Riordan Visits Library to Push for Bond Issue

Mayor Richard Riordan visited the city’s second-busiest library Thursday as an unofficial kickoff to a drive to build or renovate 30 libraries citywide--13 of them in the San Fernando Valley--via a $150-million bond measure.

During the noontime stop at the Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library in North Hills, the mayor read a story to first- and second-graders, tried out his halting Spanish with English-as-a-second-language students from nearby Monroe High School and posed for countless snapshots.

“Libraries are an important way to give children the ability to compete in a very tough world, the ability to dream,” Riordan said. Later, alluding to the bond measure, he added: “Good things never happen unless people in the community get together.”

City Librarian Susan Kent joined Riordan at the year-old Mid-Valley branch to promote the bond measure, which is the first large-scale improvement effort since the passage of a $90-million measure in 1989.

Riordan introduced the library plan April 18 as part of his annual budget proposal. He hopes to put it on the November ballot along with a $465-million bond issue for police and fire facilities. Both measures come on the heels of Proposition BB, a school measure that narrowly passed this month, succeeding where other recent school bond issues had failed.

As he left the library, Riordan dismissed the notion that voters lately have been burdened with bond issues.

“For Los Angeles to be successful in the long run, we have to look at the condition of our infrastructure,” he said. “Unfortunately, it has been ignored by the city for a long time.”

Kent said previous library issues have had no trouble earning voter approval.

“People have faith in the Los Angeles Public Library,” she said. “We serve hundreds of thousands of schoolkids. We have a good track record.”