Guest Commentary on SW library noise

Robyn Clark-Burns of Valley Station has written to me about a subject that has been on her mind lately. I have edited it for clarity and am posting it here with her permission. If you would like to write a guest commentary, please contact me.

As recently as Saturday May 16, 2012, I spent a good part of my day at the local SW library by Wal-Mart and Radio Shack on Dixie Hwy. My air conditioning went out at home, so I decided to take advantage of some "free" cool air at the Library as well as reading a book and futzing around with my new Kindle Fire - and the Library offers "Free Wi-Fi" .. So a  few "Freebies" I latched onto while visiting.

Since I am not a "regular" library hanger outer.. I usually run in.. check the cork boards to see what is going on locally and browse the New Book Arrival and check to see if there are any free library seminars coming up, I grab my book I put on a request - via the website the LFPL has. Then, I leave.

Saturday was different. I was there longer than my normal visit. I found a comfy chair near where the magazines and newspapers are in the front of the place. I dragged out my 1000 page novel I was trying to get going on and relaxed.

In the door comes a few "non library" types. I just observed. I am and a people watcher and can tell who is a reader and a library connoisseur and who is not.

Here is my bitch:  What happened to being quiet in libraries?  I was sitting there reading my book and two "street peeps" plop down their dirty-clothed behinds on the chairs next to me and crack up a conversation. Not a quiet one, but loud and rude. I understand folks with no air conditioning on a 90 degree day want to take advantage of the cool air as I was doing, but c'mon! Loud bar-room banter in a library is just plain "out there".

I shushed them and the look I got was one that they wanted to bitch slap me, so I moved to another location near the PC's.

It was worse. Cell phones ringing off, people talking in their Bluetooth devices like they were schizos, chattering about shit that should not be said or heard in the library at all. Funny, the kids on the PC's and in the book reading areas were quiet as church mice. It was the friggin adults!  What happened to quiet libraries and courtesy to others who are there for learning, reading, thinking and just plain taking in the scent of books old and new.

I remember when I was younger in the school library or the public one, if you made a peep the librarian shot fire from her eyeballs at you so you did not make a sound. EVER! It was like a mind meld from Dr. Spock -via the scary librarian. DO NOT MAKE A SOUND OR YOU DIE!

Don't get me wrong. I love technology. Cell phones, tablets, PC 's etc.. but please, when there is a posted sign in an institution such as a library, please wake up! Have some courtesy for others and TURN OFF THOSE BLASTED ARTIFICIAL BODY PARTS YOU CALL SMART PHONES. Do you really need to chat up with your buddies on the phone while being in the library, disturbing the tranquility of the environment and others folks peace of mind while visiting?

The Librarian was not even paying attention to the racket going on.. That is another disturbing thing I observed also. What ever happened to the fiery eyeballs?

Thanks for reading, Robyn Clark-Burns

A plea for affordable housing. Take a look.

And now, a message from my cousin, Drew Tucker, about the Metropolitan Housing Coalition. Please do what you can to help make affordable housing a priority in Louisville. -Brian

Hello friends!

Over the last three years I’ve been working with Metropolitan Housing Coalition of various projects around affordable housing in Louisville. Cathy, and Curtis are good friends of mine, and I find the work they do around advocacy, education, and research of affordable housing here in Louisville to be an invaluable resource for our city. Right now our city has around 7,000 vacant properties many located in the West and South end (where I grew up), a 25,000 person section 8 waiting list, and many homeless families, including 9,000 homeless children, in desperate need of affordable housing. MHC is working with the metro council, Mayor Fischer, and other non-profits to make sure that these properties don’t stay abandoned, and that they are repurposed so that they can provide new affordable housing options for residents of the Louisville metro area.

MHC has brought in Dan Kildee, a nationally renowned expert on foreclosed properties and tax liens from Detroit, to speak to the Mayor and others, about what Louisville can do on the city and state level to change the legal landscape such that these properties are available first to our land bank and not outside private investors who do not have much concern for the state of housing in Louisville.

MHC was also integral to mentoring me while I organized residents at Sheppard’s Square public housing complex as we prepared them for the changes they would experience after the demolition of their homes, and the subsequent scattering through the section 8 program. Without Cathy and Curtis’s help I would have been at a loss at how to create a direct link between the Housing Authority and the residents of Sheppard Square, who felt a significant amount of fear and anger due to the uncertainty of their impending move, and because of a breakdown in communication between the two parties in previous projects. With their help I was able to make sure residents received information directly, face to face, rather than through mailings, phone calls, etc. And although in the end they were still scattered throughout Louisville, they were directly involved in the decisions leading up to the move, and were able to speak directly to the Housing Authority when they so desired.

I cannot tell you how important membership is to Metropolitan Housing Coalition. Nowadays, grants only cover the cost of projects implemented by non-profits. Pay for the talented, and already vastly underpaid folks that make up these organizations is in short supply. And while I understand that we are in an economic downturn, it’s essential that we don’t let the groups that advocate, and educate us fall by the wayside.

Today, I am asking you to not only make a donation, but to show your ownership over the issues we face in Louisville around affordable housing. For $3 a month, $36 a year, you can support MHC in the second most vital way possible; the first is by giving your time to participate on one of their committee’s or volunteering your time. Three dollars a month may not seem like much, but imagine if 200 new members made this pledge? Sustainable giving, like this, is how we make sure organizations we value remain viable in times of economic crisis. Furthermore, it shows our commitment to the work they have done, and will do, into the future.

Please take a small amount of time today to visit the below website and let MHC know how much you value the work they do around creating education, advocacy, and research about affordable housing in Louisville.

Thanks,

Drew Tucker
Metropolitan Housing member, and sustainable giver


https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/MetropolitanHousingCoalition/OnlineDonation.html

Special guest commentary: "Business as usual" not coming back

Note: The following is a special commentary from Louisville resident Amy Causey.

This evening I drove from my home in Fern Creek to Wish's Drug Store in Lyndon. It saves me big money on prescriptions. On the way there and back, I noted how many vacant store fronts I passed, especially on Hurstbourne Lane. I thought of the empty "big boxes" in Shelbyville Road Plaza--one of my favorite shopping centers--the Borders closing at the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Hurstbourne and other favorites too numerous to mention in formerly prosperous areas, and yet building is going on everywhere. I know there is a new mall planned for Bardstown Road outside the Gene Snyder Freeway in Fern Creek. I wonder what it will take for Louisville, along with the rest of the United States to wake up and recognize that "business as usual" is not coming back. When will we begin to realize when we have enough, and that "enough is as good as a feast"?

Detroit was once a major population center and economic engine in this country. Now we all know it is a pale shadow of its former power and glory. It is now significantly smaller than Louisville. Recently Detroit has begun to face up to the truth: the city can no longer hold out hope of rebuilding to its former size. The administration has begun downsizing: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1972926,00.html

The shrinking of our cities -the shrinking of the American Dream- is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Like cancer, alcoholism and global warming it will only destroy more and more until we stop ignoring it. Let's preserve and conserve what we can while we still have enough. Capitalism cannot continue in it's present form. If we fail to reform it, we stand the chance of being overtaken by a grim alternative by default.

If you would like to submit an opinion on an issue, please feel free to send it in for consideration.