library

I went to the new Plaza library yesterday. It's unbelievably gorgeous. The view is stunning.

Of course, it pissed me off, too. Why can't there be anything this nice on my side of town? Aren't they trying to revitalize Blue Parkway and Cleveland? Isn't HR Block already down with the plan? Why couldn't this spectacular new library be part of that deal? Especially when it's paid for with TIF (tax-increment financing). Isn't TIF supposed to revitalizes areas that need a little extra help? Not the Plaza. And especially not to build a new office building for a law firm that had been a downtown tenant for, like, a century. (Wait a minute -- aren't we trying to vitalize downtown? Why give tax incentives to encourage longtime downtown residents to move to the Plaza -- our most prime real estate?)

Seems like everyone's forgotten the political blunder that led to the library. When the cronies in the Economic Development Corporation decided that it would be a good idea to raze an apartment complex that is on the national historic registry to make way for a new office building for law-Goliath Blackwell Sanders (major campaign contributors, of course), and use future tax revenue to do it. When that backfired they came up with this "give them a library" scheme.

Which is cool. But still. Awesome though the library is, it's yet another monument to the corrupt, racist, dumbassed eco-devo sluttiness of our city's leaders.

(BTW. Why does the Plaza branch have Wifi while the branch in my neighborhood doesn't? I think that's one I'm definitely gonna complain about.)