Keith brings up a good point, if the city's agenda is to develop the existing Walker Library site, perhaps a mixed-use building of library, housing, and shops is a step towards meeting everyone's agenda. Hennepin County Library and the city of Edina in the not-too-distant-past constructed such a successful facility for the Edina Library.
Which reminds me: why is the Minneapolis Public Library system taking it so hard on the chin with LGA cuts? Unless the Hennepin County Library system is taking equally tough cuts, then something is clearly amiss. The agreement that lets Minneapolis pay for its own library and not the Hennepin County branches, and likewise saves Hennepin County the expense of providing branches in Minneapolis certainly seems to suggest the two systems ought to be treated equally by the state. Yet it appears otherwise. Of course, I won't be surprised to find out that suburban legislators unethically stiffed MPL while "overlooking" the Hennepin system.
One of the points that should be made is that Minneapolis Public Library is a holder of the public trust, and that includes keeping the public's libraries, not selling them off to benefit the library system, the city council, or a private developer. Library administration, the Minneapolis City Council, and the mayor need to come clean about what is pushing this action to close. It's not a bad roof that is causing it, either.
If memory serves me correctly, the Minneapolis Public Library system is not even technically on the hook for the roof repair. It was the City of Minneapolis that screwed the roof up and is ethically if not out-right financially responsible for fixing it. They may have even tried unsuccessfully in the past. Anyone here know more about that? I'm dredging my memory from 7+ years ago when I lived in Uptown (ECCO).
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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