EDITOR: Upon reading Brad Jones
’ letter advocating relocating of the library to a downtown
site, he used the following arguments: 1) Difficulty of building at
the present site.
EDITOR:
Upon reading Brad Jones’ letter advocating relocating of the library to a downtown site, he used the following arguments: 1) Difficulty of building at the present site. 2) It’s a “personal library” for neighborhood residents. 3) Relatively closed traffic. 4) Its “squirreled away location”. 5) Lack of mass transit. 6) Safety. I would like to address each of these issues.
Difficulty of building: Builders constructed homes on adjacent parcels over 40 years ago. I’m sure this technology has not been lost.
“Personal Library:” Just go in any time of day and you’ll find it is nobody’s personal library. What you will find is it’s everybody’s crowded library both inside and in the parking lot.
Relatively closed neighborhood: At Peak and Main it is on a major east-west and north-south artery. If this is “hiding”, don’t apply at the CIA.
“Squirreled away:” Let me get this right. “Squirreled away” next door to City Hall, across the street from St. Catherine’s Church-Parrish Hall-School complex and within easy walking distance of Britton and P.A. Walsh schools and a shopping center. (See previous recommendation)
Mass transit by train: This is really goofy. People commute to work by Caltrain; they don’t come from out of town to a branch library. Folks in Gilroy and San Jose have their own branches and folks in between have no train stations. But, if you’d like to use the VTA bus, there’s a stop right in front on Peak.
Safety: Most parents would prefer their kids using the crosswalk at Peak or Main where there’s a stop sign than four lanes of Monterey where there isn’t.
I have no idea what Mr. Jones’ agenda is, but his arguments for a downtown library seem contrived.
Bob Rich,
Morgan Hill
