One for the Books

First schools, then parks. Now libraries?

NIMBYism has reached absurd new levels with the complaints by some Woodland Hills residents that a new library, with a roomier parking lot in back, would hurt property values by attracting more homeless people.

Hurt property values? Tell that to Lake View Terrace residents, who have been waiting 12 years for a promised library.

They could say a thing or two about values. Like the value of a good book, a quiet retreat, a helping hand on a research project. They could talk about the value of a community gathering place that welcomes young and old, that embraces old-fashioned storytelling and newfangled computers.

These things--schools, parks, now libraries--used to be considered amenities. They made neighborhoods nicer.

These days they are often greeted with distrust and suspicion, blamed for attracting thugs and criminals and dope-users. And, yes, homeless people who loiter and litter and sometimes frighten neighborhood residents.

But schools, parks and libraries are not the problem. Some might argue they are a solution. And closing them, keeping them out of neighborhoods, will not make crime and drugs and the homeless disappear.

Fortunately, not everyone sees libraries as the problem. Voters in 1998 approved the $178.3-million Proposition DD bond that will build the new Woodland Hills branch library and renovate, expand or replace 11 other San Fernando Valley libraries. A majority of Woodland Hills residents who attended a meeting at the branch voted for the plan to expand the parking lot and replace the old building, as much as some will miss its big windows and swooping design.

Others who oppose the plan do so because they want to preserve that design, an example of mid-century architecture conservationists fear will disappear before we come to appreciate its value. They’ve made a pitch for building a new, bigger library elsewhere and keeping the original intact, a worthwhile idea if the city could find the land (and the money).

In that event, the original library should be used for another public, community purpose.