EDITOR: This is a rebuttal of sorts to the letter that ran
Friday in the Morgan Hill Times concerning the placement of the new
library. My first thought was
“Give me a break!” How can this person really say the things
said in the letter? Then I thought maybe this person lived here a
long time ago or maybe lives next to the current library and just
can’t bear the thought of “their” own personal library moving away
or some such thing. So anyway,
I thought that I would provide another point of view and let the
readers decide.
EDITOR:
This is a rebuttal of sorts to the letter that ran Friday in the Morgan Hill Times concerning the placement of the new library.
My first thought was “Give me a break!” How can this person really say the things said in the letter? Then I thought maybe this person lived here a long time ago or maybe lives next to the current library and just can’t bear the thought of “their” own personal library moving away or some such thing. So anyway, I thought that I would provide another point of view and let the readers decide.
Our current plans for the library (next to its current location) are expensive due to the additional engineering needed for the location. The current location could be used as additional room for our over full city hall staff or the property could be sold and the proceeds used to help build the new library.
Doubling or tripling the traffic in and out of the relatively closed neighborhood is irresponsible and loading that much traffic onto narrow streets is dangerous. Squirreling away our library and hiding it from the view of those who don’t even know we have a library seems unthoughtful, as though we aren’t proud of it and don’t want others to know it’s here.
A better plan seems to be to locate the library closer to the center of town, someplace where everyone (even those who don’t live here) will have a better chance of finding it. A place close to the major means of transportation and roadways but safe and secure like the Cultural and Community Center.
Wouldn’t it be great if we took advantage of one of our precious resources (mass transit) and built the library close enough to our mass transportation system that people could actually come to our library by train. Maybe the same people would even stay in Morgan Hill and spend the day at the library and go shopping or eat downtown and never even have to get in a car. What an incredible idea whose time has come.
As to the idea that a downtown library location is unsafe – that is just ludicrous. How can downtown be safe enough for the Community and Cultural Center, the Farmer’s Market, the Grange Hall (Boy Scouts and all), Britton Middle School, (formerly) the Charter School and several low income managed living projects with day care, not to mention the Community Playhouse with events geared to toward children’s viewing and performing but not be safe enough for the library?
Why did the city spend years and thousands of dollars fencing off the railroad tracks and putting in a high-tech at-grade crossing? Why are there music schools and dance studios and toy stores in and around the proposed location? Because the area is safe and friendly and desirable. In fact some call downtown Morgan Hill the “Heart of our Community” and I for one believe that our public library should be close to our heart.
Brad Jones,
Morgan Hill
