Hilltop and the Eastside deserve new libraries. Don’t expect it anytime soon | Opinion

There was no other option. The financial realities were grim. Try as they might, the numbers simply wouldn’t pencil out. No one wanted to do it. They had to.

All of those excuses and more were offered 13 years ago when Tacoma Public Library and its Board of Trustees voted to shut down two small but beloved neighborhood branches — the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Central Tacoma and Swan Creek on the Eastside.

The closures, according to current Tacoma Public Library director Kate Larsen, who arrived in 2018, long after the fact, left a glaring void she’s been reckoning with ever since.

Sure, there was a citywide budget crunch — a two-year Tacoma Public Library shortfall estimated to be $2 million — thanks to years of cuts to library funding, increased operating costs and the lingering effects of the Great Recession.

And, yes, there were the stats and analytics to consider, suggesting the two branches had among the smallest collections and faced the most daunting maintenance costs.

Still, when TPL decided to shutter neighborhood branches for the first time in modern history it was a library along Portland Avenue near Salishan and one designed to serve the residents of Hilltop that met their demise. Every other neighborhood — almost all of them whiter and wealthier — was spared.

For two areas accustomed to being overlooked and downright ignored it was more of the same: status quo disinvestment and neglect.

It’s hard to imagine a similar decision being made today, isn’t it? For good reason.

Larsen agrees.

TPL has worked with local residents, architects, analysts, and a host of others in recent years, Larsen noted, including the longstanding Hilltop Library Planning Committee and, more recently, the city-convened Facilities Advisory Committee (FAC).

Both groups have endorsed plans to create new library locations on Hilltop and the Eastside.

The solution is obvious, Larsen said.

“I wasn’t here, but in my opinion, the libraries were closed for the wrong reasons. And these libraries happened to be housed in communities that are traditionally underserved,” Larsen told The News Tribune.

“For that reason alone, I think they need to be restored,” she added

Capitol bond or fire levy?

Some day, Larsen hopes to right the local library system’s wrong on Hilltop and the Eastside, regardless of why it happened or who thought it was a good idea back in 2011.

It won’t be easy, she acknowledged. According to a 2022 feasibility study, building new libraries for Hilltop and the Eastside would cost roughly $60 million.

In practical terms, the cost associated with the projects would require the Tacoma City Council to put a capital bond on the ballot, which would need 60% voter approval to pass.

The vast majority of TPL’s annual budget — approximately $17 million in 2023 — comes from the city’s general fund. The City Council faced a deficit of nearly $24 million the last time a biennial spending plan was crafted.

Now for the buzzkill: There will be no library-related bond measure in 2024, city spokesperson Maria Lee confirmed.

Earlier this month, TPL took an unusual step in the world of play-nice local government: making its displeasure with the decision public.

The move caught some city staff and City Council members off guard.

According to Lee, there are urgent needs and extensive deferred maintenance at a host of existing city facilities, including aging libraries, outdated public works properties and, most essential of all, a host of run-down fire stations — all of which were identified as top concerns during a citywide review conducted by the Facilities Advisory Committee.

Instead of pursuing a capital bond measure, Lee provided a March 29 memo from Tacoma budget officer Katie Johnston indicating that city staff have been instructed to develop a proposal to place a dedicated fire levy on the November ballot, pending City Council approval.

According to Johnston, the proposed fire levy — which would require only a simple majority to pass and cost the average Tacoma homeowner an additional $25 a month in property taxes, raising roughly $30 million annually — would be dedicated to funding fire department expenses, such as vehicle purchases, equipment replacement, staff increases and facility improvements.

On April 9, the Tacoma City Council was briefed on the process of placing a dedicated fire levy on the ballot.

In Johnston’s March 29 memo, adequately funding the Tacoma Fire Department is described as a pressing priority for the city and voters, making passage of a dedicated fire levy more likely.

‘Conversation is not closed’

Asked about the decision to not pursue a capital bond in 2024, Lee cited polling from February suggesting inadequate voter support for such a ballot measure.

Conducted by EMC Research, the poll and its results, which Lee provided, included responses from roughly 500 Tacoma voters.

Poll respondents were told the passage of a bond would increase Tacoma property taxes, allowing the city to finance $300 million for an array of large capital projects.

Unlike capital bonds, which allow loans to be taken out for the construction of buildings, roads and infrastructure projects and paid off over time, levies and levy lid lifts provide an annual, long-term source of funding.

When it comes to the state of the city’s libraries — and the disparities in services on Hilltop and the Eastside?

Only 49% of respondents identified it as an important city priority, according to the results.

Currently, Tacoma is “exploring alternative solutions to sustain equitable access to resources available through the Tacoma Public Library,” Lee told The News Tribune.

According to at-large Tacoma City Council member Kristina Walker, pursuing a capitol bond — or finding another way to pay for restored library services on Hilltop and the Eastside — remains a possibility in the future.

“There’s been lots of conversations about how to figure out how to do library facilities on the Eastside and in Hilltop,” said Walker, who indicated she was surprised by TPL’s public statement.

“I think everyone’s very much still in conversation about how we make this work. ... “The conversation is not closed,” Walker said.

City Council member Sarah Rumbaugh, who represents a district that includes the Stadium, the North Slope, Northeast Tacoma and three neighborhood library branches, said she cares “deeply about finding a pathway to expanding library services to Hilltop and the Eastside.”

Rumbaugh described it as a matter of “timing,” noting that a “sustainable, long-term funding plan” must be in place for the new libraries to succeed.

“Before we initiate a bond package to fund purchasing or building new branches, we would also need to identify additional ongoing funding for the operations of these new library facilities. Right now, Tacoma, like cities across the nation, faces an increase in demand of services that outpaces our revenues,” Rumbaugh said.

“In the next biennium, even before we consider adding new services, we face a significant budget shortfall. As a Council, we will spend this year determining how we overcome this budget gap, while also planning how we meet our community’s priorities of expanded services in the long term,” Rumbaugh added.

“I would like to see us work with our community partners to explore possible locations and service levels to see if there are creative, lower-cost options for meeting this community need.”

Matter of priorities

By phone, Larsen said it’s difficult news to take.

There’s a strong, well-supported case for new brick-and-mortar branches to be built on Hilltop and the Eastside, Larsen said, and she believes it’s been sufficiently made.

Larsen is also skeptical of reading too much into the results of a single poll, particularly one that directly or indirectly asks voters to pit crime reduction, homelessness and firefighters against neighborhood libraries.

From here, it comes down to the city’s priorities, she suggested.

Tacoma has many of them, and providing the Tacoma Fire Department with adequate resources is a big one, she stressed.

Equitable library services matter too, Larsen argued. So does acknowledging a mistake — and then fixing it.

Residents of Hilltop and the Eastside have demanded new libraries— and they deserve them, Larsen said.

“I don’t think this means we stop as a library system. It’s one thing to feel discouraged, but it doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility to continue hearing and understanding the needs of this community and trying to figure out how we can meet those needs,” said Larsen.

“I was full of enthusiasm that we were going to get a capital bond this year and that voters were going to get the option to say whether they were willing to fund something like this or not,” she added.

“My hope is that it doesn’t end here.”