By: Diane Benjamin
The Council meeting to discuss forming a citizens review board to oversee the police will be held in the Council Chambers – starting at around 6:15. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=13151
It had previously been schedules for the Osborn room in the Police Station where live streaming doesn’t exist.
The joint meeting of the Council and the Library Board is still being held in the Osborn room – starting at 5:15. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=13167
Maybe this explains why they don’t want it live streamed:
(They haven’t noticed the Internet has been invented decreasing the need for a library – unless they create free programs to get people to come. Oops, free is never free, but that’s a secret)
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My calendar says June 2017….libraries are obsolete. As someone who at one time spent untold hours in libraries… I haven’t been in one in YEARS. Please someone tell me why I would need to go a library when I have access to everything ever written in the world on my computer? Apparently I missed the cultural aspects on going to the library. I thought I was there to read, look for books to read and do research? I do all those same things today from home because of a thing called the internet. So the library is now a focal point and a catalyst for a public oriented downtown cultural and municipal hub? So it is now a cultural center with books? So why not build a cultural center instead? Champaign uses the old post office downtown for their cultural center. The building is old and in need of remodeling but it works very nicely. It is sensible use of an old building. How about we turn this white elephant we have in downtown Bloomington into the Cultural Center? You know the place they call the Coliseum. It is not good for much of anything else and at least it could serve some purpose, right?
Libraries used to be a great place to learn about alot of things if one liked to read. They were open to the people with open minds. Now however the lists of approved reading material have been more politicalized and therefore are merely another arm of indoctrination.
Exactly: Ever notice how the latest books by Ann Coulter or Newt Gingrich never seem to make it to the “new releases” display? Or just try and find a book that gives a traditional and balanced viewpoint about the War Between the States. At the BPL? Ain’t gonna happen! All Renner appointees to the Board, ya know. Indoctrination, indeed!
Like the cell phone commercial says “Remember when we had to go to the library to look things up?” Everything is available ,even to seniors who once used only the library, at the touch of a finger and a swipe of a phone! I do go to my local library(heyworth) but to check out their book sales. Very rarely do I rent a book or a movie!
Libraries are great places for young children to get introduced to books, especially if you are poor. The summer and winter programs our local library offers are great because without them our kids would vegetate in front of the modern idiot box, the computer & the x box
So libraries now are just a place for young children to go? If you have a computer why would you need to go the library? I don’t see the need to bring a child to a repository for the dead tree versions of books when a tablet or a PC is readily available to most people. Libraries are the next Blockbuster Video stores. Who wants to make trips to and from a store when you can download or stream a video? I recently wanted to look up a some part in a Dicken’s book – I downloaded his complete works in less than a minute and found exactly what I wanted. Whether we like it or not… the dead tree versions of books are not going to be around much longer… so repositories for the dead tree versions of books will not be around much longer either. So expanding libraries is a huge waste of money. Make a cultural center or a children’s center if you like but libraries are going the way of the buggy whips.
It’s a social and fun spot, in other words – free baby sitting.
The library is no longer primarily about books and reading, The proposed expansion is to create a public gathering space, a destination including possible retail space and outdoor green space. Think of the downtown like an outdoor Mall. Library, Coliseum History Museum and BCPA will be the anchors. Many businesses will revolve criminal justice and government services. It remains to be seen what the large vacant buildings will be used for. The smaller buildings will be mixed use-retail on the first floor with apartments above. Downtown is to become a destination……..
I wish them luck. Compared to Peoria’s Riverfront and Champaign our downtown is joke. Millions need to spent just to begin to make the downtown a place people might want to come to. If a library in no longer about books and reading, perhaps it should be call something besides a library? And with retail dying everywhere, why would it make sense to put money into area to promote retail stores? And who would want to live in downtown Bloomington? Not anyone I know.
Lawrence–I’m purposely parroting Renner, the Economic Development Coordinator and the Community Development Coordinator. They want to spend millions of tax-payer dollars to revitalize downtown into a tourist attraction (Visitor’s Center) and a magnet for millennials. Foolishness at its finest.
I forgot to mention that the Cultural experience at the Library alone will cost the tax-payers $20-$30M. There will be additional tax dollars for other downtown projects to be brought before the Council from the Downtown Task Force.
Creativity center will creatively steal millions more!