Dear Council, First let me thank you for the hard work and job you do. I know you put vastly more time into the working of our town than anyone appreciates, or does themselves. I try to assume that you have more info for your decision making than I do, and defer, but in the case of the library I think you may have lost your perspective or forgotten that your values are more important than staff recommendations. The Belle Haven neighborhood needs a library. The people of Belle Haven are much less likely to have overflowing home libraries, many lack any connection to the internet. Transportation is more of a challenge, as are library hours. A library improvement there would really make a difference in peoples lives and educational opportunites. How is it possible that for the West side of Menlo Park, where “libraries are obsolete”is a common refrain needs a new one, and those without deep bookshelves or school resources and internet are not getting one first? Surly we agree that a donor that offered a library for only white people we would decline. Programs for only boys? No thank you. So there are reasons of fairness that would lead you all to say no thank you to gift. It would be terribly unfair and unjust for this city to further disadvantage a historically disadvantaged part of the city because we want more money? We’re one of the richest zip codes in the country. We can do better than to sell out our stated priorities and values to get “free” money. History is a record of the decisions we make. Continued disparity in city services is unacceptable. Barrett Moore Received on Fri Aug 18 2017 - 17:50:04 PDT
