The libraries my parents supported with their taxes were safe places for their children to go. Kindergarten and elementary students could regularly attend story hour there. Junior and senior high school students could study and research projects in a neat, quiet, safe environment where vagrancy would never have been tolerated, much less encouraged or attracted.
Does anyone remember when the library bond measure was being debated, the part about turning our new library into a homeless service center? Me neither.
Everyone that pays taxes on their home to support the construction bonds that were required to build both the downtown and Cascade Park branch libraries did not intend to surrender them to the so-called “homeless.” The library was supposed to be a safe place for the community that is paying for it to enjoy, not for some vagrant to hang out all day.
Direct the “homeless” to where the services they need already are. Stop attracting and tolerating vagrants who refuse those services to come hang out in our libraries.
