Brooklyn Public Library - Brighton Beach Branch

I give them a lot of credit for what they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Being that our social programs to care for children, the elderly and the mentally unstable are not comprehensive, Brooklyn Public Libraries end-up as a shelter/ daytime residence for all those who fall through the cracks.

Any given library in Brooklyn is usually populated with sad, old people with nowhere else to go, juvenile delinquents, alcoholics/ drug addicts, the insane, homeless people and a swarm of young children. They have nowhere else to go, so the libraries serve as places to kill time.

The library at Brighton serves this purpose too, but here it's special, because the librarians don't even attempt to maintain order. They may have one of two mentalities: (1) The dam is about to burst so it doesn't make a difference if people are behaving like they're in a prison holding-cell; or (2) the general patrons here are immigrants and they don't matter.

My message to the staff: You have maybe once of the toughest and most thankless jobs in our society (thank you). Please enforce the rules (noise, food, etc...) and the people who use the facility will feel better about using it and about their community in general. Eventually, it will make your job easier.