When voters in Santa Cruz approved the Measure S sales tax, they were told the funds would be used to “protect Santa Cruz’s quality of life” by maintaining essential city services and building a new central library. What they probably didn’t expect was for the funds to be hijacked by downtown merchants for the construction of a giant new parking garage:
As you can see, the library has a huge parking garage tumor growing on top of it. The citizen’s group “Don’t Bury the Library” has been trying to put a stop to this nonsense, but lost on a 4-2 vote at a Sept. 11th City Council meeting:
All 114 seats in the council chamber were filled, and others listened outside via speakers in the plaza. Councilwomen Cynthia Chase, Martine Watkins and Richelle Noroyan and Mayor David Terrazas voted yes with Chase requesting an “indestructible” public bathroom open 24/7 as part of the project.
Councilman Chris Krohn and Councilwoman Sandy Brown voted no. They wanted to separate the library from the parking garage and spend a year on strategies to shrink car use downtown.
After the vote at nearly 10 p.m., Krohn told supporters, “We’ve got to get two people elected.”
The project would be largest for the city dollar-wise, according to city transportation manager Jim Burr, noting the cost estimate is from 2016.
Many speakers raised concerns.
“I was bamboozled,” said Col. Terry Maxwell, who had expected a remodel.
“We can make a darn good renovation with $28 million,” said Jean Brocklebank of the group Don’t Bury the Library.
“We’re talking about $75,000 per (parking) space,” said Rick Longinotti of the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation.
What does it say about a society that prioritizes car storage over book storage at its library?
[…] Santa Cruz to get a new library, no, jk, that’s a parking garage (Systemic Failure) […]
Now if I could only show up with a library card and check out any of the cars in the garage. That’s what it’s for, right?