With the city budget finalized, Mayor Eric Adams is now in celebration mode. 

On Monday, Adams highlighted the return of seven-day service to the city’s libraries. 

What You Need To Know

  • As part of the final fiscal year budget, libraries received $58 million in restorations 

  • The restoration will allow the city's libraries to return to seven-day service 

  • Mayor Eric Adams used the first day of the new fiscal year to celebrate the restoration at the Inwood Library

The city’s three library systems — Brooklyn, Queens and New York — were facing a multi-million dollar cut by the mayor. But in the end, they were saved and received full restoration instead. 

“We know what the libraries represented for so many people and that’s why it was one of the priorities for both the Council and City Hall,” Adams said at Inwood Library. “I knew how much having access to high-speed broadband, going for your passport, being able to use it as a community hub.”

In the final budget, libraries received $58 million in restorations. 

The cut to libraries was part of the Adams’ fiscal belt tightening amid sun-setting federal COVID dollars and the ongoing migrant crisis.

One library official on Monday applauded the restoration. 

“We faced some real challenges. You had hard choices to make. And in the end, thanks to this mayor, the City Council, the Speaker Adams, everyone came together to say, let’s do what’s important,” Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, said. 

Local lawmakers had made restoring library cuts a top priority going into budget negotiations, arguing libraries serve more than just a place to check out books. 

“Libraries provide incredible programming even for our youngest New Yorkers. You can go to your library branch, listen to a story and have tummy time,” City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who serves as chair of the Council’s committee on libraries and cultural institutions, said. “You’ll see seniors here, you’ll see people here searching for housing. Just reading books and having a quiet space [for] themselves. And, of course, a cooling center.”

Adams’ stop at the Inwood Library also included the unveiling of 174-new units of affordable housing. 

“This is an amazing model because there is so much airspace over many of our libraries that we can do some great things with,” he said. “This model shows that you can live upstairs and come check out a book downstairs.” 

The library funding was just one of many key city agencies that received millions in restorations in the final $112 billion budget. 

The mayor acknowledged he had a somewhat villain to hero storyline this budget cycle.  

“I don’t mind being the villain of the city that I love, that I wore that bulletproof vest for 22 years,” Adams said.  

The fiscal year budget for 2025 took effect Monday.