In the weeks since the City of Long Beach has unveiled its proposed 2009 budget and announced controversial money-saving cuts to the Main Library, Police Athletic League and other services, residents have eagerly awaited their turns to speak their minds.
Back-to-back community forums concerning the budget and Main Library were held in the Main Library Auditorium last night, and both ended with spirited speeches from residents who opposed the cuts and asked officials to reconsider their strategies – the most condemning of which came from a poised fifth-grader from Stevenson Elementary. Poly High School sophomore Daleth Caspeta, 15, and Elizabeth Alvarado, 10, took to the microphone following the budget forum hosted by 1st District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal and Assistant City Manager Suzanne Frick.
“Why do they tell us to count on our representatives?” asked Alvarado. “If that is how it is then I don’t understand why you want to hurt us by taking away a place of our future and something dear to my past.”
Alvarado said that the library has been her favorite place for ten years (she is ten years old), and wondered aloud, “If I wanted to be a police officer, would you then close down the Police Department?”
Alvarado and Caspeta walked to the budget meeting from Stevenson Elementary with a group of students and teachers, some of whom held signs made by the students in support of the Main Library. Lowenthal and Frick thanked them for attending, and reiterated that a temporary site will be built to take the place of the Main Library during its construction/renovation – the City has not decided whether it will fix the current site or build a completely new one.
City officials field questions from the public in the Main Library Auditorum.
But any temporary site will be far smaller than the spacious Main Library, and both library-goers and employees worried about the materials and services that would no longer be available in a smaller location. Following the Library forum, several residents pointed out that the Mark Twain Library was a designated “temporary” facility for nearly forty years.
Residents are worried about losing one of the city’s most active cultural hubs, while officials worry about the hazards of a leaking, structurally outdated building that they say could “pancake on itself” in the event of a large earthquake. But residents questioned the city’s sudden urgency after 30 years of non-action, and pointed out that saying a “large earthquake” could collapse the building was a vague claim that appeared to be without proper probability research.
The City Council will hear recommendations in next Tuesday’s meeting and vote on whether or not to proceed with plans from the City Manager’s office. Residents did not deny that the building needs a makeover, but did question the timing and apparent lack of planning in the decision. Why now, they asked. Why is the Council being asked to vote on something with no clear direction? All that exist now are ideas – ideas for proposed temporary sites, ideas to either renovate or rebuild the Main Library – hardly enough to warrant an educated and informed vote. Why did officials wait until one week before the vote to unveil possible temporary sites, and not do so when the infrastructure bond – that will pay for the Library construction/renovation – was unveiled on July 9?
These are the questions concerning the people who work in and use the Main Library every day, intelligent and forward-thinking questions that officials should consider in their mission to improve the quality of the structure. Look no further than ten-year-old Elizabeth Alvarado as an example that the community is asking all of the right questions.
Supporters of the Main Library display signs.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor