City
of Seattle City
of Seattle
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Letter from the Mayor and the City Librarian Libraries
for All | March 13, 1998 Seattle City Council Honorable Members: Such an opportunity comes but rarely in the life of a city: the chance to come together to lift both our minds and our hearts, to renew our sense of community, and to leave a legacy that represents the best part of the human spirit. Therefore, it is with pride and passion that we present "Libraries for All," a capital plan to serve this city of readers for the next century. The plan is built on literally thousands of hours of community conversations, over the course of more than six years. As your new Mayor and new City Librarian we benefit from the work that went on in the past, and we have added considerably to it. Over the past three months more than 35 community meetings have been held in neighborhoods all over the city, involving thousands of our friends and neighbors to discuss what we want from our libraries and to discern together how best our libraries can enrich the social and physical texture of our downtown and neighborhoods. The plan we bring you today is the product of those discussions, and of the committed work of dedicated Library employees, other City staff, consultants, real estate advisors, an architectural review committee, and civic minded property owners who have all worked together hard and productively to turn dreams into reality. More than any plan before it, "Libraries for All" directs significant new resources to the neighborhood facilities serving Seattle's readers young and old. We propose to build three entirely new neighborhood libraries and to replace seven existing facilities with completely new and expanded buildings. We propose to renovate and expand program spaces in seven other neighborhood libraries while making repairs and investments in every other neighborhood. Under "Libraries for All," the total square footage of Seattle's neighborhood libraries will nearly double from 130,000 square feet to 237,000 square feet. In addition, we propose a $6 million opportunity fund to meet needs in the neighborhoods that may arise in the coming years. In all, we recommend that the people of Seattle invest $72 million to build and renew neighborhood libraries over the next decade, plus an additional $1 million to build collections for our new neighborhood locations. Let us add that these are rigorously realistic estimates that, unlike previous budgets, take full account of projected rates of inflation. Each community will be consulted and closely involved in making the final siting and/or design decisions affecting its neighborhood library. The library system will also strengthen its partnership with the Seattle Public Schools and other institutions of learning to ensure that these investments contribute effectively to the education of children and older students. This plan also proposes to invest $5.6 million in upgrading library technology services and equipment. Thus, the residents and library patrons of every neighborhood in the city will benefit directly from "Libraries for All" regardless of where they live. During the past several years of public debate over the future of our Library system, most discussion has been focused downtown on the Central Library. This is fitting, for the Central Library is not just another library among many. Physically and functionally, the Central Library is the foundation of the entire city system, and its location and design represent the single most important urban design decision this city will make in the waning years of the 20th century. As with our neighborhood libraries, we have benefited enormously from a lively and thoughtful civic discussion of the opportunities and challenges entailed in possible relocation and construction of a new Central Library. Despite an encouraging public vote in 1994, we, like the Board of Trustees, have felt that the responsible course was to re-examine all design and location options. We applaud the Board of Trustees for the thorough analysis it devoted earlier this year in narrowing a dozen possible sites to three viable choices. Each has its special appeal:
The Board of Trustees faces a hard choice among these three options. On the basis of our own analysis, we recommend that the new Central Library be built on the current site at Fourth Avenue and Spring Street. This location has served Seattle well for more than 90 years, and it offers the strength of heritage and a bow to permanence in a time too easily distracted by novelty. It already serves downtown office workers and government users well, and it is convenient for transit riders and the residents of downtown neighborhoods. We can, in short, find no overwhelming reason to abandon this location, and further, we believe that it is the most fiscally prudent site for a magnificent new library. "Libraries for All" proposes the expenditure of $119 million for construction of a new 355,000-square-foot Central Library on the present site. This plan also allocates nearly $6 million for parking for 200 vehicles, $11 million for a temporary relocation during construction, and $20 million for new furnishings and equipment, for a total capital expenditure of just over $156 million. As with our budget for neighborhood libraries, these estimates take a realistic view of the impact of inflation leading up to completion of a new Central Library in 2003. This investment can yield a building in which the entire community can take pride while serving the city's Library system in the next century. This budget is not extravagant, but neither is it timid. We in Seattle have lived too long with penny-wise fiscal decisions that have left a sad legacy of pound-foolish public buildings. We do not propose to repeat such mistakes. Overall, "Libraries for All" proposes a total community capital investment of $235,388,570 over the next decade. We are proud to announce that the Seattle Public Library Foundation, a nonprofit community organization, has pledged to raise $25 million of this cost from private and philanthropic sources. The Foundation has further pledged to raise $15 million in addi- tional funds to assist in modernizing the Library's collections and technologies. We recommend placing a bond issue of $196.4 million before the voters in the fall of 1998. This sum is arrived at by subtracting the Foundation's $25 million capital pledge and $18 million in other available or anticipated public resources, while adding $4 million for projected transaction costs, which yields a total public bond cost of $196.4 million. Financing this investment will require about $55 per year from the average homeowner. This translates into less than $6 per month, which provides free access to services, technology, facilities, and more than two million books at the Seattle Public Library. Building new libraries would be a hollow gesture without funds to assure that they are open when citizens need to use them. Therefore, the "Libraries for All" plan also recognizes and acknowledges that over time we need to commit to pay for increased operating costs in the Library system. The physical expansion of the system itself will create new obligations, and we must also commit to expand the hours of operation and to enhance significantly the collections available throughout the system. We believe the operating budget needs to gradually "ramp up" by 25 percent over the next eight years to a real dollar increase of about $6.6 million in annual library budgets. We will make every effort to propose to you a 1999-2000 city budget that increases the General Fund contribution to the Library system by 10 percent over the next two years. This would allow all libraries to remain open a minimum of 48 to 60 hours per week, increase the collection budget by $1 million, and expand technology investments by $400,000. Four years ago a solid majority of Seattle voters stood up for increased investment in our library system. We failed at that time to garner the super-majority that is required for a bond proposal, and in some ways lost an important opportunity. Yet, we also gained time for a more careful, considered conversation as a community, which has resulted in a plan that we believe is far superior to the one previously placed before voters. We look forward to working with you and the public over the coming months to evaluate and further improve this plan. Then it will be time to move forward. We are a community that has never shirked doing the important things, and one of the most important duties facing us today is to create a new legacy of "Libraries for All" that can lift the minds, hearts, and spirits of all of Seattle's citizens in the 21st century. Sincerely yours,
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Last modified:26 July 1998
