Here’s another article on the library closings in Salinas, CA, this one from USA Today.
For such a drastic move —— unprecedented in the USA, the American Library Association says —— to blot the hometown of one of the 20th century’s greatest literary figures, a writer who chronicled the fictional struggles of earlier immigrant generations, is a bitter pill here.
“I just think it’s uncivilized,” says Julianne Hansen, 60, a retired teacher. “Everybody is so incensed. It’s like closing down motherhood.”
NPR covered this recently… …and said that the tax measure was perceived as a bluff — citizens thought the city wasn’t serious about closing libraries no matter how bad the budget situation.
(Here’s the story’s page)
It’s too bad that tax receipts can’t be spread over larger areas. To see a very nearby town doing so much better than your own town has to be galling.