Friends,

I am just back from a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor Gray, CM Wells and Head Librarian Ginnie Cooper at the newly renovated Mount Pleasant library.

This $11.2 million renovation is now complete.  It is a great restoration, and it reflects many months o community discussion and debate.  All of that resulted in the greatest good for the greatest number. Special thanks are due to the staff of the DCPL, the Friends of the MP Library, and all the residents who attended the many community meetings.

The newly opened Library joins the good news from the Gray Administration concerning tax credit funding for the Oscar Romero Apartment Building at 3145 Mt Pleasant Street. A great week for Mt Pleasant!

Today the library has a modern administrative wing and the historic parts of the building have been fully restored for the public to enjoy.  And like we wanted – everyone—those able and those living with disabilities-- now enter through the same main entrance.  And there are improved spaces for children’s activities such as story time. It also holds the largest number of Spanish language books in the city’s libraries.

Much of the original financing to open this library back in 1925 was a result of the generosity of Andrew Carnegie.  That makes my involvement in this project all the more special to me because like Carnegie I am also a Scotsman.  My family immigrated to this country when I was eight.  And when I first walked into the impressive library in our neighborhood, it had also been built with his financial backing.  But I never dreamed that I might be in a position to one day help in the creation of something for the community on the scale of Carnegie.

As my colleagues said at today’s ribbon cutting, a library is more than just a collection of books – it is an oasis of ideas.

I hope you too will enjoy our new library.

Bests, Councilmember Jim Graham