‘Quixote’ Fights Lonely Library War : Redondo Beach: Artist Sal Princiotta’s campaign to keep the facility where it is has brought him nothing but trouble.

Sal Princiotta used to live a quiet, non-controversial life.

The 43-year-old free-lance artist and massage therapist walked almost every day from his Redondo Beach home to Veteran’s Park Library a block away. There he read, gazed at the ocean and contemplated life. That tranquil existence, however, abruptly came to an end last March.

Since then, Princiotta has been chewed out in public by Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton, booed by a roomful of senior citizens, disparaged by a group of veterans and compared to both Don Quixote and Jane Fonda. His carefree life has become stress-ridden. He rarely sees his girlfriend. And he no longer has time for his art.

It all began as Princiotta used the copying machine at the library that has been such a central part of his life. A friend approached and asked, “Did you know they’re closing the library?”

Princiotta--who sports a bushy mustache and wears his graying, shoulder-length hair in a ponytail--was stunned. He learned soon afterward that city officials considered the 61-year-old library too small and in need of costly structural repairs. Repairing the brick building would take even more library space away, the officials contended. The solution, they said, was to convert the aging structure to another use and build a new library elsewhere.

With Princiotta’s daily routine and his beloved library in jeopardy, an activist was born.

He began a relentless campaign to keep the library in Veteran’s Park, where it sits on a knoll overlooking the ocean at Catalina Avenue and Torrance Boulevard. His idea was to build an underground library addition--complete with bay windows providing an ocean view--that would leave the existing building as it is.

When this June’s Sierra Madre earthquake caused cracks in the old library’s structure, the city sped up its plan. It shut the Veteran’s Park Library, moved the books temporarily to a site in a shopping center on Pacific Coast Highway and successfully applied for a $10-million state grant for a new library building.

Princiotta, who makes his living doing a variety of art projects ranging from murals to corporate logos, increased his intensity, too. He hired an architect to draw up plans for a subterranean library and a seismic expert to question the city’s closure of the old building. He founded the Redondo Beach Seaside Library Coalition to press his idea and began researching the issue with a vengeance.

Princiotta, who had never before delved in the public arena, became a regular at City Council meetings, which are broadcast by cable television into homes across the city. For his appearances, he sets aside his usual casual attire in favor of suit and tie.

“He’s done a remarkable amount of homework and investigation and review,” said City Manager Bill Kirchoff, who sees Princiotta three to four times a week at City Hall. “While I think the city’s decision was the best one and the appropriate one, I have an appreciation for his dedication.”

Kirchoff even jokingly suggested at one meeting that the new library be named after Princiotta.

Not everyone is so charitable.

“He’s at every single council meeting,” fumed Mayor Parton, who has had several sharp public exchanges with Princiotta. “He gets up every time an item comes up that could be remotely related to the library--even if it’s the color of the new sign. I believe everybody should be able to come up and air their views, but when one person can disrupt meeting after meeting and has no other person behind him, I don’t think that’s proper.”

The council, with its grant in hand, has continued with its plan to build a new library and renovate the old building for use as a community center. Last week, the council agreed to purchase for $2.4 million a lot next to City Hall at 321 N. Pacific Coast Highway for the new library.

Meanwhile, Princiotta has pressed on with his vision, learning along the way about the land mines that lie buried in local politics.

For instance, in an attempt to win backers for his library proposal, he sought to change the name of the park from Veteran’s Park to Veteran’s/Library Park. The name change, he figured, would tie the library to the park. But as he spoke at a recent council meeting, a group of angry veterans lined up to speak against him.

“This ground is sacred ground to us,” said Joe Wedemann, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Capt. Rocky Versace Beach Cities Post 2828. “It is dedicated to the veterans that helped keep life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Changing the name is a slap in the face. Sal Princiotta is the type of guy I would put in the Jane Fonda class.”

With his patriotism in question, Princiotta dropped that idea.

At another meeting, he argued strenuously against the plan to turn the library into a community center. This time, he received angry glares and whispered boos from a roomful of senior citizens who were pressing the council to hold senior activities in the old library building.

After the council approved the community center idea, Princiotta began searching for flaws in the temporary library at the Redondo Shores Shopping Center: The three-year lease agreement for $1.4 million was far too expensive, he argued; there was not enough parking; the building was not designed to handle heavy library books. He even contacted Mothers Against Drunk Driving to complain that library patrons faced injury there because of a bar in the same plaza.

When none of those objections worked, Princiotta tried another tack.

Since the state grant was funding the new library, Princiotta began looking for flaws in the city’s grant application. He began firing off letters to a host of officials--including Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner--alleging that he has “many pages of researched back-up materials compiled to cite and substantiate falsehoods in the application.”

State Librarian Gary Strong said he has received Princiotta’s correspondence but has received no evidence to back up his claims. Princiotta said he is gathering the facts on his home computer and hopes to forward them to the state within two weeks.

The latest charges have angered many in the community, who call them groundless and the product of an increasingly desperate man.

“He’s become some wild zealot off on a tangent,” said community activist Kandi Lancaster. “It’s Don Quixote-ish. He’s fighting windmills.”

Whether Princiotta enjoys community support has also been called into question. Princiotta claims that his underground library plan has 40 to 60 core supporters and about 1,500 other less-fervent backers. At a recent council meeting, Parton asked for a membership list of Princiotta’s coalition. Princiotta declined.

“He’s representing only himself,” Parton said. “He has never had anyone come to the meetings to say they’re on his side. All he has done is disrupt council meetings and waste . . . taxpayers’ money by sending the staff running around to help him.”

Princiotta, a 20-year resident of Redondo Beach who was raised in New York City, is insistent that other residents back him. But he also said: “If the public says, ‘Sal Princiotta, we want the library on PCH. To hell with a library by the sea. To hell with your proposal,’ I will quietly say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and go away.”

Princiotta said his first taste of activism has been exhausting and humiliating, taking up all his waking hours and subjecting him to numerous personal attacks. But he said his vision of an expanded, oceanfront library--a place that would enable him to return to his old life--keeps him going.

“I get up at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and get on the computer,” he said. “I stay up until my eyes cross at night and I get dizzy. . . . It’s taken all my energy. I’m sick of it. I don’t want to do it. I don’t like doing it. But I have to do it.”