A Long Beach City Hall proposal to close its main library has triggered a backlash from downtown residents and their supporters, including author Ray Bradbury, who accused the port town of being "at war with the printed word and books."
"Tell City Hall NO to the threatened closure!" Bradbury implored in a letter published last week in the Press-Telegram. "Long Beach residents and children deserve nothing less than access to a downtown library with ready access to books and programs to help them achieve their goals."
A few weeks ago, Bradbury said, he was in Long Beach to mourn the pending closure of Acres of Books, a cultural landmark that had been open since 1934. He said the store's closure combined with the loss of the library -- the second-largest civic library in Los Angeles County -- would effectively "remove access to over 1.5 million books from one square mile of the city!"
Long Beach City Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, whose district embraces the 133,000-square-foot structure and the estimated 27,000 children from low-income families it serves, did not argue with any of that.
"The proposal is completely unacceptable," she said. "It makes me think that Long Beach City Manager Pat West and possibly Mayor Bob Foster do not understand the core mission of a civic library."
A group called Save Our Long Beach Public Library is working to drum up public opposition to the proposal.
Then there was Joanna Plascencia, 16, who on Friday was passing out fliers in front of the library's main entrance that read, "Don't close our main library to balance the budget."
"The main library is one of the only things left in this city that's free," she said.
Foster, who favors the closure plan, has repeatedly told people that he is an avid reader and longtime supporter of the Long Beach library system. He asked for patience.
"Everybody needs to take a step back and get the facts right," he said.
Facing a general fund deficit of $17 million, city officials want to close the main library, which costs about $4 million a year to operate. Some of the money would be used to expand services at its 11 branches, but about $1.8 million would be saved.
City Hall officials said they hoped to soon schedule a meeting to take suggestions from the public. They also plan to explain the proposal, which now includes the possibility of opening a temporary library downtown.
The decision on the main library's future rests with the nine-member City Council.
