Birmingham Must Have a Community Vision on Baldwin

By Nancy Skinner

I spent a lot of time in front of the Baldwin Public Library and the Birmingham Post Office collecting 3000 signatures in the weeks before the filing deadline for my run for Congress in our District (11^th), so I heard a whole lot about the “Library Vote” from both supporters and those opposed.

Most of the discussions involved the costs naturally, but very little revolved around what I call “the untapped benefits” of having a world-class asset for all residents in Birmingham.  In a time where bookstores and video stores are closing their doors, (I so miss Borders here) and educational funding was slashed, where everyone has been affected by the recession and it’s slow (but picking up steam quickly) recovery, the new Baldwin will be perhaps the most valuable asset to every resident in every age group and every family, if they just availed themselves to all the services and opportunities it will provide.

Before voters cast their votes on Tuesday, I would ask them this:

If you really started using this library as the amazing family resource it is; getting your child to love reading early instead of video games; helping your high school or college-age student discover their passion and therefore aim for a career they love not one of aimless default; if you wish to learn how to start a business of any kind on the side or as a change in your career, or learn a new language to improve your opportunities in the workplace; or if you have a senior family member whose mental and emotional life would be vastly improved by taking their first computer class with other seniors, or meeting new people instead of watching Jeopardy and becoming sedentary, what would that be worth to you? Have you always wanted to write a book? You can learn how to do anything you dream with the right environment. Re-discovering a world-class library holds more value to Birmingham, than the misleading debates over cost-only discussions thus far.

The opposition has tried to appeal to your fear and small-minded red herrings. There are no “do-overs”. If this three-year process and hard work of many (including Birmingham Mayors) for the vision of restored and strong Baldwin Public Library vote goes down on Tuesday, it will never be revived. We will in effect be saying to close the door on the progress and to the future of so many Birmingham residents whose lives will be changed by a book. One book changed my life in 1993, Earth in the Balance, by Al Gore. I decided to use my business degree from the University of Michigan to tap the American entrepreneurial spirit and the powerful profit motive of capitalism to embrace renewable energies and other technologies rather than bury our heads in the ground.

Books do change lives. Every day, somebody discovers, recovers, re-invents themselves, finds their passion or purpose in life, or the right words or courage to say I’m sorry, or I love you, to heal their hearts, enrich their minds, body and spirit.

Many people in Birmingham know my father, as I found out in front of the Birmingham Library and Post Office, Chuck Skinner, the former head football coach at Seaholm, who turned the fighting Maple’s football program around after a long stretch of being down and was inducted into Michigan’s Football Coaches Hall of Fame. My Dad said he couldn’t have rebuilt that team that went 26 undefeated games in 1982 without the Birmingham Boosters, the parents that took it upon themselves to help him “build a winning program” and remain friends to this day. They had a vision for their future “REVOLT” against losing, as they taped to their helmets, invested in that vision and the resources like a weight room, which was named after him, and made that vision a reality. That effort shaped many young lives of his players and this community. He was constantly up against the naysayers, “it can’t be done, its’ too hard, costs too much” and none of that bore out; only the sweet memories of victory.

He also had players hold up four fingers to signify “the fourth quarter is ours”.  The vote is Tuesday, the naysayers are still out there, but if we get people out with a vision of a better future to the polls on Tuesday, “the future will be ours.” Vote YES on Tuesday.

Nancy Skinner is a Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 11^th Congressional District, which runs from Rochester to Milford and includes all of Birmingham. Skinner ran in 2006 in the former 9^th congressional district losing narrowly to Joe Knollenberg. Nancy resides in Birmingham. Contact her at Nancy@ SkinnerForCongress.com.

Whether or Wither the Baldwin Library ? The Consequences of a "No" Vote for the City of Birmingham (Part 1).

If the issues of  the millage election seem confusing, or changing, with the truth hard to find, there is a reason. why.

The election pits commercial interests versus to those of the community. 

Commercial interests ? Yes the need  for roads, sewers, parking for retail, offices, and their employees and so forth and so on. Newspapers are a commercial interest. They sell advertising and one of biggest  categories is Real Estate advertising. 

What is curious about this elections is that all the giants the local press are or seem to be opposed the Library Bond. 

The most vehement is Downtown Magazine. That publication didn't even want the issue to be presented to Birmingham residents on a Ballot. In February Downtown headlined  "Keep Library off Ballot". When the Library went on the ballot with a surprising unanimous vote of City Commissioners, Downtown Publications  put "Vote No on Library", on the cover of every subsequent edition. They did the same with electronic page which appears online. The current issue's vote no editorial, fills the entire editorial page and consists of over 1500 words.
Apparently the editors of the publication  do not have much faith in the reader's ability to comprehend or follow instructions.

The Oakland Press Sunday front page headline was. "Voters face 21.5M Bond for Library".  Actually it is a little less grim that. Voters  on Tuesday, are in fact voting to determine their library's future. That is a privilege  not all communities enjoy.

Even the Birmingham Eagle which normally gets it right  got it wrong by presenting the vote as choice between "moving forward .....or going back the drawing board."

There is no drawing board. There is no plan B. Critics of the 
Library to do not criticize the library per se.  Instead they object to the plan and assume that if it fails there will be another coming right after it.

The City of Birmingham is not however holding auditions for Library plans. The City and the Baldwin Library  spent more than two years with the best minds and resources available to develop what the voters will Vote on on Tuesday. The Citizens of Birmingham are  true owners of the Library and the property it sits on. City Commission through a Library Director and Library Board  elected by the people, run it for the people.

Depending on your viewpoint the Plan is either ridiculously expensive or not.

The price tag is  21.5 million dollars  over thirty years. It will cost the average household $124 dollars annually. That is   less than some spend monthly on Cable TV. The monthly cost is a little over $10  which currently, will by an adult  movie ticket and no popcorn at a local movie theater. 

Downtown Publications has suggested a new plan with less City Commissioners participating.

 City Commissioners are the elected representatives of the people. So are the Library board Trustees. Without such representatives  you have little say in what appears on Bates between Martin and Merrill Street.

Last fall  Birmingham residents elected three members  to the library board. That is 50% of the board membership. The Library Board incumbents ran unopposed. Because of the remote possibility of a ""write-in"  being the top vote getter (as on Detroit) votes were still counted. Shelia Brice swept all precincts except one.Frank Pisano won Precinct 7, his own. Library  Board President Andrew Harris was also re-elected.

At the  league of Women Voters Candidates Forum last fall all four candidates for City Commission (Hof, Nakita, Sherman, and challenger Walsh) said they favored the library renovation. Downtown Publications endorsed the incumbents who were re-elected.

Where was the opposition to the Library plan last fall ? One wonders why  Library  Plan opponents Mr. Couter,  Mr.Weaver, and Mr. Bloom didn't run for library board ? They could have given the residents a contested election and if elected  could have raised objections and perhaps modified the Plan to be voted on Tuesday. 

They would have had to file in August for a November election. Their first (if elected) Library Board meeting would have been in December after finalized plan has been presented to City Commissioner in late November. Still as candidates, and possibly as Library Board members-Elect their voices would have been heard.

Truth be told one gets the impression the Library bond issue opponents  had and have no plan. They just don't like the current one.

No one has said what will happen if the vote on Tuesday is no.

So we will tell you. In a word, "nothing" and that by itself is bad for the long term future of the Library and perhaps Downtown Birmingham as well. 

What was it Will Rogers said ? "Buy Land because they aren't making anymore of it."

Please scroll down to part 2

Will Rogers said "Buy land. They aren't making any more of it." Part 2: Possible Consequences of a Library "No" Vote.

If the Library Millage fails the plan  will go the shelf and stay there for the foreseeable future. The City has spent too much time and money to re-invent the wheel immediately.  If  The Citizens vote says the Library is fine as is,The Commission  is under no obligation to audition new plans.

The length of time the plan collects dust will be directly proportion to the margin of defeat. If the plan is  is trounced it  may remain dormant as long as possible. God willing and da creek don't rise. 
That means until  roof leaks cascade and cracks appear in facade. 

That's politics. Politics does not like losers and the margin of defeat  will remain in the memory of vote seekers long after the reasons why are forgotten.

If  the margin is close the plan  could resurface more quickly or at least well ahead of anniversary dates. 2021 (Fifty years of the 1981 Birkerts remodel) or 2027 (100 years of Baldwin). That too is politics.

When  old plan is revisited, the dust is blown and pages turned  no one will care about placement of book drops, cafes, or whether the entrance is on Martin or Merrill. Instead the City will look for assumptions in the original plan that caused it to fail.

Cost is most obvious. The Library proposed was apparently too expensive for what the people wanted. A future problem might be that 21.5 million may  buy  substantially less in the future. Consumers are well aware of that phenomena.

So ways to cut costs without cutting substance might be considered. 

Tearing down and building from scratch is usually cheaper than remodeling. As would be moving a the library to  a less valuable location.

In 2014 the Library looks  out on  Shain Park where luxury condominiums with same great  location and view sell for 3.5  to five million dollars. 

In the relatively upscale City of Bloomfield Hills million dollar homes are not unique but usually come with a two acre lots.  3.5 million dollar condominiums boggles even the Bloomfield mind.

The current plan was written in on the assumption that it was important  to keep the library centrally  located in Downtown Birmingham with architecture befitting that of other historic  buildings like City Hall.

In the future such assumptions may be considered luxuries and secondary to a  less costly new library.  It could be  be constructed in Adams Square or on Woodward Avenue perhaps closer to 14 Mile where the the property would also be less expensive.

One supposes that with proper planning, the land the Library leaves behind could be developed  in a manner that might  maintain the aesthetics, and greatly add to the City's coffers.That could pay for needed  road and sewer repair or whatever. Residents should  not however expect a tax rebate or a check mail.

The fact is a "No" vote opens a Pandora's box of possibilities and one can not be sure that they all be for the better. Making living Birmingham more affordable may come with a high price tag. 

Last Baldwin Library tour before the bond Issue vote. Tonight 7pm. Get All Your questions answered. See for yourself !