Dear Editor,
Re: “New chapter in library budget talks,” News, Nov. 16.
I was shocked to read about Mayor Brodie’s attitude towards our library system.
A library is the cornerstone of literacy; it offers all the residents of Richmond materials in the form of books, audiobooks, e-books, magazines (digital and print) and kits. Lowering the limit of items a patron may borrow at one time could lead to the lowering of Richmond’s level of literacy.
Holding a book in your hands and sharing it with a baby, toddler or emerging reader not only communicates that you care about this person, but opens a lifelong path to discovery and wonder.
Giving a new immigrant access to literacy kits, “step readers” or high interest, low vocabulary books for adults and teens helps to speed their integration into our community. If you limit the number of items people can take out at one time, you are increasing their financial demands by increasing transit costs by forcing them to visit the library more frequently.
The City of Richmond supports the Richmond Oval by waiving their taxes and rent to the city ($1.6 million last year). The oval also received upwards of $6.3 million of additional external monetary support while recording a $1.1 million operating deficit in 2015. It has accumulated losses of about $2.2 million even with approximately $16 million of support from the city during that time.
I am not sure if the above figures include subsidies to the Olympic Museum. If not, the numbers would be even higher.
How can you deny $200,000 for the library, which all residents use for free, while subsidizing the Richmond Oval, which only a small percentage of the residents seem to use?
Cathie Thorneycroft
Richmond
