Denver councilwoman hopes federal grant will save Byers library
Byers Library
The city has a $120 million deficit, and critics say the library system, which is needed even more during recessions, is bearing too much of the burden.
City Councilwoman Judy Montero said the grant comes under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is for the first phase of the redevelopment of South Lincoln Park Homes, a 257-unit site built in 1954.
It will include 100 new units for senior and disabled people, Montero said. Plans call for a library nearby.
Amenities that would improve life are planned, and they also would make the development more environmentally friendly.
“I couldn’t be more excited that this development project is on track to be a national model that a lot of us in Denver will get to call home. Because of this, I want to make sure we continue to preserve the existing community assets that make this area a neighborhood. That is why I’m also fighting to keep the Byers Library open, Montero told the Huffington Post.
“It is the only library slated for closure in the mayor’s proposed 2010 budget, and I believe it is an invaluable civic asset that would be shortsighted to let go of in a fire sale during a low-value real estate market.”
Lovely. So I won’t have to pay this year out of my City and County taxes,
but my grandkids will have to out of their Federal taxes. Lovely, some deal.
The Byers library is only 4000 square feet. So preserving the library as a neighborhood asset has got to be such a small fraction of what the grant would be used for. I agree it is important to preserve the neighborhood and commend Judy Montero for including Byers library in the plan.
I propose the issue of usability be addressed with regard to the libraries. The main library on 13th & Broadway is surrounded by junkies and homeless persons every day of the week until it opens. When the library opens, the mobs storm the library, use the restrooms, computers and loiter. I would never allow a child to visit the library without adult supervision. Even a teenager. It’s too dangerous. The population that dominates the building is not students and citizens doing research and enjoying reading. It is the swarthy characters who haunt the neighborhood, use drugs, commit crimes and poison the community.
Don’t give me the lecture that the poor homeless people are just as entitled to use the building as Joe Student. The library is for intellectual pursuit, research, leisure reading and in general expanding our minds through books. Not to provide a squatting area for junkies and criminals without housing.