Cities 07

While taking a close look at Minneapolis libraries, the archival research I have done reveals their huge financial struggles. When first embarking on this research, I knew that Minneapolis libraries were failing due to finances, but I also suspected a lack of community interest. I was very wrong about community interest. I had also assumed libraries were failing due to increasing unpopularity partly contributed to the increase of available home technology (i.e. computers and internet access). But according to city representatives of Hennepin county, their overall library attendance is approximately 2.5 times the average compared to libraries nationally, and averaged 17 items per county resident (Kaszuba 2007). After looking over the news articles, I realized I had a very different picture of a library in my head, old-fashioned you could say. However, I read in a few news articles that Hennepin County and Minneapolis libraries are changing and remodeling to fit today’s library customer. They do this by adjusting the libraries atmosphere and adding free internet terminals. However, there is still a problem in that urban libraries are struggling to remain open and available to the public, while suburban libraries are thriving. If property tax dollars are the deciding factor in the survival of a public library (or any public place for that matter), what is it that will keep them alive regardless of factors such as community interest? The city of Minneapolis recently took important steps to fix that problem.
This research will be focused on the theories of Melvin Webber, Manuel Castells and Sharon Zukin. All three of these theorists focused around urbanism and an urban way of living. Webber focuses on how technology will further separate the poor from the wealthy, by leaving the poor behind in the information age. Zukin looks at the “loss of meaningful public life” (Zukin pg 136). Castell’s “spaces of flows and space of places” argument represents the growing problem with public places of information like libraries; they are being pushed into a space of flows rather than remaining a space of places. I feel that these three theorists have ideas that directly apply to the problem of Minneapolis libraries and their fight.
Minneapolis public libraries have been having funding problems over the past 5 years. Now, it is important to know that Hennepin County and Minneapolis are their own separate library systems. Minneapolis is funded only partly by property taxes, while the rest of its funding comes from state aid, which is to be paid through the city. Hennepin County receives the majority of its funding through property taxes collected by the county (Kaszuba 2007). Minneapolis is having problems because its state funding is declining. Though I did not read anything in particular on the amount of property taxes collected in Hennepin County, suburban areas property taxes are higher than those collected in Minneapolis areas are.
Minneapolis has 15 public libraries, and they have been in danger of closing. Their libraries have been cutting back by reducing the amount of hours they are open. They also were forced to “lay off 30 percent of its staff, and reduce spending on collections, programs, technology, and maintenance (NRP 2007)”. Even the new Downtown Central Library, which was supposed to create a renewed interest in libraries, shortened its business hours with in 5 months of being open.
I looked at each of the library systems web sites. Hennepin County boasts 26 libraries. Only five of these are open less than six days a week and five are open seven days a week. Minneapolis has 15 libraries, three of which have closed as of late December of 2006 due to budget cuts. All of their locations are only open five days a week Tuesday thru Saturday. Hennepin County’s locations also have longer business hours, and their hours are more accommodating for those who work an average Monday thru Friday, 9am to 5pm work schedule. When the two library systems accommodations and amenities are compared, the differences are there but they are not what I would call painfully obvious. I spent some time at the new Downtown Central Library. It is a truly gorgeous space. This library includes a coffee shop and bookstore, and plenty of computer and internet access. They also have meeting rooms and other large, appealing spaces with a variety of uses. I was told people have had their weddings here.
Other Minneapolis libraries have been keeping up this trend of updating their spaces. The North Regional library located in North Minneapolis re-opened in January of this year after being closed for two years. The article written found on Twin Cities Daily Planet says of the updated location, “This is not your stereotypical library, with shelving floor to ceiling and librarians behind desks, glaring over glasses at the person whose feet make too much noise shuffling across the floor” (Quist 2007). This library also has free access to the latest media, including internet terminals. This is what I was referring to earlier when I said I had an old-fashioned idea of a library in my head. When I think of a library, and when I think of a coffee shop like Starbucks or a bookstore like Barnes & Noble, I do not perceive them as being parallel. I think libraries traditionally have this image of being a stiff and painfully quiet, boring place, with nothing but dusty old books. It seems as if libraries are trying to create a “cozy coffee shop” feel. In a recent article in the Pioneer Press titled, “A Repository for Community: Twin Cities/ Libraries Are Changing Focus to Stay Relevant in an Isolating World”, its written that the “traits people associate with Barnes & Noble and Starbucks have become the domain of the modern public library”. As many people bring their laptops into Starbucks, to enjoy a latte while working or doing homework, it is very wise for libraries to add a latte and internet to their space. To top places like Starbucks (not that I am picking on them by using them as an example), you can use the library and it is internet and other services without having to by a $5 latte.
I would also like to mention that all these libraries, Hennepin County and Minneapolis, have a variety of services from homework help, day care, resume writing and job hunting assistance, and many activities for children. These are very important because I think it helps to create collective efficacy with in a community. Communities need multi-purposeful places to gather and to have Jane Jacobs “eyes on the street”. Although a library is not a sidewalk, it is still a public place for anyone to use and if it is multi-purposeful, there will be more watchful and invested eyes on this space. Moreover, if this happens, there will be a safe, useable public space, which I think is the ultimate goal here. It is a true cornerstone of any viable society.
I also visited two Hennepin County libraries, and they were comparable to the Central library. I felt difference was not in the atmosphere, but in the patrons. The downtown library had homeless people there and the Hennepin County ones did not. Nevertheless, I had expected that. I have lived in St. Paul and Minneapolis and I do see homeless people in public places, but I cannot think of the number homeless I have seen in the suburbs in public places. Aside from this observation, each of the libraries had kids and students there studying or doing homework. I see this as a reminder that public places are becoming more exclusive with time. The homeless “don’t belong” in those libraries but are accepted in the Minneapolis locations because homelessness is synonymous with “the city”. This is part of Zukin’s argument that there are certain things, images, and symbols that say who belongs in what place. This also is a sign of the growing divide between the rich and the poor. This divide is something most citizens of urban area are aware of but to visit like places in different areas (rich and poor); the discrepancies are very apparent. For example, a family who lives in Minneapolis near the North Central library before their remodeling may be okay with their local library—even if its not very fancy and high tech. Then the same family visits any of the Hennepin County libraries—there would be this sense of not belonging or not fitting in to the images and symbols that go with that particular place. Part of Zukin’s argument is that culture has become a commodity, and this controls cities. Hennepin county libraries want to invite and have the specific types of culture that appeases those that are paying for the space. Because the libraries are constructing around money, those places are not truly public. Public places do not have private funding, as whoever is financing something ultimately has control and ownership over it.
As the Minneapolis libraries try to stay open despite budget cuts, three temporarily closed its doors in late December of 2006. One of the reasons given for these locations closing was size. Kit Hadley is the library director, and said, “They are not big enough to do what libraries do these days. They are too small for technology, they have no community rooms” (Peterson 2006). This makes me wonder if those in charge of Minneapolis libraries are more concerned with image. Why close a library that still has patrons and still serves a purpose for some? Many council people in these affected neighborhoods tried to keep these locations open. Diane Hofstede, a council member who represents the Southeast Community Library said, “Libraries make this city whole, and closing libraries would be a scar on the city” (Bruce 2006). In the same speech made to the Board, she said, “… (Libraries) are the pulse of our community; they are people (Powell 2006). To solve this budget problem a merger between Hennepin County and Minneapolis Libraries was proposed in January of this year. This merger would alleviate pressure and dependency of government aid for Minneapolis, and mostly rely on funding from property taxes. Therefore, the two library systems would combine and share funds from all of Hennepin County’s property taxes (including Minneapolis). However, there are some assumed problems with this. Taxes may rise slightly for Hennepin County residents living outside the city (Ross 2007). In addition, Hennepin County residents are worried that the merger will put a strain on their library resources that are flourishing. On the other side of the coin, those in Minneapolis fear the merger will lead to neglect of their 15 locations, and they may get the “short end of the stick”. However it is promised that in this merger at least three out of the ten library board members will be Minneapolis residents (Collins 2007). As of April 11, 2007, the merger was approved, the city library workers are taking a pay cut, and the 10-year merger proposal will now move to be voted on by the state legislature. They also hope to re-open the three closed Minneapolis libraries if the merger is completed.
I hope that the state will approve this merger and keep public spaces open. I also think it will say a lot about how our government values public places. What I believe to be an important factor here is that citizens made their voices heard. As the peak of the closing problems was before I began my research, I was not able to attend community meetings regarding this issue as I had hoped. However, when I look at community web sites such as Twin Cities Daily Planet (tcdailyplanet.net), and NRP.org, there were several meetings held for open discussion on this problem. There were also internet surveys to fill out on mpls.lib.mn.us.com, and in person at a Minneapolis library regarding the matter. This shows that there is genuine community interest and concern for this issue. I think this disproves Louis Wirth’s thoughts on urbanism on cities as just a bunch of people sharing an area but with out a sense of community. He says in cities, “…there often is only the faintest communication, the greatest indifference and the broadest tolerance…” (Wirth pg 102). He also sees the city as not being a “family friendly” place, but as libraries are a safe public place, which do cater to children, this is an institution that people want to see succeed. Not only do people want to see these libraries succeed, they want them to contribute to others personal success. As I said earlier, these libraries serve a multitude of purposes, and the services they provide can aid ones success. There is an unfortunate correlation here between money and opportunities for success, and to eliminate these opportunities will create an indifferent and disconnected society.
In addition to the thoughts of safe and public places, Twin Cities libraries in recent years have received some negative attention. Libraries are trying to keep up with technology, and in doing so, their internet terminals have been in question. Employees of the downtown Minneapolis branch complained that patrons were using their internet to look at pornography, and engaging in obscene behavior such as masturbation. These employees ask library management to correct this by placing some rules as to what can be viewed on these internet terminals. In an attempt to correct this problem the library created rules to steer patrons away from these behaviors such as having to sign up to use their internet with a photo ID, and having time limits. However, if the library, a public place, puts too many restrictions on viewing obscene material, such as filtering software of particular web sites, they are cutting off access to material that may not be “obscene”. What I find offensive and sexually explicit, may not be to others. This is often the case with some artwork or literature. According to the article in the City Pages, the library put themselves in a sticky situation buy not acting on this problem and complaints on their own, forcing the higher up administrators to take a huge leap in cutting off more internet material than necessary. I think that part of the problem is not a matter of “what’s obscene”, but of keeping safe public spaces. As our libraries are struggling to stay open and operational, they need to attract a variety of patrons and many patrons. I understand the need for creating a safe public place, however there is still an issue of cutting off information to those who may not otherwise have access to it. Regrettably, this problem is on that will go around and around with only having temporary solutions.
Melvin Webber’s “The Post-City Age” says that as technology increases, a person can be urban anywhere. Yet, as a wealthy person can be urban anywhere, the poor are physically left in the city without what used to be the benefits of living in the city, for example, being surrounded by information, technology, and culture. He felt that as readily available global communication and transportation is available to an “affluent class of people”, poor people will be further left behind, as they will be “deprived of access to technology” (Webber). This is what I see happening as libraries close down. Libraries are free sources of information. If a society continues to close places of free information, you also are closing the doors of this information and technology to those who cannot afford it personally in their homes. People are being cut out of the information loop, the learning and education loop. Cities in general are being abandoned because you can be an urbanite from the middle of the woods if you want. If those that can afford to leave the city do so, taking property tax money with them, the city will be third rate and forgotten. This will cause many public institutions to suffer. This is part of the problem with Minneapolis libraries.
In addition, not only are the libraries struggling, so are the public schools in recent years. The school board says they have to close these schools because of the lack of students and money. Webber says of the traveling urbanite, “For him, the city is but a convenient setting for the conduct of his professional work; it is not the basis for the social communities that he cares most about (Webber pg 474).
We are improving (or just changing for profit—hello Windows Vista) technology at very fast rate, and with out proper funding, libraries will suffer from not being updated. There are still more poor then wealthy in this country, and to abandon public places of free learning is turning our backs on millions of people who could have utilized those resources to improve their lives. Divide here, is not a positive thing, and it only benefits a small portion of society. Part of the problem is also the increasing acceptance to this divide. Either people turn their backs on the loss of public spaces of free information, and interestingly enough, education is something that people, rich or poor generally agree on. A person should not have to be cut of from our growing informational saturated world because they cannot afford their own computers and such. It is no way to grow as a viable society.
Manuel Castells argued that because of today’s information age, people are being divided into either “spaces of places” or “spaces of flows”. A space of flows is the space of informational cities and chief place of technology, which represents Hennepin County libraries. A space of places is the city area where there capital isn’t concentrated and is clinging on to economic survival, which represents Minneapolis libraries. This again shows how people with money who leave the inner cities take their benefits with them leaving those who cannot leave without any viable resources, or any means to acquire those resources themselves. Castells wrote, “The space of flows, superseding the space of places, epitomizes the increasing differentiation between power and experience, the separation between meaning and function” (Castells 483). I feel this argument wholly relates to the problem with Minneapolis libraries. It shows that the removal of money in an urban city creates a divide, which will only grow as resources to those in the space of places disappear.
As the proposal for the library merger waits for voting by the state legislature, Minneapolis residents and other community organizations are trying to keep the libraries afloat. In fact for the week of April 16-22, The Rake, a local magazine publication, is asking its readers to “Feed the Libraries”, by dining at a list of local independent restaurants. In doing so, you will contribute to library funding. Minneapolis is a city that cares about its communities, and wants to see them thrive.

Bibliography
The Rake, Minneapolis, Minnesota
www.rakemag.com
Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program
www.nrp.org
Minneapolis Public Library
www.mpls.lib.mn.us
Twin Cities Daily Planet, Local News for Global Citizens
www.tcdailyplanet.net
Hennepin County Library
www.hclib.org
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