying off 3,000 city employees, closing after-school programs and senior centers, shutting down a large portion of the city courts, and finally, closing the libraries. Yes, that's right, closing the libraries. For the last two weeks if you visited the Free Library of Philadelphia website (why do they have to tell us that it's free?), a box popped up saying, "Libraries to close Oct. 2! Contact your legislator!" I wasn't sure who mine was, but they provided a handy-dandy link to look it up, and I happily did so. I mean, the libraries in the city aren't that great to begin with, but to close them completely? It seemed to me downright un-American. Where would Robert go to get books? And where would the people of the neighborhood go to take their GED classes, or register to vote, or just check their Facebook sites?

The library down the street from us (about a mile away, I can walk there in 20 minutes) is at the center of a busy shopping district called 5th & Olney. (Note: Olney is pronounced Ahl-nee not Ohl-nee. This has been difficult to get used to) The first time Chris tried to go there it was closed. It was a weekday. It was the middle of the day. They were just closed. The first time I went there, it happened to be open. Their hours were something like this: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10-5, Friday 12-5. But the librarian who helped me get a library card seemed to apologize as she handed me a business card with the hours and phone number and said, "Always call first, just to make sure we're open. Sometimes we close even when we're supposed to be open." Um, really? I learned that a bunch of libraries were closed down last spring due to budget cuts, and the books are all just sitting in those shuttered libraries, gathering dust.

So you can imagined my outrage, but not surprise, when I heard the libraries might close. Thankfully, the state government came out of their meeting yesterday having passed the budget, allowing the city's funds to move slowly down the pipeline back to Mayor Nutter's office, and hopefully out into the services they're supposed to fund.

Don't even get me started on what might have happened if they had closed the city courts.