Because of the declining economy, Mayor Sanders introduced one way of meeting a $43 million dollar gap in the budget by shuttering seven libraries temporarily, including South University City’s little library on Governor Drive. Besides that, he proposes closing ten recreation centers. “Temporary” could mean closing those seven libraries for five years unless revenue is found to reopen them. At the City Council meeting on Nov. 12, more than 50 people protested the closing of the libraries and the recreation centers as the worst thing you could do in an unprecedented economic crisis. According to Norman Oder in the online Library Journal, library circulation is up 8 percent in the last three months at the libraries. “Libraries face a larger percentage cut than other departments: $2 million or 5.4 percent of the $37 million dollar budget. The library will lose 37.8 positions, according to the mayor’s report,” Oder said. The library is the place to go during tough economic times to read a newspaper you can no longer afford to subscribe to, to learn how to use a computer, to visit with likeminded friends at story time for toddlers, to read a literary classic or current magazine. Although the libraries dodged the bullet this time, is there a guarantee that they won’t be back on the chopping block next month or next year? Maybe the mayor has surrounded himself with too many iPod-Blackberry-cell phone carrying bureaucrats who haven’t been in a library in decades, but they should go and so should the mayor, not for a photo op but the real thing. The mayor and his entire staff grew up in American cities and towns with libraries, I’m certain. They shouldn’t take that gift away from the children growing up in San Diego communities where seven libraries may be shuttered, one from each district with the exception of District 8. Who would want to buy a home in a neighborhood with a shuttered library? Summer Brooke, age 11, a sixth-grader, who spoke at a Salinas read-in a few years ago, questioned how Salinas, the birthplace of John Steinbeck, could close libraries in one breath and ask schools to raise reading test scores in the next. How could city leaders in San Diego possibly consider closing libraries and rec centers in this uncertain economic meltdown? Closing libraries, learning centers of light, should never be on the table. Scott Peters hasn’t gotten a lot of thanks around District 1 the last few years, but he should be thanked for getting the North U.C. library built. The irony of having the new library, not within walking distance of school children in South University City, that is now South U.C. is seeing possible closure of its library. Four schools surround the Governor Drive library. Scott Peters and the University City Community Association set a common goal of enlarging the South U.C. library in the early years of Peters’ tenure. He suggested building a bigger library next to Curie School, where a gas station is at the corner of Genesee and Governor. George Needham, former executive director of the American Library Association, said: “Librarians are helping kids learn to read, immigrants learn English, computer newbies learn how to use the PC, and seniors learn how to navigate the Medicare jungle. This is education for today and the future.” Jamie LaRue, serving on a Library Leadership Peer Panel, commented on a question involving why we must have government-run libraries. Her reply is ammunition as to why City Council must never vote to support the mayor’s misguided argument in closing seven libraries in San Diego. “Because not everybody can afford to purchase new books. Public libraries are a ‘bootstrap’ institution, providing resources to folks who might not otherwise get them. Because libraries do more than provide bestsellers. We provide children’s books and story times, perhaps our nation’s most potent strategy for sowing literacy in the land. We provide public programs, of both civic and recreational nature, thereby building communities, and providing access to ideas that are in short supply elsewhere. We answer reference questions essential to students, struggling entrepreneurs, curious voters, and more. We bridge the digital divide, and thereby participate in still-emerging forms of creativity and social discourse. And yes, we preserve parts of the past — but not as museums. We are workshops for the future. Because having publicly funded institutions that actively respond to the paying customer is a good idea. Public institutions that ignore today’s public interests and needs not only die, they deserve to.” Closing the budget gap in San Diego is a must, of course. Is there any fairness in the decision to shut down seven libraries when La Jolla’s library is open on Sundays? Is there any fairness in learning at City Council that the City Attorney’s budget this year could be $1.8 million over budget and then in the next breath close down seven libraries? Is there any fairness in finding out the mayor’s plan to close the libraries and rec centers through the newspaper rather than being alerted through the library system? As one speaker said in her argument before City Council, even Home Depot gives you a three-month warning it is going to close. How much will it cost to close a library? How much will it cost to reopen it? “Lead, follow or get out of the way” is good advice for the city leaders. Toni Atkins asked the audience at City Council to come up with solutions. Here’s one: Let each community know exactly how much money it is allocated and then have the community prioritize its needs and wants. University City doesn’t have a high crime rate, but it does have a high volunteer rate in its library with Friends of the Library, as well as in its recreation center with events run by its community association. U.C. is saving the city a lot of money. In return, the city should pay for its library and recreation center. Please contact Councilman Scott Peters and Mayor Jerry Sanders to tell them that the seven libraries and ten recreation centers provide too much good for the residents and should never be shuttered, not for five minutes or five years ([email protected], 619-236-6611; JerrySanders@san diego.gov, 619-236-6330).