City of Salinas, California will close their libraries this Spring!

San Jose Mercury ^ | 12-25-04 | Dashing Dasher

[Dashing Dasher]

Cash-strapped hometown of Steinbeck plans to close libraries
RACHEL KONRAD
Associated Press

SALINAS, Calif. - Mary Jean Gamble organized the John Steinbeck historical archives, supervised the Steinbeck literature collection and ranks as an authority on local history and genealogy.

After nearly 23 years with the Salinas Public Library, she may know more about the "Grapes of Wrath" or "Cannery Row" than anyone else in the author's humble hometown.

Gamble doesn't hesitate when asked how Steinbeck might react upon learning that the city's libraries are scheduled to close permanently next spring. Facing record deficits, the Salinas City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez.

"He'd obviously be upset. He knew that literature can lift and elevate the spirit and enable humans to rise above any situation," Gamble said, peering beyond her oversized, gold-framed glasses and pulling tight her blue cape. "He probably even read some of the great literature at the Salinas library."

Salinas, nicknamed "salad bowl to the nation" for the profusion of lettuce and broccoli fields nearby, is best known as the 1902 birthplace of the Nobel Prize winning author of "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men." Steinbeck described the region as "pastures of heaven," memorializing Salinas in his 1952 novel "East of Eden."

But after voters rejected a ballot measure Nov. 2 that would have boosted sales tax to preserve city services, Salinas has earned the scorn of bibliophiles worldwide and an ugly distinction. The blue-collar town of 150,000 residents could become the most populous U.S. city without a public library.

[Dashing Dasher]

I have such fond memories of going to the library when I was a little kid. I still have a library card and use it frequently.

Salinas is a growing community south of the Silicon Valley. They are putting up $million dollar$ homes everywhere - and they can't afford to keep their libraries open!?

[Sloth]

Ridiculous. They must be spending it all on sensitivity training or multicultural murals or something.

[Texas Eagle]

Good. Libraries were started by rich people to bring literature to the teeming masses.

Salinas is a stone's throw from a couple of the richest communities along the Central California Pacific coast -- Monterey and Carmel.

Surely there's a few rich people there who are willing to fund a library for Salinians.

[Texas Eagle]

Good. Libraries were started by rich people to bring literature to the teeming masses.

Salinas is a stone's throw from a couple of the richest communities along the Central California Pacific coast -- Monterey and Carmel.

Surely there's a few rich people there who are willing to fund a library for Salinians.

[Texas Eagle]

Sorry for the double-post.

[muawiyah]

I was just thinking of all the Steinbeck resource materials in that library. Bet they'd be worth quite a bit to both collectors and scholars.

Let's see if they'll open up the process of shutting down the libraries by putting those things on eBay where everyone can get a chance at preserving such valuable documents.

[yankeedame]

Ridiculous. They must be spending it all on sensitivity training or multicultural murals or something.

Amen! In Cincinnati, city council announced that b/c of budget shortfalls --a.k.a. they didn't get the tax increase they wanted-- there's only enough money to snowplow "major" roads (defined, no doubt as roads where they live).

In Dayton, it was announced that b/c of budget short falls (they didn't get the tax increases they wanted either) they are "forced" to moth ball two fire engines. Frankly, these "cuts" strike me as being more than a bit waspish on the part of city coucils.

[Osage Orange]

This is an indirect backlash on city and town government's...for their squandering of the public funds/public trust.

Recently the same type things are happening here in Okla. In Tulsa...a library funding bond was defeated...by a big majority. In Mustang, OK...after the Nativity Scene fiasco...the voter's defeated a school bond.

I say...if that's the only way to get the loons in gob'ment to "hear" us....then do it..!!

[Dashing Dasher]

Yes.
I used to train at Salinas Airport - and know the area very well. The incredible amount of new developments makes this laughable.

Sort of.... more sad, really.

[Dashing Dasher]

Trying to make us "feel" the pain....
This is so ridiculous!

[thegreatbeast]

"Operating a library isn't as simple as selling cans of tomato soup at a retail store," said Jan Neal, administrative manager at the Steinbeck Library.

Ms. Neal should not be such a pompous ass as to think retailing for profit is any simpler than library science.

That aside, have they (the good men and women of Salinas) thought of going to a volunteer city council or mayor? Cut management salaries by 10% across the board, budgets by 15%.
There is always fat in a city budget. This is meant to scare the rubes into buying into tax increases. DON'T FALL FOR IT!

[Jeff Blogworthy]

I just saw this reported on Fox News. It sounds suspiciously like government extortion to me - make the voters "pay" for their failure to raise taxes. A similar thing happened here in TN under RINO Don Sunquist - he closed state parks.