{"id":603,"date":"2026-08-17T17:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=603"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:14:23","slug":"opinion-lets-treat-our-museums-and-libraries-like-soccer-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=603","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Let\u2019s treat our museums and libraries like soccer fields"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In 1901, Andrew Carnegie made a $5.2 million gift to New York City, then the largest philanthropic gift in its history, to build 65 libraries and bring library access to all New Yorkers. The funding came with explicit conditions that these branches would be open 72 hours each week and on almost every holiday. For decades the city has failed to meet its end of the bargain. Today, the branches in the city\u2019s three library systems are open on average less than 50 hours weekly.<\/p>\n

Read more Editor\u2019s note: City & State\u2019s new, revamped city team<\/a><\/p>\n

Access to museums is also limited. The buildings that house many of the world\u2019s greatest museums are owned by the City of New York \u2013 The Met, the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, and 28 other institutions \u2013 yet they are generally open only during antiquated bankers\u2019 hours during the week, and few are open late on weekends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When New Yorkers need them most, during evenings and weekends, the doors of the city\u2019s most precious community and civic institutions are often shuttered.<\/p>\n

Recently, Mayor Zohran Mamdani demonstrated a path forward.<\/p>\n

In June, he announced that in honor of the World Cup, five soccer fields would keep their lights on all night long, as opposed to the usual 10 p.m. closing time, for six weeks. The results were instantaneous and impactful \u2013 more than 4,000 soccer players took advantage of the extension, and communities had newfound safe, gathering places.<\/p>\n

The next frontier should be libraries and museums \u2013 among the city\u2019s most cherished, yet under-leveraged, assets.<\/p>\n

There are many benefits to expanding access to museums and libraries. These institutions provide opportunities for job seekers, English classes, after school programs for students, the life benefits that comes from exposure to literature and art, and gathering places for social interaction.<\/p>\n

Scholars have called our time the \u201canti-social century.\u201d The devastating impact of our atomization is well documented and can be seen everywhere: in plummeting mental health, declining professional ambition, and lower relationship and birth rates. The effects of eschewing community engagement to sit alone at home on our devices has profound societal costs that must be addressed.<\/p>\n

Solutions to many of the city\u2019s woes \u2013 such as the need for hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units, rebuilding and rethinking the crumbling BQE, and ensuring resilience to our looming climate crisis \u2013 require spending billions of dollars and overcoming numerous regulatory hurdles. Better leveraging our cultural and community assets is a far easier lift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are three things we need to get this done: continued imagination and innovation at libraries and museums, a modest and sustained city investment, and perhaps most important, leadership and partnership from multiple players in our cultural ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The two of us met a decade ago, running external relations and marketing at Brooklyn Public Library and The New York Public Library. In our more recent roles, we\u2019ve remained focused on how to expand access to libraries, museums, and public spaces. This summer, David worked with the city to encourage New Yorkers to visit cultural and community institutions around the five boroughs during the World Cup. Ken, who in a prior role introduced Date Night at The Met, now works at The New York Historical, which has expanded late-night and weekend programming. Without exception, our experience is that if institutions build enticing activities, the people will come.<\/p>\n

Read more The 2026 Trailblazers in Real Estate<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, museums and libraries, particularly in New York City, have for decades experimented with opening their doors wider and providing compelling programming to convince younger, more diverse audiences that they are worth visiting. From First Saturdays at Brooklyn Museum (which will turn 30 this fall), to sleepovers under the whale at the Natural History museum, to Brooklyn Public Library\u2019s Night of Philosophy \u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n

Imagine if each borough had a library open until midnight and a major museum open daily until 9 p.m. The transformative impact of this modest change could be had for less than $10 million a year. It\u2019s equally important that the library and museum systems have adequate and reliable hours in all reaches of the city. Longer hours require greater staffing levels, which in turn requires adequate, reliable funding.<\/p>\n

Yet, year after year, these institutions do not even know whether they will have base-level funding. It has become a predictable routine that, each year, cultural institutions fall victim to the city\u2019s \u201cbudget dance\u201d \u2013 where initial drafts of the city budget leave these institutions under-resourced and competing against each other in a budgeting Hunger Games. Even when they do secure funding, they need to scramble to hire staff and rebuild programming \u2013 a waste of months of energy annually.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s time for the city to consider mechanisms such as guaranteeing funding percentages in the City Charter to ensure not only that the dollars are available, but that they are protected from future cuts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To enable libraries and cultural institutions to realize their full ability to serve the public, we will need leadership from our elected officials, executives of museums and library systems, and labor leaders. Municipal unions, for instance, must be willing to change library work rules to enable staffing for evening hours and Sunday shifts.<\/p>\n

But ultimately the leadership starts at the top. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, seeking greater efficiency nearly 20 years ago, pulled together the leaders of the city\u2019s three library systems for a dialogue that ultimately led to NYPL and BPL collaborating on BookOps \u2013\u00a0 a cost-effective, shared book management system. A decade later, Mayor Bill de Blasio wanted more diverse staff and hiring at museums, so while he couldn\u2019t force museums to diversify, he asked for full transparency in hiring decisions, and in the ensuing years the hiring and board appointments better reflected the city they serve.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to soccer fields and Mamdani\u2019s bold move.<\/p>\n

Here are the words of a few of the thousands who enjoyed late-night soccer when the lights were kept on \u2013 after midnight in Gravesend, Brooklyn: \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing. It\u2019s a gift, because I have a bunch of friends who work really, really late,\u201d one player noted. A young woman added, \u201cI got really stoked because not a lot of stuff happens in South Brooklyn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And a young man asked hopefully, \u201cOh man, if this was forever?\u201d Another answered, \u201cI\u2019d be here every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Shelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC<\/a><\/p>\n

Imagine what late hours at museums and libraries would deliver.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extending nighttime and weekend hours at the city\u2019s cultural institutions would make the city better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,55,47],"tags":[21,57,50],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york-city","category-nyn-media","category-opinion","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyn-media","tag-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: Let\u2019s treat our museums and libraries like soccer fields - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=603\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: Let\u2019s treat our museums and libraries like soccer fields - 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