By Jan Hintzman / Special to the OB Rag
In our community’s relentless nine-year struggle to restore access to the College-Rolando Branch Library, we are no stranger to city two-facedness. Our case was strong. When opportunities arose, the City needed to recover necessary library parking. The opportunities arose, but the city did not rise to help us!
The City had built generous library parking on part of the church property next door. In the deal, the City made a formal commitment to our community to purchase that property for a park, should it come up for sale, given that our older communities were built without public amenities.
The library was our jewel, the only major city investment on the horizon. And it came with promises for more. But instead of more, we got less. The property was in fact offered for sale to the City, and the City refused to purchase it.
Thus, the library lost its main driveway and most of its parking….and an astute investor scooped up the opportunity. His plan was to convert the property, having a land use potential of Low/Medium Residential and General Commercial with Residential, into a profitable student housing project. And ultimately he did, with the cooperation of the city and at the expense of the library.
Why are we so sensitive to city duplicity? City leaders repeatedly responded to the investor, not to the public benefit and not to their constituents. And at the very same time, the community was being pressed by city policy to accept more and more housing, and again with promises for infrastructure, but not today, tomorrow instead.
Our communities may not be affluent, but we are not stupid. When the City cannot even find a way to protect our lone existing civic infrastructure… and the City is broke… and it is facing rapidly mounting infrastructure budget deficits city-wide… we are supposed to trust promises of infrastructure in the future?
Duplicity was on full display last Saturday when our library was celebrating the 20th anniversary of our modern “new” building. A group of elected officials and library officialdom had joined us with their promises for a bright future well in hand. Our community library supporters were there in force, as well, after experiencing nine years of failure to gain city help.
Most jarring for the community was the dignitaries’ “happy talk” about the significance of libraries to communities. Here’s one example.
Our Councilmember Sean Elo Rivera was there, and he eloquently proclaimed his commitment to libraries as essential responsibilities of government. Listen in, Elo-Rivera said, branch libraries like College-Rolando “are universally loved and appreciated … they can do so much for so many people, and that’s why we have to fight so hard for them.”
“Fight so hard for them?” That was hard to hear after so many failures to gain city support. We have experienced that city promises can’t be trusted and that too often the City is not responsive to our needs.
We found this visual ironic, too. While we are fighting to restore access to our library for hard-working community members, dignitaries routinely enjoy the amenity of reserved parking. Do they not recognize that ordinary people also need accommodations to meet the demands of their lives?
We have watched while city control of the 131 parking spaces the City constructed for us has been whittled down to the 28 that are squeezed onto city property. This occurred in the face of proven 50-plus percent drops in patronage due to this parking reduction.
Living in the land of duplicity is hard. We need less of it.
Jan Hintzman is a community activist and president of the Friends of the College-Rolando Library.
I think we’re getting sick and tired of the City doing nothing FOR the people, but mention a photo op, and they’ll show up like fleas on a dogs back, smiling like a goofy clown, and talking BS.
It would be interesting to know if Elo Rivera showed up to the event by car or did he use the trolley, which has a station down the street from the library?
TLDR: The author prefers parking lots to new housing and doesn’t like sharing infrastructure with new neighbors, especially if they are renters. There are much easier ways to say this directly.
CM Elo-Rivera has had 4.5 years in office to SHOW his commitment to the College-Rolando Library rather than just talk about it. As the D9 Representative and Council President, he could have pushed the City to honor the CPIOZ that allowed only hotel rooms on the adjacent 6650 Montezuma parcel, but he did not. He accepted the additional dorm rooms without attempting to negotiate more library parking in exchange for those dorm rooms that were not allowed under the CPIOZ.
He could be supporting the Friends of the Library’s attempt to buy property for additional parking, but alas, he isn’t doing that either. Elo-Rivera talks about his support and love for libraries, and our library in particular, but when it comes to acting on that love and support by way of protecting our parking, negotiating for it or even supporting the Friends of the Library’s efforts to buy more parking, he has DONE NOTHING!
But he needn’t worry, because on the rare occasion he shows up in the College Area at our only city building – the C-R Library – he has a parking space reserved for him. CM Elo-Rivera doesn’t have to worry about parking a block or two or three away and walking with his son up a steep hill to get there. He doesn’t have to take the bus or trolley with books and kids in tow, or with a walker or cane as many of the elderly library patrons do. No empathy required under the circumstances, just words of support.