Posted on 12/30/2004 4:07:54 PM PST by nanak
If you think Vancouver libraries took a hit this year, get this: The home town of the Nobel Prize-winning author of "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men" is shutting down its libraries. And it isn't because no one lives there anymore.
John Steinbeck's Salinas, Calif., near Monterey, has seen rapid growth and now boasts a population of 150,000. The city is experiencing many of the same budget woes as other city and state governments, including rising health care costs. Budget shortfalls and failed money requests in Salinas have brought $8 million in budget cuts this year and the city plans to make $8 million more.
Unique to Salinas is a high population of farmworkers and immigrants, many of which are assumed to be illegally in the country. Illegal immigrants bring added tax burdens and must be part of Salinas' broke status.
Voters there also keep turning down money requests. The city's plea for a half-cent raise in its sales tax would have kept libraries open and raised millions for other services. But the Nov. 2 ballot measure failed. So did a measure that would have raised utility rates for 61 larger businesses. That stunned people. The measure was placed on the ballot by the business community in an effort to help the city budget. And so it is that the town's three-branch, 112-year-old library system that predates Steinbeck (born in Salinas in 1902) will close.
Library renovations needed here
Vancouver's library troubles pale in comparison to Salinas' sadness. But last spring voters turned down a $48 million measure that would have increased people's property taxes. The bond issue would have renovated the Fort Vancouver Regional Library system's busy main library on E. Mill Plain Blvd. It also would have paid for a bigger Cascade Park branch. If you've been to it, you know how ridiculously tiny it is, even for a library in the information age.
The library board believes it drew the boundary for the tax increase too large and might come back to voters in 2005 with another request that targets those living closer to branches that would be enhanced. Even then, voting stats show that the smaller boundary might still have the library coming up slightly short of the needed 60 percent approval. And because the tax increase would affect fewer people, the amount of money the library would be asking of residents could be higher or the renovation and rebuilding plans scaled back. Those drawbacks could actually nullify any potential gain in "yes" votes.
The closings in Salinas are sparking conversation among a larger crowd than closings elsewhere would because Salinas is the town that spawned Steinbeck. But the message whenever libraries close is the same: Libraries are a public amenity and they can be lost to higher government priorities.
This means library boards, including Fort Vancouver's, should do all they can to reach out to the populations they serve. Our library system already has stellar service and convenient check-out policies. But it could do better by avoiding unnecessary battles over community standards in which the library board appears to lack common sense. Carrying pornographic magazines and resisting maximum child-safety measures for Internet use continue to hurt our libraries. To gather the support of as many taxpayers as possible, the board needs to make amends.
I hope the library regains the confidence of its patrons (overall, it deserves it) and that the next funding measure it floats passes. Libraries are valuable even to those who don't use them. They are more than a cheap way to read books and provide story time for kids. Like schools, they provide a way for citizens (especially those without computers or book-store money) to get ahead and become better contributors to the local economy. Until more money is approved, donations are always accepted.
And if a wealthy cadre of Steinbeck lovers feels inclined to save Salinas by footing the libraries' $3.2 million yearly operating budget, checks can be sent to the city memorialized by Steinbeck in his 1952 novel, "East of Eden."
Eden never looked so shabby. And right now, the city's decision is receiving only sour grapes and wrath from critics. Those won't pay the bills.
Why would they pay less than a penny to keep libraries open when for one they can't read anyway and another -- they have no interest in reading American books?
Donde esta la biblioteca?
Our library sports a huge "Spanish" books section and offers up many free Hispanic publications extolling the wonders of Fidel Castro and Che Guevera and promoting "social" activism for the Latino community.
"We don' need no stinkin' libraries!"
No problem. Lets me propose a biblical solution. Round up a few thousand of the illegals and ship them to the Sudan where they can be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The libraries get the money and the Sudanese can put them to work doing jobs that the Sudanese don't want to do. (sarcasm) :)
I remember saying that people should know how to speak english when they come to an english speaking country. This was back in college about ten years ago when I was invited to a diversity roundtable. People thought I was a bigot and said I was wrong. Judging from the latest news, I am wrong apparently and who's laughing now eh?
Yeah, let's shut down all the libraries.
They're shutting them down here. We must divert that money to free clinics and head start babysitting programs for the newcommers.
You were the first poster on this thread to bring up the subject of race.
How many moochers/spongers adhere to each criminal alien worker? 3,4,6,8?
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