Palo Alto’s Mitchell Park Library is closing at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 to allow a pest control company to inspect and treat a small area within the library where bed bugs have been found.
City staff was notified Wednesday that bed bugs were in two chairs on the first floor, which was then cordoned off from the public, according to a city press release.
The library will remain closed for the next several days as pest control inspectors treat the furniture and surrounding surfaces. They will return in seven to 10 days to ensure the treatment has been effective.
Officials said they aim to reopen the library on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m.
Bed bugs are not an uncommon occurrence at libraries as they can be transported through the sharing of books, according to the city. Mitchell Park Library shares books within a large region and through the Link+ system.
The city will also be sending dogs who have the ability to identify bed bugs through their scent to inspect the other four city libraries.
The closure of Mitchell Park Library should not impact the Community Center or Ada’s Cafe, the press release notes.
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
When the libraries double as daytime homeless shelters, of course you import homeless problems like bed bugs. It is disgusting. They should probably start getting rid of fabric or cushioned chairs where bedbugs might lurk.
Be chill like the pope. Some people aren’t as lucky as you are.
When they say the community center will not be affected, does that include the after school drop in teen center?
@Domad – Ya, the kids who get bed bugs by going to an infested library aren’t so lucky.
“When the libraries double as daytime homeless shelters, of course you import homeless problems like bed bugs. It is disgusting. They should probably start getting rid of fabric or cushioned chairs where bedbugs might lurk.”
Knee-jerk scapegoating never solved anything. Chill and let the professionals do their job.
@Curmudgeon – Right, like the homeless guy with his shoes off, feet up on the table, and eating out of a pizza box in the library. Where were the professionals taking care of the situation? The professionals in Palo Alto ignore problems until the problems are in their face. That’s why we have a stabbing, a guy pulling s gun on california ave, a mom robbed and assaulted in just the last couple of days. Just like the professionals are managing development downtown. That should be the Palo Alto motto – ignore reality and leave it to the professionals.
I love how Slow Down doesn’t even cop to the possibility that the bugs were brought in by books or local houses residents. Stanford has had a huge problem in the dorms and it took years for that news to come out.
@Hmmm – Let me know when they find bed bugs in the books at Mitchell Park Library. For now, they are in the chairs where the homeless camp out all day.
This is revolting.
A very interesting conundrum to solve while trying to be respectful
or people’s human rights. but when it comes to something as
oernicious as bedbugs, I believe homeless peoples’ access to
public space must take a back seat though, or anyone other person
or group that cannot maintain necessary hygiene. But also, but the
way, it may not be homeless persons at all.
“Bed begs are not an uncommon occurrence at libraries”—I hope you meant “bugs.”
If bed bugs are not an uncommon occurrence at libraries, what about all the school libraries?
When my husband has his face buried in a book or his tablet, he always jokes that it is because he gets bit by the “reading bug.” I suppose that this is the real thing!
😉
We need to clear up the misperceptions about who may have bed bugs and be spreading them. Yes, some homeless people may have bed bugs; however, ANYBODY in your neighborhood may have them too. It may take awhile for them to realize they have them and by that time they’ve spread them around. See all those tented houses around Palo Alto? Think that’s all for termites? Think again. Normal business travelers bring bed bugs home to their families all the time from hotels– and not exotic places, mind you. You can get them from an American hotel or a foreign 5 star. And Palo Alto has a lot of business travelers. As soon as one library book is left near the bed (or couch, or chair or in a backpack) of a house with bed bugs, the library has them. I’m not surprised at all. We need to conceptualize this like we do head lice at school- anybody can get it, regardless of socio-economic status or how clean their house is. Bed bugs are terrible, and we all need to focus on taking the necessary precautions to avoid getting them in our own homes and stop the spread of these creatures. If this means changing our normal habits, so be it.
“@Curmudgeon – Right, like the homeless guy with his shoes off, feet up on the table, and eating out of a pizza box in the library.”
Sure. Right.
Prove he didn’t get budbugs from you.
Since this is a bug story line I have to report a bee story. On my patio one bee attacked another bee and proceeded to wrap itself around it, pull off it’s legs, tear off it’s abdomen, and fly off with the abdomen.
I watched this whole event which took about 1 minute. Never did it occur to me that bees did that. I am stunned by what I saw. There is enough water and plants for everyone in the yard which is very bee friendly.
So for all of those other stories on TS yes it is a brutal world out there even in the environment of plenty and bug world.
Don’t forget about Lice kids pick up Lice in school and libraries in movie theaters it’s not just the homeless some of the finest families in town have lice Try not to be so judgmental and just be grateful you don’t have bedbugs
I don’t believe that our public libraries should be homes for the homeless when our non-taxed churches refuse to shoulder this burden. Church parking lots through out Seattle and Redmond, WA allow the homeless to use their facilities and camp in their parking lots.
That’s what charitable institutions are supposed to do, to earn their tax free status. Too much attention is paid by churches and temples and mosques to the non-American needs overseas and not enough to our needs right here at home.
I want to suggest that city officials apply to Donald Trump for funds to build a double, electrified wall around Palo Alto to keep the bedbugs out.
@Curmudgeon – Note Parent’s question about the school libraries. There is a reason this happens in the city’s public libraries, and not the PAUSD libraries, it is because homeless aren’t allowed in school libraries.
1. Bedbugs are found in the finest hotels
2. Palo Alto churches have, in fact, been trying to help the homeless by offering their facilities. Some (a few) people in communities like College Terrace, have been opposed to this because, if nothing else, it brings homeless people onto “their” pretty streets.
@Concerned R: local churches actually do quite a bit. Ever hear of Hotel de Zink? Ever walk by All Saints’ downtown, which remodeled its main building to dedicate space to distributing food to the needy? Ever notice the yellow van parked in the back lot of St. Thomas Aquinas—owned by the homeless person who was given a parking space when the City chased her out of the Cubberley lot?
Re “homeless not being lucky” above:
It’s true, many homeless people become homeless because of life circumstances they cannot control.
But many homeless choose to live that way – they like the freedom, not having any responsibilities, mortgage, bills, taxes … I know of at least two instances when they were offered jobs or shelter, but they would not hold on to it and they went back on streets. They prefer the hobo lifestyle.
And why not – living for free in Palo Alto is awesome.
Much higher chance the bedbugs came from a parent who had been traveling for business and accidently passed them onto the children’s possessions than from a homeless person. Or from a student home from college where budbugs are rampant in the dorms.
Re “bee story” above:
Of course i don’t know whether historically bees have been so violent, but if not, it’s possible that nowadays ingesting the chemicals and pesticides on plants cause them going crazy.
Dang. Palo Altans are severely lacking in the compassion dept. maybe the pope should make a visit here. Oh wait, he doesn’t care much for entitled rich white people.
Makes me sick.
If you don’t believe that this infestation is not brought in by the “homeless,” you’re not only in total denial, but a moron. I stopped going to the library a long time ago due to the smell, coughing that made the place sound like an infirmary, and basic filthiness of people that do use the library as a day home. I am sure that if they also tested these same chairs there would also be evidence of fecal matter and who knows what. So in our warm and fuzzy liberal politically correct society the only solution would be to completely eliminate all comfortable fabric chairs and either take them away or replace them with plastic chairs that not only would not be comfortable, but easy to spray down at the end of each day. Same with the computer chairs and computer mouses and keyboards; disinfect daily.