Voters reject library expansion bond

truckingbeagle writes “Voters in Vancouver, WA voted tuesday on a bond measure that would have remodelled the 42 year old main library and built a new large library for the growing east side of Vancouver. While the bond measure drew just over 55% it required a 60% majority to pass. Opposition in recent weeks had objected to the use of library computers to view pornography. Read more about it here at The Columbian.”

March 11, 2004 by rochelle Uncategorized 9

shoe says:

March 11, 2004 at 6:35 pm

Honest to pete

But the bond issue was a tougher sell, and the ballot measure did draw organized opposition. Members of LifePac of Clark County, a group that opposes objectionable material available on library Internet terminals, put up signs urging voters to “vote no on porn.”

What does remodelling have to do with porn, for the love of pete? The library porn issue, in this case, I think is just a convenient excuse (Save the children! Save the children!) for not wanting taxes raised. It’s easier to justify not sinking money in children’s (and adult’s!) education by convincing yourself you’re not cheap, you’re morally conscious.

What are these people going to do the first time a dirty picture comes through the filter? Hey, we have filters and believe me, it happens. My god, they’ll be shutting down the library all together.

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crow says:

March 11, 2004 at 9:32 pm

Re:Honest to pete
Don’t forget the climate of anti-intellectualism, particularly amongst the types of people who would use porn as an issue to hide their “learning is dangerous” agenda. Too many of these people don’t want children (or anyone else for that matter) exposed to viewpoints other than their own narrow (and yes, often religious) ones and libraries are dangerous places to them as they contain materials that might *gasp* encourage critical thinking and opening one’s mind to other viewpoints.

That being said, I’d never underestimate the selfishness of many Americans — I’m sure taxes played a significant role as well.

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tomeboy says:

March 11, 2004 at 9:41 pm

Probably not the last
This result should come as no surprise. Particularly to those who bother to read my posts.

This issue is not about remodelling but arrogance.

ALA has chosen to politicize libraries, the Patriot Act and CIPA being two recent examples. This is reality. Until we as a librarians acknowledge this, ALA will continue to â€œhold the coatâ€? of public libraries while they lose bond initiatives by â€œactivistâ€? taxpayers.

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Anonymous Patron says:

March 12, 2004 at 12:37 am

Re:Honest to pete
Pornography was the red herring to the real issue here, taxes. Vancouver is on the border with Oregon which has no sales tax so many people in Washington shop there to avoid it. Additionally Vancouver has experienced tremendous growth over the last two decades. Part of it is because of population growth, the other part because the city has annexed unicorporated areas to triple in size since 1990. Many people are unhappy with the corresponding growth in their property taxes. Despite this, the bond did get a 55% majority. My question is, do other states require a 60% majority for bond measures?

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Anonymous Patron says:

March 12, 2004 at 3:51 am

Conservative ramblings…
Get your conservative head out of the sand. These elections are always locally driven and usually have nothing to do with what issues ALA may or may not be supporting. If you saw the past election results posted, the library has always tallied between 55 and 65% support so reaching that 60% threshold was going to be a challenge. By and large, libraries are doing well in local elections, whether they filter or not and whether they support the Patriot Act or not. There are probably more no votes these days but those can be primarily attributed to the state of the economy. Sorry, your little ALA diatribe will need to be saved for another topic.

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tomeboy says:

March 12, 2004 at 4:02 am

Re:Conservative ramblings…
Here’s what the article said, friend. Not me.

>>But the bond issue was a tougher sell, and the ballot measure did
draw organized opposition. Members of LifePac of Clark County, a
group that opposes objectionable material available on library Internet
terminals, put up signs urging voters to “vote no on porn.”

So, I would submit the only one rambling here is you.

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mcbride says:

March 12, 2004 at 8:23 am

Re:Conservative ramblings…
Well, I don’t hide behind an anonymous cloak, so anyone can see that I live in Camas, WA, which approved a bond in 2000 for a new library. It’s gorgeous too. But let’s not assume that physical space has nothing to do with filters and porn. In the minds of many, they do. The library’s position on filter and pornography has everything to do with voters wanting/not wanting to give them something else (like a new building), even if the result is a less than effective library system for voters.

I’m not saying its rational or even a fact, but people out here want to hear that their libraries want to proactively protect their children. If they hear it, they’ll vote.

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ChuckB says:

March 12, 2004 at 11:52 am

Honest to pete

Pop culture is every bit as anti-intellectual as religion, and much more pervasive in its influence. Consider how much of popular culture emphasizes feelings over thought; the visual and inchoate over the reflective and verbal; the visceral over the mental; trivial drives and urges over lasting passions. Consider the shallow version of self-esteem that much of pop culture encourages. Consider the popular infatuation with celebrities of all kinds, and the uncritical readiness of many to make excuses for their improprieties. And I say that as someone who likes a lot of popular culture. And I say that as someone who thinks that there is too much anti-intellectualism in the church today.

… their “learning is dangerous” agenda.

Do home-schooled kids (which are a substantially more religious lot than the general public) demonstrate greater or lesser academic achievement than their public-schooled peers? If greater, then is there perhaps some sense in which they don’t view learning as dangerous?

That being said, I’d never underestimate the selfishness of many Americans — I’m sure taxes played a significant role as well.

The temerity of those selfish Americans–thinking they are entitled to decide for themselves how they should be governed and taxed.

—
Emerson, McGuffey, & Dewey–oh my!:
Where Emerson advocated a program of self-discovery illuminated by the work of classic poets and the lives of great men, Dewey fostered youthful complacency. Instead of encouraging kids to find out the depths of their souls, Dewey was content to let them navigate the shallows.

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Anonymous Patron says:

March 14, 2004 at 12:26 pm

Re:Conservative ramblings…
If that’s what you think but I’ve seen nothing to correlate a library’s position on filters to voter support for library ballot measures other than anecdotal examples provided by conservative types trying to make a point, no matter how loosely connected it is to reality. Don’t tell me about how Podunk Library System lost an election because they refused to filter. Show me statistics backing up the claim.

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