Meet Me at the Downtown Library Festival
On April 26 the Santa Cruz Public Libraries are inviting the public to celebrate a major milestone for the new Downtown Library at the Meet Me at the New Downtown Library Festival.
There are many people and groups who have been championing the effort to improve the ten branches of the library for years. Among them is Cynthia Mathews, former Santa Cruz City Council Member and Mayor and active Friend.
“In the space of eight years, we passed Measure S, and we completed improvements for nine of the ten branches,” Mathews said. “They’re beautiful. People love them. Each one is very different depending on what was there and the community it serves. To me, it’s special that they can reflect the community’s character. People love it. You go to these branches, they are busy!”
When Mathews was first elected to the Santa Cruz City Council in 1992, she, alongside the joint powers committee governing the library system, began investigating potential improvements and ways to fund renovations. This effort continued, culminating in the successful passage of Measure S in 2016 with over 70% of the vote, allowing a parcel tax paid by local residents to underpin future fundraising efforts for library improvements, such as the Downtown Library.
Many of the ten branches have been successfully renovated since these efforts began, but the Downtown library posed a unique challenge for improvement given the age of the building and its structure.
“The existing library, after a lot of conversation and study, really has reached its end of useful life,” said Brian Borguno, development manager at the City of Santa Cruz and project manager of the Downtown Library Affordable Housing Project. “ I think in terms of a community asset, both in physical location and what it provides as a community resource, I think it can become something that is pivotal for Downtown Santa Cruz. I hope that it meets those expectations once we’re all done.”
The new Downtown Library was thoughtfully designed with community needs in mind, and is an exciting step toward not just updating the existing library, but providing useful assets to the community at large.
“It’s an amazing project, the way it combines the density of the housing in the mid block and then it tapers down to the library, which is just a couple of stories tall and fits nicely as it transitions out into the neighborhood,” Mathews said. “It’s exciting to see that in spite of what’s happening at the federal level, our local government is fulfilling its promise to the community. We see this as a real top-notch investment in downtown, and one that will be an anchor to all kinds of community events and programs.”
For Mathews, this project is not just an exciting update for the city, but the culmination of years she dedicated to the community and the library system at large. On April 26, the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries will be kicking off the public phase of the Downtown Library Capital Campaign, which has already raised $1.9 million of the $3 million goal.
“My main involvement has been being committed to improvement of the entire system over time, so that it meets contemporary and future needs,” Mathews said. “We know from all the polling we’ve done that people love libraries. This, to me, is just fulfilling a promise to the community. I’m no longer on the city council, but I wanted to stick with this campaign to honor that.”
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