I just uploaded a set of photos of my neighborhood branch of the D.C. Public Library. The library has been closed since 2004 and no plan exists for its re-construction. It was closed with two other neighborhood plans and slated for demolition and re-construction, but the D.C. Board of Public Library Trustees canceled the construction contract last fall, deciding the plans did not fit with the overall vision for the library system a task force had outlined. At a meeting last November officials told neighborhood residents the branch might not open until 2008. Temporary storefront locations to serve the three neighborhoods now without branches have also not opened, despite assurances in October the library was moving quickly to scout out locations.
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Public Participation in Urban Planning Month
- Introduction
- Part 1: Urban Planning and E-Government
- Part 2: A Brief History of Public Participation in Urban Planning
- Part 3: Participation Theory
- Part 4: The Internet as a Participation Tool
- Conclusions
- Sidebars: Government as Data Source, Software for e-Government, more
My ULI Posts
What I'm Reading
Latest Entries
- Report Finds Public Participation Improves Policy
- What Neighborhoods Will Be The Next Hot Spots?
- Examining the Redlands Dam
- Tolls More Equitable Than Sales Tax For Funding Freeways
- Shared Vans Already Here … and Illegal
- Green Gas?
- The Economics of Redevelopment
- District Bike Sharing Launches
- Subprime Mortgages and Race
- The Equity of Housing Tax Benefits
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[…] What Of the Library? Much has been written about the library and the associated debate about the future of the library, and the entire library system, in recent months. City officials hope the library’s new director, Ginnie Cooper, will be able to lead a “transformation” of the system desired by Mayor William’s Library Task Force. Since her arrival the library has instituted free WiFi, opened branch locations on Sundays, and a long-promised bookmobile has appeared in my neighborhood Shaw to replace the library which closed two years ago. (Library officials also recently constructed a fence around the derelict structure.) The library staff desperately want a new library: their materials are endangered by the inadequate ventilation and sunlight. Meanwhile, preservationists are obsessing about the legacy of an architect most American’s have never heard of, defending a largely inaccessible and widely disliked architectural style (modernism). Many of the people who have power to make things happen in the city aren’t invested in the structure, as they have Amazon.com, Politics and Prose, the Georgetown Branch, or the Library of Congress. The library’s director from 1975 until 1997 who could speak to both the needs of the library and the history of the building passed away in 2004. […]
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