Library location has turned into bait-and-switch

I need to reply to a couple of letters in the June 29 issue, about the library.

First, Jeff Dineen compares objections to the new building to resistance against earlier new developments in the city, such as moving the City Hall. This is inexact, as those changes did not involve moving to smaller facilities; quiet the opposite. We are being asked to accept being stuffed into a 33 percent smaller building, while so many other districts are getting bigger ones. This does not fit the needs of library users, as David McCammon claims it will. No way could we fit in all the books and computers we have now – let alone the ones I hope we will acquire in the future. Not everyone can do their web-surfing at home, nor afford Kindles and other gadgets some claim will make books obsolete. Plus, some of us have physical issues that limits computer use, and need magazines and reference materials in hardcopy. Why should we have to go to Kent or Burien? Also, I find it hard to believe that parking will be better or access easier at the proposed new site, and bus stops wouldn’t be much closer.

McCammon claims that the new building will have sight lines that prevent “unsavory acts.” But it hasn’t even been designed yet, and in 25 years I have never seen anything disturbing going on back in the stacks.

The part about long-term storage at Preston seems a red herring, as we want books on hand here, not there. As for usage increase at Highlands, I don’t expect that to make much of an impact down here.

Then, McCammon states that reconstruction of the current structure can be more difficult and with more unknown consequences than putting up a new building. Well, I have seen some new buildings with unforeseen consequences, plenty of them.

Another use has not yet been found for the existing building, let alone a clear idea of how much it will cost the taxpayers. An environmental awareness center? Councilman Randy Corman has done the research and assures us that even a modest one will cost just as much as a library. An arts center? Now that would fit right in at the Piazza. If the current library stays empty for long, it will deteriorate, perhaps even have to be destroyed. Has the cost of that been factored in, and the cost of a new bridge between the parking lot and the park?

Why wasn’t this all planned out before someone decided to rush ahead and uproot us? For all of some people’s talk about revitalization of downtown business – and it will take more than a library to do that – I get the feeling that the powers that be aren’t really that concerned with patron’s actual needs.

For 11 percent more money, we can hold onto 50 percent more library, in a location several thousand percent more fun. The interim arrangement will be a hassle, but worth it in the long run, just as it was in the late ‘80s.

We in central Renton are being treated like some kind of backwater, not deserving of a big facility. We who voted to join KCLS feel bait-and-switched. No one wants to feel like that. Vote for Proposition 1 – don’t let them shrink our library.

Kerrick Mainrender

Renton