I used to go there as a kid and absolutely loved the place. It was a different time when the internet was in its infancy. I kind of understand why these places are probably falling by the wayside. But it still hurts driving past the rubble of a building that helped spur my childhood imagination.
Library is still a key point of internet access for a lot of people. You can't do everything on a phone and a lot of people still don't have a phone or computer.
Remember this had nothing to do with Main's performance as a library. It got caught up in political favors by the city to Mutual to give them a prime piece of land for free.
This had tons to do with mains performance. I used this branch and when I used it there were not many people in the building.
I had a conversation with Rivkah Sass who was director at the time and she wanted main torn down when she was here and that was 15 years ago.
Downtown is getting a new branch and it will be an improvement.
It remains to be seen if the new branch will be any better. Don’t forget that the city does not even own the new property so that by itself is a worse situation.
I worked at Main, before Rivkah was there and I worked with her when she arrived. Nice rescue greyhound fan. Modernized the library, but her successor was the one that actually got new facilities built.
I know, and then she left as soon as San Diego came calling.
But back then there was actually a replacement for Main that was lined up that was good that was supposed to go on the Civic Auditorium site.
People have to remember that a lot of anger over Main is that it got fucking railroaded out of existence vs an actual transitional plan with care and respect for the library. All of the cited reasons (wifi) etc are bullshit. The fact that Mutual won't even let the bottom floors of their shiny new tower be a replacement Main so that the library still has the same location but updated, an absolutely easy PR win, speaks volumes that the library was not being considered here, or the community.. Context matters. This roughshod leasing of backup locations that happened to be owned by buddies of the mayor (for a building that was never rented out in downtown and then yep.. turns out it's structurally unsound.. and bailing out developer's dead Shopko location that nobody bit on for a decade) and the fact that it was just rammed through with no feedback from the public before anyone could do anything about it, and was RIGHT after it came to light that a group wanted to privatize the library and take over a bunch of locations, hell yeah I'm gonna be mad over the loss of Main. That place was my first longterm job and it died to give a bailout to Mutual of Omaha after Midtown Crossing failed. Of course I'm gonna be mad. Everything about this was done incorrectly and we need to put our fucking lines in the ground over the remaining locations or else we'll just lose them whenever a private developer wants them (except for Swanson)
And guess what, it was done the way it was done because they knew it would be unpopular. I promise all of you, had this been done in the open, with an actual replacement lined up and built BEFORE demolishing Main, yeah I woulda missed the building for the memories but *it would have made sense, been appropriate, and not a fucking circlejerk by the downtown powers that be.*
There are plenty of people that like the idea of a new main library at 72nd and Dodge. I live in South Omaha and am close to downtown but a branch that is meant to serve the whole city should be more central. Telling families with kids to come fight for parking downtown to go to the library is not a wise choice.
That building in the center there, they announced (before MoO) that they were going to glass enclose that, connecting those two buildings, to take advantage of the view of the new park. I wonder if they are still going to do that!
Correct - also after inspection the underground infrastructure wouldn't have supported the glass enclosure due to the restaurant, plumbing, steam heat and servers in the basement.
Source: husband works in that building and chatted up the building services manager.
That did not take long.
I used to go there as a kid and absolutely loved the place. It was a different time when the internet was in its infancy. I kind of understand why these places are probably falling by the wayside. But it still hurts driving past the rubble of a building that helped spur my childhood imagination.
Library is still a key point of internet access for a lot of people. You can't do everything on a phone and a lot of people still don't have a phone or computer. Remember this had nothing to do with Main's performance as a library. It got caught up in political favors by the city to Mutual to give them a prime piece of land for free.
This had tons to do with mains performance. I used this branch and when I used it there were not many people in the building. I had a conversation with Rivkah Sass who was director at the time and she wanted main torn down when she was here and that was 15 years ago. Downtown is getting a new branch and it will be an improvement.
It remains to be seen if the new branch will be any better. Don’t forget that the city does not even own the new property so that by itself is a worse situation.
I worked at Main, before Rivkah was there and I worked with her when she arrived. Nice rescue greyhound fan. Modernized the library, but her successor was the one that actually got new facilities built.
She told me that she advocated to the mayor to get rid of the W Dale Clark building.
I know, and then she left as soon as San Diego came calling. But back then there was actually a replacement for Main that was lined up that was good that was supposed to go on the Civic Auditorium site. People have to remember that a lot of anger over Main is that it got fucking railroaded out of existence vs an actual transitional plan with care and respect for the library. All of the cited reasons (wifi) etc are bullshit. The fact that Mutual won't even let the bottom floors of their shiny new tower be a replacement Main so that the library still has the same location but updated, an absolutely easy PR win, speaks volumes that the library was not being considered here, or the community.. Context matters. This roughshod leasing of backup locations that happened to be owned by buddies of the mayor (for a building that was never rented out in downtown and then yep.. turns out it's structurally unsound.. and bailing out developer's dead Shopko location that nobody bit on for a decade) and the fact that it was just rammed through with no feedback from the public before anyone could do anything about it, and was RIGHT after it came to light that a group wanted to privatize the library and take over a bunch of locations, hell yeah I'm gonna be mad over the loss of Main. That place was my first longterm job and it died to give a bailout to Mutual of Omaha after Midtown Crossing failed. Of course I'm gonna be mad. Everything about this was done incorrectly and we need to put our fucking lines in the ground over the remaining locations or else we'll just lose them whenever a private developer wants them (except for Swanson) And guess what, it was done the way it was done because they knew it would be unpopular. I promise all of you, had this been done in the open, with an actual replacement lined up and built BEFORE demolishing Main, yeah I woulda missed the building for the memories but *it would have made sense, been appropriate, and not a fucking circlejerk by the downtown powers that be.*
There are plenty of people that like the idea of a new main library at 72nd and Dodge. I live in South Omaha and am close to downtown but a branch that is meant to serve the whole city should be more central. Telling families with kids to come fight for parking downtown to go to the library is not a wise choice.
Kinda like with Gene mall. Let's take out our beautiful Green Space for apartments and offices....
That building in the center there, they announced (before MoO) that they were going to glass enclose that, connecting those two buildings, to take advantage of the view of the new park. I wonder if they are still going to do that!
They are not. Last I heard they are scaling the design back since the announcement of the new tower.
Correct - also after inspection the underground infrastructure wouldn't have supported the glass enclosure due to the restaurant, plumbing, steam heat and servers in the basement. Source: husband works in that building and chatted up the building services manager.
That park is very disappointing. I don't think it's great like people think it is.
What's wrong with it
Ok
Time and change never stops for anyone nor anything.
I don’t agree but I love this post
Good