I’m a proud member of the Oakland Library. It’s a great resource. I like to read books, and I can also check out the newspapers and magazines. The Lakeview Branch is where I hang.
They have a big central table where you can sit and read. The problem is that the library has become, from its own choosing, not what it used to be. When I was a kid we learned that the library is a place to be quiet. To respect others’ privacy. Come in, do your thing, keep your mouth shut, don’t make a mess, and leave. Well, at Lakeview, those rules are in blatant disrespect.
The reading room quickly fills up in the morning with homeless people, or people who look homeless to me. They can stay as long as they want. Because the library provides them with free wifi and computers, they can also browse the web all day. Every time I go there are sketchy people doing work or whatever on the computers, often in conjunction with a cellphone, and often it sounds like they’re running their own small businesses. They have extended conversations. It’s very annoying when you’re trying to read.
I finally mentioned it to a librarian. She listened concernedly as I politely spoke my piece. “This is not the sort of library I’m used to,” I said. I could tell she’d heard the same sort of complaint many times. She was very sympathetic, and then she said, “Sir, the mission of the library is changing.”
“Changing,” I suggested, “from being a library to a homeless shelter.”
Well, it wasn’t her fault. I smiled as I thanked her and left.
Being overwhelmed with homeless people has changed Oakland in so many ways. And now, even our libraries are suffering. When was the decision made to “change the mission” of the library? Was the public advised or consulted? Nobody asked me. I’m sure there are people out there who read this and think, “What the hell is wrong with that monster, Heimoff? The library is one of the few places where our unhoused sisters and brothers can get a few hours of warmth, go online, communicate, get off the streets, relax, take a nap.” Maybe so, but it’s wrong, and I resent that the mission of the library, like the mission of Oakland itself, has changed. Our libraries now have become basically remediation centers for the poor. When and why did Oakand devolve to the point that serving the homeless has become the de facto mission of so many of the city’s services?
Here’s what I suggest: limit the amount of time anyone can spend there. If they’re yakking it up on a phone, politely inform them they’re breaking the rules and must either cease or leave the building. I imagine some people wouldn’t like that. Probably some pro-homeless activists would picket the library. “Oakland libraries unfair to homeless people!” “Stop discriminating against the homeless!”
What’s next, free sleeping spaces for the unsheltered? Meals, showers, psychotherapy? Oakland has got to get its priorities straight; turning libraries into homeless shelters is not why we fund libraries. Look, I know the homeless face a slew of challenges, but solving those challenges can’t possibly be the new “mission” of the libraries or the city.
The library problem is indicative of much larger incongruities in Oakland. How did we get so obsessed with the homeless? In the zero-sum game of allocating our tax monies, I’m afraid that the public and homeless people are on opposite sides. I want a city that functions for me. If I’m sitting at the reading table, I don’t want somebody ten inches away who’s smelly, babbling into earbuds, hogging the newspaper while he does the crossword puzzle, and slobbering over a burrito. If the city wants that sort of behavior, let them invite the homeless to go to City Council meetings.
Wait a minute—they already do!
Oakland cannot do everything it wants to help the homeless. We can’t afford it, it’s not morally fair to everyone else, and it just drives down the reputation of our city to the point where normal people really don’t want to be here. A city used to be a place where people worked hard, raised their families, paid their taxes, obeyed the law, and respected the rules. In Oakland, by design, that has changed, and is changing before our eyes. We now permit the most egregious behavior, and we don’t even pretend it’s normal. Instead, we’re told that the city’s “mission is changing.”
The hell with that. I don’t want the city’s mission to change. I want to change the politicians who allow this sort of mutation to occur. I want my library back.