Thursday, January 26, 2012
Mudville / Politics / Sports The Tim Floyd era begins at the Chicago Public Library
Posted by Ben Joravsky on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 5:01 PM
- Bobak Ha'Eri/Wikimedia Commons
- Tim Floyd. Thanks, coach!
That's when Tim Floyd replaced Phil Jackson as the coach of my beloved Chicago Bulls.
Before I go further—time out for an explanation for our more sports-challenged readers. We'll take it one step at a time, like it's a TIF explanation.
The Bulls are the professional basketball team in Chicago.
Phil Jackson coached them for most of the 1990s, when they were really, really good and won a bunch of championships.
Ah, the glory years.
At some point in that run, Jackson had a falling-out with Jerry Krause, the team's general manager.
Michael Jordan declared he wouldn't play for the Bulls unless Jackson was the coach. (I suspect even our most sports-challenged readers know who Michael Jordan is.)
So Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Bulls, essentially had to choose between Michael Jordan and Jerry Krause.
He chose Krause.
That sobbing sound you hear is coming from me.
Jackson was not rehired. Jordan quit. And into town came Mr. Floyd, a young college coach, who had been one of Krause's fishing buddies.
Thus ushering in years and years of misery from which the team has only recently recovered.
For which I say—thank you, thank you, Derrick Rose!
By the way, you can read all about those Jordan years in great books by Sam Smith, David Halberstam, and other writers, which you should be able to find at your local library.
Provided you don't go there on Sundays. Neighborhood branches are closed on Sundays.
Or Mondays. Branches are also closed on Mondays.
Or need the assistance of a librarian, who probably will be in the stacks reshelving books. In the old days, pages reshelved books. But Mayor Emanuel fired the pages on the grounds that we can't afford to pay someone about $11 an hour to shelve books cause we need to spend that money building a grocery store in Greektown and staging spectacles for the G-8 and Nato summits.
Sorry, tangent. Where was I?
Oh, yes, Jerry Krause's fishing buddy ...
I don't know if Brian Bannon and Mayor Emanuel are fishing buddies—not even sure that Mayor Emanuel fishes. And I certainly hope that Bannon's tenure with the libraries is more successful than Floyd's with the Bulls.
But essentially, Mayor Emanuel's done what Krause did—replacing a seasoned vet with an out-of-town rookie whose greatest qualification seems to be his ability to tell the boss exactly what he wants to hear.
In contrast to Mary Dempsey, who apparently told the boss what he didn't want to hear—namely, that firing employees and cutting hours will destroy the library system she spent so many years trying to build up.
Thus, at his introductory press conference, Bannon dutifully nodded along as Mayor Emanuel explained his library cuts this way: "The debate is not just about library hours—[it's] what will our neighborhood branch libraries be like in this information age. We need to define that next mission, write that next chapter, and adapt to the changes."
In other words, let's pretend that the recent spasm of library cutbacks, firings, and closings is part of some larger, well-thought-out strategy.
As opposed to some half-baked budget-cutting idea that popped out of Mayor Rahm's head in between lunches with members of the millionaire's club.
Look on the bright side, people—if you need to visit a well-funded library with convenient, seven-days-a-week service, you can always go to Wilmette, the mayor's hometown.
Somehow or other the library functions in Wilmette without people having to redefine its mission.
Comments (10)
Showing 1-10 of 10
I'm beginning to resent the fact that this guy is trying to gut the city of Chicago. Can we vote on sending him back to Wilmette or from wherever the guy came from? I'm sure he's not a Chicagoan because it seems like he hates it so much. He wants to cut the knees off the teachers. He wants to tax the crap out of everyone. He wants to make everyone a criminal with his red light scheme. He hates your average joe. He doesn't like parents who have children in CPS, especially south side parents. He doesn't like Mary Ann Ahern or Karen Lewis for sure. Oh, but he loves the south side pastors who he paid out millions of dollars to so that they would literally sign on to his longer-school-day campaign. Yeah, the pastors got religion after meeting with Rahm and promised their new god that since they were getting city contracts by the millions of dollars, they would, in turn, sermonize to their parishoners that the longer school day was virtuous and rightous. Yep, the pastors on the south side love Rahm.
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"By the way, you can read all about those Jordan years in great books by Sam Smith, David Halberstam, and other writers, which you should be able to find at your local library."
Wikipedia is a fucking valuable thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jorda…
Tough Tight and Together.
On a September day a while back a meeting was held at the Washington Library.
For the first time all the librarians employed by the City of Chicago gathered
in one place for an in service meeting.
School librarians, like me, and Public librarians listened to presentations,
talked to each other and we even had a Librarians scavenger hunt.
The driving force behind this was Mary Dempsey head of Chicago’s Public
Libraries. She was a superb leader who knew her people and her job.
Many School Librarians had a sort of inferiority complex because
most of us did not have ALA certification. While Public Librarians
did not have teaching certificates .Ms Dempsey would have none of that.
She told everybody we were all Librarians .Mary was the reason we have
such a truly great library system today. Her appointment was one of the
few our former mayor made that was not political.
Mayor Emanuel should realize the people of this city loves their libraries
"Wikipedia is a fucking valuable thing."
More valuable than actual books?
Should read "wikipedia is a CONVENIENT thing".
@FGFM: I too can't believe you think WIKIPEDIA is a valid substitute for a highly regarded and thoughtful book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Maybe you should see if Rahm has any more openings in library administration.
It seems to me that the destruction of the library system must be deliberate. They cut library hours in 2010 and then used the resulting drop in circulation to help justify further cuts. This new round of cuts will inevitably lead to slower, poorer service that will lead to a further drop in circulation, which will justify more cuts, etc., etc. Frees up more money for corporate welfare!
I'm sure Dempsey realized this.
"More valuable than actual books?"
Wikipedia is much more valuable than any one book.
"I too can't believe you think WIKIPEDIA is a valid substitute for a highly regarded and thoughtful book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist."
It's certainly an alternative and Pulitzer Prizes are meaningless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedm…
"Maybe you should see if Rahm has any more openings in library administration."
I couldn't afford the cut in pay.
"More valuable than actual books?"
"Wikipedia is much more valuable than any one book."
Wikipedia will tell you that France was founded as a corner store [bodega] in 1974, or something like that. Gotta love the crowd-sourced info.
I thought you half intelligent, or at the least, knowledgeable. Or perhaps not.
FGFM = Troll on every Reader blog thread
"Wikipedia will tell you that France was founded as a corner store [bodega] in 1974, or something like that."
Dr. Kookie, you're right!
"I thought you [sic] half intelligent, or at the least, knowledgeable. Or perhaps not."
Well played.
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