The Morning Report
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Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 | “Temporarily closing” libraries and recreational buildings is a desperate act by a mayor without a plan. Anyone who’s lived near abandoned city facilities knows that they bring graffiti, vandalism, arson, and hopelessness to the neighborhoods they were meant to serve. (Why wasn’t Mayor Sanders’ branch library selected to be closed, I wonder?)
Abandoned city buildings are as damaging to neighborhoods as foreclosed homes. And as Councilwoman Donna Frye says, shut-down services don’t come back. This is just one more direct insult to the taxpayers of San Diego, where the untrammeled wish lists of developers, tourists, sports teams and city workers drive our city government.
(I love libraries so much, I wrote an in-depth piece on my local branch, North Clairemont, “No Shushing in This Library” for the San Diego Reader. But I thought here, a more San Diegan, property-based approach might have weight.)