On Talk of the Bay, Tuesday, May 26, Christine Barrington revisits the Santa Cruz city proposal for building a new composite structure of: Parking Garage, new library, and housing on the present site of the longstanding downtown Santa Cruz Farmer’s Market.
This is a follow-up interview with John Hall of Downtown Commons Advocates and Bob Morgan of the Sierra Club Executive Committee, as well as a deepening of the conversation with the inclusion of Jean Brokleback and Michael Lewis from the Don’t Bury the Library citizen action group.
On May 7th The City Council Library Subcommittee (Justin Cummings, Sandy Brown, Donna Meyers) held a virtual meeting for Group 4 Architecture to present its report on the parking structure proposal. The meeting did not include opportunities for public questions or comments. John and Bob will discuss new insights learned in this meeting, as well as deepen the discussion related to what this proposal could cost the city–financially, environmentally, socially. The costs are high, the benefits are up to citizens to decide. Is this the best course for downtown Santa Cruz County?
Above photo: Jean Brockleback and Michael Lewis of Don’t Bury the Library
Jean and Michael, along with Judi Grunstra founded Don’t Bury the Library in 2016 and have been working since then to encourage city leaders to follow through on the mandate of Measure S to renovate our Santa Cruz Main Library in a timely manner. As each month passes while city leaders wrestle with this every more complicated parking structure/library/housing proposal, Measure S funds diminish, and the date for delivering to all county citizens the renovated library they agreed to collectively fund is extended.
If you would like to know what you can do to have your voice be heard on this issue, John, Bob and Jean all offer suggestions for citizen engagement in this program.
Listen to the show from April 28, 2020 for a complete introduction to the issue. The webpage for that show also has links and decision-making timelines for the proposal.
