Public libraries across the city reopened for Sunday service on July 14 following the restoration of funding in the recent city budget.
Nearly all library branches across the city had been closing on Sundays since last year, owing to tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts imposed by Mayor Eric Adams. The cuts proved unpopular, and before shaking hands on a budget deal for the current fiscal year, Mayor Adams and the City Council agreed to restore $58 million in funding to the New York, Brooklyn, and Queens Public Libraries.
That means numerous branches can now start to reopen their doors on Sundays, beginning July 14.
The New York Public Library has reopened the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in Midtown Manhattan — where a line to get back in stretched around the block on Sunday — as well as the Parkchester Library in the Bronx and the Todt Hill-Westerleigh Library in Staten Island.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Public Library has reopened its Central branch at Grand Army Plaza and Kings Highway branch in Midwood, and the Queens Public Library has reopened its Central branch in Jamaica as well as the Flushing branch, where Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was on hand to celebrate the reopening.
More branches will restore Sunday service in the next few weeks, with another batch coming back online on Aug. 4. Those include NYPL’s vast flagship Main branch next to Bryant Park in Midtown, plus the iconic Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village and the Washington Heights Library in Manhattan; the Bronx Library Center and Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx; and the Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, Macon, Midwood, and New Lots branches in Brooklyn.
