In New York, public libraries in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn will all be forced to close on the weekends after Mayor Eric Adams announced a full list of proposed cuts to the city funders. The 5% budget cut will impact every city agency across New York City, including [00:00:15] the police and sanitation departments, as well as the public library system. The budget cuts will also impact spending on library materials, programming and building maintenance repairs. This is, of course, according to PIX 11 News. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn, Queens and [00:00:32] New York Public Libraries held rallies to protest $36.2 million in proposed budget cuts in the fiscal year 2024 budget at city hall. Elected officials, union representatives and library associates or advocates rallied to preserve funding for libraries. [00:00:48] Same news station recording this, libraries were exempt from budget cuts in June after a spirited campaign that included support from everyday New Yorkers, as well as celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Miller, Chelsea Clinton and others, library leaders said. [00:01:04] Listen Ray, I mean, before we get too far in it, I appreciate celebrities saying something, but put some money up. We also. >> Right. >> Should figure out how we sue Texas and Florida for what they're doing to the budget in New York because of all the migrants being shipped illegally. I think this is human trafficking and I think we should do something about that. [00:01:22] What is your thoughts on that? >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree, and as someone who lives in Chicago, we've been seeing the same sort of crisis here. I live right next to one of the migrant tent cities and it breaks my heart every single day cause it's winter in Chicago, it's cold. And I'm happy that I have a progressive mayor here, that we have Brandon Johnson. [00:01:40] We have a lot of DSA members in our city council who are doing what they can to alleviate these issues. But one of the things that they've proposed is increasing taxes on real estate transactions over a million dollars to raise money to combat homelessness. [00:01:56] Eric Adams is not a progressive mayor, and I think, maybe the worst big city mayor in the [LAUGH] country. That being said, and we'll talk about all the other issues he's having right now but closing the libraries on the weekends. As someone who worked in after school programs with kids who grew up where I [00:02:16] grew up in a low-income area, there's not a lot of availability for things for them to do after school or on the weekends. Having something like a library can be the difference in a child's life, right? Between getting into bad activities that are not gonna [00:02:34] have them have great outcomes later on in life versus finding a passion for reading, going to college, getting good jobs. And so closing something that should be an equalizer for [00:02:49] everyone living in the city to be able to enjoy. I'll say you're right though, those celebrities, thank you for raising awareness. Put some money up because Eric Adams isn't gonna work the budget so that he can keep these libraries open. He doesn't care so help [LAUGH] some people. [00:03:07] >> Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, speaking of some of the other things you're talking about some of the other controversies, they're all really tied to Turkey. Some campaign donations, the FBI is investigating to see if some campaign donations came into Mr. Adam's campaign, even when he was in Brooklyn as the borough chief, [00:03:26] he actually said that he visited Turkey like six times or something. I think he said he's the most connected politician to Turkey in this country. So now we're gonna see how connected you are as this investigation plays out. And by the hopes and grace of God it better not be any [00:03:43] illegal actions because the FBI will find out my friend.