Keep the library doors open

[Commentary] I spent my childhood hanging out at the Los Angeles Public Library. Today, this quality of life in Los Angeles is no longer a given. We will not find an open door at our library on Sundays or Mondays. On those days, the great beating heart of our city, the Central Library, is only a beautiful, enticing resource whose doors are shut tight.

For the first time in 139 years, the Los Angeles Public Library is unable to offer service more than five days each week. The library's budget is only 2% of the total city budget. In the past two years, the library force has been reduced by 28%. The book budget has shrunk to $1.70 per capita, versus a national average of $4.20. This is shameful. Measure L can change it. Measure L will progressively increase the library's share of existing city revenues. Within four years, it will increase the library's charter-required funding from the current 0.0175% to a maximum of 0.0300% of each $100 of assessed tax value on property within the city. The measure doesn't call for a tax increase. It calls for a change in city priorities, a change in how we allocate the funds Los Angeles already collects. That change of priorities is crucial. The city's leaders have shown that they cannot be trusted to weigh the worth of our library appropriately as they grapple with L.A.'s deficits. Their unwillingness to give the library its fair share means that the voters must step in.