Editorial: Is there no way out of library stalemate? Editorial: Is there no way out of library stalemate? (November 16, 2005)

Palo Alto's endless dialogue on future of its libraries takes a destructively sour turn as defenders dig in to save branches at any cost

A full year ago, the Weekly urged strongly that the community find some way to "end the deadlock" in the debate over maintaining its five-branch library versus a new, full-service main library.

Last week, it became clear that Palo Alto has once again gone nowhere in a destructive stalemate that satisfies neither side.

Residents angry at a plan to reduce the size of the Downtown Library let their anger spill over into a personal attack on Library Director Paula Simpson's credibility -- despite her avowals that she has no plans to close the Downtown Library since the City Council rejected that idea last December.

"Closing this branch swiftly overnight or slowly by strangulation is not on the agenda," an exasperated Simpson told the 50 or so residents crowded into the Downtown Library last Wednesday.

Simpson has inherited a virtually impossible situation -- without enough funds to operate adequately all branches and with no way to achieve a better central library, either. The current budget of about $5.6 million annually would need to be increased by at least $2 million to $3 million to reach the adequacy level -- not likely in today's time of belt-tightening.

Even worse, community dialogue on the libraries appears to be deteriorating into distrust, recriminations and personal attacks -- making finding a solution to the dilemma of the past 15 or more years increasingly improbable, if not impossible. And the city's libraries continue to limp along as neither one thing nor the other, in terms of adequacy.

When one resident at the meeting asked people to refrain from personal attacks, another replied, to applause: "Who are you to tell us what to do?" So be it, but those who abandon civil discourse do so at the risk of alienating the more level-headed, moderate members of the community -- and undermining their own cause.

The one hope now is a pending community-opinion survey to assess what the broad mass of residents want from their library system. We've heard clearly from those with intense save-the-branch feelings, and we all should look forward to a survey that is straightforward, non-slanted and fair to all sides.

That survey, scheduled for December with results due out in the spring, will provide the Library Advisory Commission, the city staff and ultimately the City Council with badly needed guidance -- keeping a spark of hope alive that something can be resolved on libraries next year, or in our lifetimes.

Holiday Fund focuses on kids and families Holiday Fund focuses on kids and families (November 16, 2005)

The launch of this year's annual Holiday Fund drive by the Palo Alto Weekly -- the 12th year -- means that local residents, organizations, foundations and businesses once again have the opportunity to invest in the best parts of our community's future: our children and their families.

Last year, nearly $250,000 was raised from individual donors, with matching funds from several large, locally based foundations. Since the program began in 1993, well over $2 million has been funneled to local non-profit organizations that provide direct services to families and children.

Last April, 36 local organizations received grants ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 -- to help with a wide array of programs, including several youth counseling programs, a "Safe Ride" program targeting teen drinking and driving, legal services, grants to local educators, summer day camp programs, training programs for child care and youth workers, tutorial programs, art programs, dance, and even child care for a battered women's center.

In addition, more than $10,000 is reserved for college scholarships for outstanding local students for whom such aid might make a difference in whether to go to college.

This year, the program hopes to begin closing in on $2.5 million total grants to such programs, in modest-size but strategically placed grants. The Holiday Fund is the Weekly's strongest and proudest contribution to the community -- helping forge the bonds of mutual support and assistance that make our community truly special.

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