I have a love-hate relationship with Durham’s main library on Roxboro Street. On the one hand it’s one of the best local libraries you could hope to find. I have many fond memories of my kids enjoying the children’s room on the first floor back in the 1980s, of the free videos available for checkout to a starving grad student who couldn’t afford to pay video-store prices, of the tax-form room that was so convenient during the pre-digital age.
But then there are the other things, like the maddeningly left-wing, multiculti displays that seemed calculated more to anger patrons than enlighten and inform, or allowing Durham’s left-wing political groups to use taxpayer-funded meeting spaces, and the coddling of Durham’s bum and panhandler population to the detriment of normal library goers.
There are plans to renovate the old place soon, to the tune of $8 million. But there is also a push to perhaps relocate the library priot to renovation to incorporate it into what people hope with be a vibrant urban core downtown. I say proceed cautiously. Even with the malodorous homeless guys lounging in chairs and the rampant ALA left-wingism, on balance it’s a good thing.
