For Immediate Release
Contact: Robin Diener
202/387-8030
202/431-9254
Public Outrage Mounts Over West End Giveaway
Ralph Nader to Address Rally at West End Library on Saturday July 14 at 9:30 am
WASHINGTON, DC – July 13, 2007 – Ralph Nader will join Empower DC and other community activists at a rally to protest the DC City Council’s enactment of “emergency” legislation on Tuesday authorizing the sale of the West End Library and other public property to developer Anthony Lanier of Eastbanc, Inc.
The rally will begin at 9:30 on Saturday July 14 in front of the West End Library at 24th and L Streets, NW. A quarterly meeting of the West End Library Friends will follow at 10 am, with a presentation of their proposal by Eastbanc.
The rally organizers said their plans came together spontaneously as individuals across the city struggled to make sense of the emergency legislation announced only 24 hours before being passed into law. Library advocates, ANC's, and other civic groups, lamented that they had received no notice from the Chairman of the Council Library Committee, or the Public Library staff or Trustees, or other City Council Committees involved.
In the past, the emergency designation was reserved for time sensitive actions but increasingly, according to many close observers, City Council appears to be adopting the emergency designation to circumvent processes of public notice and citizen input otherwise required by law. On Tuesday, City Council considered an unprecedented 44 pieces of emergency legislation.
The rally and Friends of the Library meeting are free and open to the public.
9:30 am – Rally
10 am – Friends of the West End Library Quarterly Meeting
West End Branch Public Library
24th and L Streets, NW
LIBRARY
DYNAMOS