Writing Shotgun

IN BUDGET TALKS, CITY DELAYS MAIN LIBRARY CLOSURE

Theo DouglasTue. August 05
 

In a conversation before, and remarks during this afternoon’s budget study session at City Hall, City Manager Pat West changed the course of Main Library’s proposed closure–originally said to be looming just over the horizon, possibly as soon as Oct. 1.

During a telephone interview just minutes before the city’s first public airing of the proposed 2008-2009 budget, West did his best to dispel impressions that the city is rushing to close Main Library at the prospect of saving a reported $1.86 million during the next fiscal year.

“We’re not on an Oct. 1 or a Nov. 1 or even a Dec. 1 deadline,” West said. “What we’re proposing is not to shutter the Main Library until we have a satellite facility up and ready to go. Once we do that, then we would take the Main Library down.”

As for what form a satellite Main Library–a temporary replacement library somewhere nearby–would take, West said that’s still open to debate.

“Do we buy a new building in East Village? Do we build a new building?” West asked rhetorically, noting that both options are still under consideration. He said areas where the city could potentially buy a new building–or possibly even build a new one–include the Pike development south of Ocean Boulevard, and the Broadway Block.

(The Broadway Block is, of course, where Acres of Books–the city’s beleaguered, world-famous rare and used bookstore–is currently having its going-out-of-business sale, after the city used eminent domain to buy the store. It’s a small world, apparently.)

West also discounted the possiblity of repairing Main Library–raised last summer in a Public Works Department report that was pulled from an agenda before being heard by Long Beach City Council.

“We’re contemplating a Civic Center remodel/seismic retrofit in the next two to three years,” he said, “so that would perhaps be somewhat redundant.”

The city manager made much the same remarks in Council Chambers, to a council lacking only Fourth District Councilman Patrick O’Donnell, and before a packed audience that included library Foundation members holding signs with slogans such as “We Need a Main Library.”

The plan’s reception, however–as West told the council that Main Library is “in a critical stage of disrepair”–was somewhat less than positive.

“I appreciate the fact that the city budget needs to be balanced, but it should not be done at the expense of citizens in the downtown district,” said Long Beach Public Library Foundation member Margaret Durnin, during public comment on the budget. “Main Library has been the brain for all our 12 city libraries. If Main is to be shuttered, money and means must already be in the pipeline to build this necessary component.”

Council members were largely in agreement.

“I’m absolutely opposed to a complete decimation of the Main Library without working with the people who are library users and library supporters. I don’t believe that expanding the library hours at other branches would ever take the place of the services and core services at the Main Library,” First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal said, to applause from the audience. “But I also understand that we have to address a severe financial problem.”

“Unless it’s a really good satellite facility, it will pale in comparison to what we have now,” said Seventh District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga.

Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal wondered where the money for a new Main Library will come from–considering the new budget arrives with a built-in $16.9 million structural deficit.

“Perhaps we don’t have a crystal ball,” she said. “What would the funding source be for the library should our [proposed $571 million infrastructure] bond not go forth?”

“Right now, the Redevelopment Agency would be there with several million dollars, perhaps $8 million,” West said, adding that the city also envisions using Community Development Block Grant money and Pacific Gateway workforce investment dollars.

Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich asked what the city will do if it doesn’t close Main Library–the first time in recent days we’ve heard that possibility floated. Will the roof be fixed, she asked?

“That’s something we’d have to do, is sit down and see what we can minimally do to make that facility safe,” West said.

“I’m hoping, as is our Mayor [Bob Foster] and every person on the city council that the infrastructure bond will pass,” Gabelich said, getting in a plug for the measure, which will be on the November ballot. “If it doesn’t, what’s the alternative for Main Library? Will it be closed indefinitely, or perhaps permanently?”

“It won’t be closed permanently,” West said. “We all know that sooner or later, we’re going to do something with Civic Center here. When we focus on City Hall to upgrade it seismically, we could also focus on the library.”

That’s the first we’ve heard that option mentioned either. And then there was the possibility of a land deal … .

“There’s a rumor going around that there’s a plan to package this land and the City Hall land and sell them off together,” said Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske. “The library’s disrepair has been know by this Council and this city for decades. This is not something that comes upon us as new. I just really want us to take this slowly when we talk about closing a major, important facility.”

Her words seemed to strike a chord with Mayor Foster, who wove a response to them into remarks he made to a member of the public, during public comment on the budget.

“I want to dispel two rumors, first that there is any plan afoot to sell City Hall land,” Foster said emphatically, adding that no such plan exists.

It was the first time members of the public–or Long Beach City Council members, together in public–have had a chance to discuss the budget and the question of closing Main Library, and the study session seemed fraught with peril and possibilities.

Some of Foster’s remarks on the budget underscored the interesting times in which the City of Long Beach finds itself.

“If there’s things in this budget you want to restore, that’s within your purview,” Foster told the council, advising members that they’ll have to find the money somewhere else. “But we have to maintain a balanced budget.”

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Viewing 9 Comments

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    Theo, thank you so much for your coverage of this. I was in attendance yesterday, and I can almost still hear West squirm as he backtracked on his previous statements. The way I see it, there are two kinds of communities - the kind that lets a Main Library close in a budget crises, and the kind that wouldn't stand for such a thing. I'm dubious of what kind of community this is, but I hope it is the latter! I applaud Gerrie Shipske for her thorough and thoughtful remarks on this subject.
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    Why not shut down the aquarium for a few days out of the week? Oh! I forgot! The aquarium has debt service that's obligated by taxpayer dollars. Its hard to make those payments when there is no business.
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    Close and sell the Art Museum. It is more important to have a Main Library.
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    I was there as well, and I applaud Theo for his ongoing thorough and insightful coverage of this issue. His thoughtful scowl filters through his words.

    It would indeed seem, as Ray Bradbury put it in the P-T, that the city hates books (did you check out the news cartoon on the page? I was in my therapist's office waiting, and I started to cry. Half her work done). I'm not privy to the documents, but doesn't it seem as though we're in a millennial version of Yellow Submarine, with the Blue Meanies stomping on book repositories? Or is this really how FAhrenheit 451 starts?
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    Juan, we should not (do not!) have to choose between having an art museum and a library. Any self-respecting city of this size has both.
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    I think we need to look at every option available here, including selling the city hall and main library properties, and then using the proceeds to build a new city hall and main library elsewhere downtown. (There has been a similar proposal floating around for years for the old--and seismically unsafe--courthouse.) The city needs a state-of-the-art, big, central library downtown, and it might make sense to sell or swap the land to build a new one.
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    This comment has been flagged as inappropriate.
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    Marina,
    "Juan, we should not (do not!) have to choose between having an art museum and a library. Any self-respecting city of this size has both."

    ---That's just it, Marina, this is not a self-respecting city and therefore cannot handle the complexities of maintaining an art museum. We should have Sotheby's or Butterfield's sell off the artwork and use the proceeds to clean off the roof of the library and fund modifications. This would be a better use for the value of the museum contents than waiting for the rest of it to be stolen by the same criminals who are still at large.
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    This past week I was planning a school trip to West Virginia with a group of 35 students from Long Beach. I contacted Harper's Ferry by e-mail.

    The Park's Service representative quickly responded to my inquiry about visiting the Park. Then at the end of the e-mail I read her tag.

    Park Guide, Education Department
    Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

    "Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future." - Ray
    Bradbury

    I suddenly felt sick that the citizens of Long Beach were not all out in the streets protesting the possibility of closing main branch library. It was like a “de facto” Fahrenheit 451 without a murmur.

    Thank you to those who took the time to comment. Thank to those public officials that stood up and said, “No.”

    I invite hundreds more to comment on this website and send a copy to your city council person. Do this today as if your community’s future depended on it.

    Thank you.
    Devon Day, teacher
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