Library Naysayers Have It Wrong

San Fernando Valley bookworms are complaining that too many libraries are being shut down at the same time for renovations. It’s a curious complaint, considering.

Some prominent Valley secessionists never miss an opportunity to whine that the Valley doesn’t get its fair share of resources, including funds provided by citywide bond issues, largely due to cost overruns and delays. That’s one reason some of them are noisily opposing Proposition F, the $532-million November ballot measure that would upgrade fire stations and animal shelters, nearly half of them in the Valley.

(The same secessionists also oppose Proposition F because they claim its passage would “complicate” Valley secession, which won’t even be considered until the November 2002 election, if then. Never mind how a lack of adequate fire stations and animal shelters complicate public safety.)

But back to libraries. Patrons are being inconvenienced precisely because the Valley is getting its share of Proposition DD, a $178.3-million library bond measure that voters approved in 1998.

Proposition DD is funding 12 of 14 Valley projects, including libraries in Reseda, Pacoima, Woodland Hills, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Sylmar, Northridge, Chatsworth and Canoga Park. Funding for a new branch library in Lake View Terrace is coming from grants and a landfill trust fund, and a rebuilt Studio City branch is being funded by savings--savings!--from a 1989 library bond.

The work, rather than being staggered, is being done pretty much all at the same time so that the projects will be completed within six years, by late 2003, rather than in 12, and so that escalating construction costs and inflation won’t eat up too much of the budget.

Speed! Thrift! Not that other bond measures haven’t lacked both--but the bond opponents never mention the success stories.

“I know of no other library system in the U.S. that’s doing this kind of infrastructure work,” City Librarian Susan Kent told The Times. “It’s pretty astounding.”

Our favorite success story is the 7,500-square-foot addition to the existing 5,000-square-foot Sun Valley library. City officials provided land for the expansion by buying the three rental houses next door. Often communities are loath to lose housing, but these were three houses the neighbors cheered to see closed. Weed-choked eyesores, they’d been used by drug dealers and gang members. Soon the property will house books, computers, a multipurpose room and an outdoor terrace.

Fortunately for library lovers, voters in 1998 didn’t listen to the naysayers.