9 comments

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  Diane

  11 months ago

  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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  Juan Pardell

  11 months ago

  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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  Middlebrow

  11 months ago

  Close and sell the Art Museum. It is more important to have a Main Library.
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  Octomorph

  11 months ago

  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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  Marina

  11 months ago

  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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  Bob

  11 months ago

  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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  Mr. Tbone

  11 months ago

  This comment has been flagged as inappropriate.
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  Benvenuto Cellini

  11 months ago

  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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  Devon Day

  11 months ago

  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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