After budget cuts, NYC's libraries can't fix broken air conditioners amid heat wave

The New York Public Library system shuttered two Staten Island branches this week after busted air conditioners prevented them from serving as city-designated “cooling centers” amid 90-degree temperatures.

Two branches in Manhattan lacked air conditioning on Tuesday, but remained open with large industrial fans offering some respite for staff and patrons.

The air conditioning outages at the city-designated cooling centers in the middle of a heat wave are laying bare the financial problems facing the New York Public Library. The organization already shut down its Sunday service after the city slashed its funding last year, and is now staring down potentially deeper cuts in the upcoming spending plan.

Library officials are blaming the air conditioning problems on $750,000 in deferred maintenance costs exacerbated by Mayor Eric Adams’ recent budget reductions, and warn that more unplanned closures are likely on the horizon.

“For decades, the library has been an essential, free resource for all New Yorkers, especially in times of extreme weather,” said NYPL spokesperson Jennifer Fermino. “Unfortunately, budget cuts endanger our ability to stay open to the public.”

The budgetary dispute has resulted in real consequences for library patrons, many of whom are students, retirees and low-income New Yorkers. This week, patrons in three boroughs told Gothamist that the libraries are vital resources that provide internet access, reading material or cool places to unwind on a sweltering day.

“For me, it’s everything,” said Bobby Williams inside the Tremont Library in the South Bronx on Tuesday afternoon.

Williams, 61, said he was living in a nearby homeless shelter since his release from prison last year and relies on the library’s Wi-Fi to comb apartment listings and contact brokers and landlords.

“For people like myself, this is a very safe haven for me and I get things done,” he said. “I don't have money. I don't have a home. So this is really important to me.”

Fermino said proposed cuts to the organization, which operates 92 branches in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, will only make the situation worse this summer as libraries weigh Saturday closures and administrators struggle “to address emergency maintenance and repairs.”

Fifteen library branches were already closed for ongoing renovations long before the heat wave.

But Adams is pushing back against the widely panned library cuts and saying the NYPL and the city’s two other systems could have devised cost-saving measures that didn't involve ending weekend service. The NYPL has an endowment of more than $1.5 billion, according to its most recent publicly available tax forms from 2021, but there are restrictions on how that money can be used.

“We didn't call for libraries to be closed on Sunday,” Adams told reporters on Monday. “That's the soundbite that people have embraced. That was not our decision to close libraries on Sundays. The libraries made the decision on how they were going to find savings.”

The Adams administration did not answer questions about the budget cuts or library closures during the heat wave.

Gothamist visited 13 New York Public Library branches in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island as temperatures climbed on Monday and Tuesday to talk with patrons and to check the heat at the city-designated cooling centers.

At Tremont and three other Bronx library branches, the air conditioners were humming as parents with young children read together at tables and people took advantage of the free internet.

“When I get my own apartment and everything like that then I'll get my own Wi-Fi,” said 49-year-old security guard Jeff Bowden as he waited for staff to open the Francis Martin branch, near Fordham. “But until then, I come to the library.”

At exactly 11 a.m., a librarian unlocked the door to let Bowden into the crisp, air-conditioned facility.

But attendees at two other Bronx library branches aren't as fortunate. The Belmont branch and Bronx Library Center in Kingsbridge are also dealing with AC problems, according to the NYPL. Both are open for service, but are not being advertised as cooling centers.

Over on Staten Island's North Shore, patrons attempting to enter the St. George branch weren’t so lucky. Signs posted on the main entrance and book dropoff bin said the library would be closed all week due to “repair work,” which library officials attributed to the malfunctioning air conditioning.

Salma Faress, 31, and her two kids were among the regulars locked out of the library after planning to attend a weekly children’s program.

“I am a little disappointed because the kids obviously get excited about the program,” Faress said while standing in the heat with her children in a baby stroller. “The AC is never really on. They use fans and even then it gets pretty hot.”

Ana Magno Somera, 77, said the abrupt closure was disorienting.

“We count on it,” she said, adding that she planned to take the ferry to Battery Park.

And Jason Bamigboie, 30, said he visited the branch nearly every day to use the internet but would have to find another venue instead.

“I’m going to go spend some more money, obviously, money that I could be saving,” Bamigboie said. “On water or something cooling, that’s my plan.”

NYPL said a broken cooling system also prompted it to temporarily shutter the Stapleton branch, located about a mile south of St. George, until next week. The library system also closed the Bronx's Soundview and Clason Point branches in the Bronx this week to “facilitate building improvements,” like new paint jobs and a bathroom upgrade.

In Manhattan, the Battery Park City and Kips Bay branches also went without air conditioning Monday and Tuesday, though library officials say the air conditioning is now up and running at both locations. Outside Kips Bay, a sign on the door identified the site as a “cooling center” while inside, a security guard in a suit stationed himself in front of a large fan.

But the heat inside of the Kips Bay facility didn’t stop more than a dozen patrons from using computers and perusing the bookshelves on Tuesday afternoon.

Retired teacher Suzanne Schwartz was sitting in an armchair and reading the New Yorker when she spoke with Gothamist. She said she visited a library branch nearly every day and kept finding new benefits — like the hours she recently spent in the children’s section after a category on Jeopardy made her realize she knew little about classic kids' books.

“I spent part of an afternoon looking at children's books and realizing their utter charm,” Schwartz said. “You could just have a wonderful time at the library.”

The air conditioning outages at the four libraries represented just some of the problems facing the network of more than 500 cooling centers throughout the five boroughs this week. Staff working for the City Council’s Oversight Committee canvassed 30 sites and found 11 would be closed for the Juneteenth holiday, said Committee Chair Gale Brewer. About 40% of the city’s cooling centers were closed on Wednesday.

During a press conference on Monday, NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol encouraged residents to visit locations that aren’t official “cooling centers” but may provide respite, like coffee shops or museums — though those come with a cost.

New Yorkers have yet another option, Iscol added.

“We've also invited every elected in the city to participate in our cooling center program this year so that they can open up their offices as cooling centers and be listed on the map,” he said.

Iscol also sought to reframe the criticism of the Wednesday closures in a post on X by arguing that the National Weather Service hadn’t issued a heat advisory that would trigger the city’s emergency response. But he said the city decided to “still have hundreds of cooling centers open across the city.”

As for the air conditioning failures at the four library branches, Brewer said the outages show the need to restore funding to the NYPL, as well as the Brooklyn and Queens public library systems, which have also stopped Sunday service.

The Council is proposing a $58.3 million boost for the three library systems, with the city budget due at the end of the month.

“The libraries need more money,” she said. “It’s a capital expense and they absolutely need that.”

This story was updated to include additional information about two other libraries in the Bronx where the air conditioning isn't working.