“The Editor’s Note by Brian Beckley about the library in the Aug. 16 issue of the Renton Reporter has so many holes in it I could use it for a spaghetti strainer. (What the heck is ‘narrative constraint’ anyway?)”

KCLS and the City Council did listen a little but not nearly enough. Everything we gained in this battle – keeping a wonderful location and part of our rightful square footage back – we have had to struggle for inch by inch, while the majority of the people we voted for and pay the wages of sat there like a bump on a log.

Those of us who voted to join KCLS did read the ballot statements and thought that even if we had to lose our much-loved building, we would get an even bigger one to console ourselves with. Instead, KCLS fobbed us off with a pathetically shrunken design.

When we won the right to stay where we are, KCLS still managed to push a smaller footprint past the City Council, with an entrance giving patrons a glorious view of the parking lot. Both these things were explained by seismic design constraints; but if the architects are as smart as they want us to think they are, they should be able to work around these.

The designs they showed us were highly uncertain concerning the interior, so we don’t know if the staff/processing area will in fact be smaller than what we have now, as some claim, to free up some more space in the whole building. Our City Council has let our money go for something mighty dubious.

This debacle has gotten uglier than nipples on a Batsuit. It’s not just that one of the state’s biggest cities looks about to get stuck with an undersized library, it’s the principle. We are being treated like we don’t know our own needs best, like our history doesn’t count for anything, in a matter as simple as the location of a door. I’m almost ashamed to call Renton my home.”

Kerrick Mainrender,

Renton