Fishtowners march to save their library

It was Kafkaesque, said Fishtown's A.J. Thomson, as more than 100 bundled-up Fishtowners marched along Girard Avenue on yesterday's sunny but chilly afternoon.

"Fishtown takes to the streets to save its library," said Thomson, 32, shaking his head as he followed the march. "It's a surreal scene. How often do people have to do something like this?"

Thomson, a lawyer who has a 4-year-old daughter, joined in the rally and march yesterday to save Fishtown's library, one of 11 slated to be closed as part of the Nutter administration's budget cuts.

The crowd rallied at its library, near Girard and Montgomery avenues, then walked the mile-and-a-half to the Kensington Library, near Front and Dauphin streets.

Kensington Library, along with the Ramonita de Rodriguez Branch, at 6th Street and Girard Avenue, are proposed alternates to Fishtown's library.

At the rally, at-large City Councilman Bill Green spoke to the sea of Fishtowners, some bearing signs that read, "We love Fishtown Library" and "Books before the budget."

"Do not let the process keep you quiet, you have to remain loud," Green, who has been fighting for the libraries in City Council, told residents. "Scare them into doing the right thing."

State Rep. Michael O'Brien, D-Phila., also addressed the crowd.

"This is a very, very special place, not just for the community, but for me," he said of the Fishtown Library, to cheers. "This is where a lifelong love of education started for my children."

O'Brien asked that Fishtown residents tell Mayor Nutter to make cuts with a scalpel, not an ax.

Teri Ramsay, 54, who has been instrumental in working to keep the library open, announced that more than 4,000 signatures were collected for a petition.

After four young children performed a short play in which a mother lion could not learn to feed her cub without the library, the crowd, accompanied by a police escort, began its march west on Girard Avenue.

As marchers left the Fishtown Library at about 2:30 p.m., Thomson's daughter, Julia, pulled on the door of the library.

"An unsolicited testament to how she loves the library," said O'Brien, looking on.

Thomson held his daughter's hand as they kept up with the group, which blocked traffic in the outer lane of Girard Avenue.

"She wants to be able to take her little sister or brother to the library," he said. "But we don't know if that's going to happen."

Thomson, a member of Friends of the Free Library, said that he had attended similar rallies Saturday at the Kingsessing and Eastwick branches.

He said that Fishtown got the most support of the three.

"These are neighborhood people coming out for our library," he said, adding that he "grew up in the library" and that he takes his daughter there every Monday night.

"We're not taking [the cuts] lying down," he said. "I want to be able to tell my kids that I at least tried to keep the library open."

About a half-hour later, the crowd rounded the bend at Hope and Dauphin streets, under the shadow of the El, to arrive in front of the Kensington Library. They gathered in front, sandwiched between the stairs to the York-Dauphin El stop and a corner bar, and began to chant: "Books before the budget."

Ramsay, who runs a parenting program in Fishtown, estimated that between 25 and 30 people had dropped out during the march, unable to walk the distance.

She said that the committee plans to write a business proposal requesting that the city leave the Fishtown Library for the community to run.

Many Fishtown residents don't feel safe, either, among the corner catcalls and broken glass of Front and Dauphin streets, Ramsay pointed out.

"You can tell from where we are, though it isn't actually too far, it's miles away," she said.

"It's not to put this neighborhood down . . . but would I feel safe sending my grandson here? No."