Getting Paid as...

Reading week was pretty productive-- I got a lot of reading done and had some time to earn some money... as a bouncer. Well, perhaps my title wasn't bouncer. It was more like "hired helper," but the job was mostly guarding the door of the new Storefront Chinatown Library during their opening ceremony. I got to stand next to and greet Mayor Menino, Councilor Flaherty, and Councilor Yoon all at once! (notice my gaze directed not to the Mayor, but to my buddy Sam Tsoi, Sampan reporter covering the event) Moreover, I got to reconnect with a few folks in the neighborhood, helping me to feel as if I wasn't totally disconnected from what's happening in Chinatown.

If you go back a few months on this blog, you'll know that for a while, I was involved on a neighborhood committee to plan and recommend a Boston Public Library branch library in Chinatown. This privately funded "Storefront Library" is something that grew out of that process. After we finished our work as a committee, the city did not allocate funding for a new branch, so many of those who were involved, including one of the architects for the project and various community groups continued to push for SOMETHING. That something ended up being this Storefront Library, organized by Sam and Leslie Davol on Washington St.

It is temporary, which is good. That lack of permanence highlights the need for a true city-funded library-- though in tough times like these for the city, who knows when that will happen? In any case, it's a nice, though small library and it's the type of thing I'd like to be involved in if I were in town. Go check it out if you're in town.

more info: http://www.wbur.org/2009/10/15/chinatown-library