Stop, Drop and Roll

20 November 2007 | Alameda City Council, Alameda Community | John Knox White

Tonight, the city council will be discussing what to do about the Carnegie Library building.

There are two proposals being brought forward.

Proposal 1) Staff’s proposal to use the building as a one-stop permit center, moving the permit department in the basement of city hall (former jail) and permit departments from City Hall West at Alameda Point into the building. Also a part of the plan is permanent space for Art, history and house renovation exhibits and public meeting space.

Proposal 2) Give it/rent it to the Alameda Museum. Personally, I like the idea of an Alameda Museum, and there seems to be synergy with housing a historical museum in a historical building. However, taking over this building would be a massive undertaking for an organization that currently relies on city subsidies to cover the rent at it’s much smaller location.

I’m not clear on how the jump to a larger building needing $3.0 million plus in needed construction work is all of a sudden become feasible. Apparently, the museum has submitted a copy of their business plan (just last week) as required by the city council in return for this year’s subsidy. And the staff reports that discussions are being had with an unnamed donor about money for taking over the Carnegie building.

That’s all fine for a private organization. But one would hope that the council would expect to know who the donor is, and what the amount of the possible donation is, before deciding to move towards a museum at the Carnegie. Despite the 42 signed postcards that have been delivered to city hall on behalf of the museum, one would hope that given the knowledge that this decision was coming up, and having so much time to prepare, the museum would have a plan, some donors, and a publicly circulated proposal before asking the council to turn the building keys over to them.

With non-profit institutions, there are often major decisions that get made that end up destroying them. Typically, these are expansions that seem like a great idea, but end up saddling the organization with an albatross that in the end brings them down.  It’s hard not to think that this is the case, even if the city were to just hand the building over to the museum for free.

This isn’t about the museum. As I’ve written before, long before the idea of giving the Carnegie to the museum was an issue, I don’t undestand why using a beautiful building for a public use, one that gets tons of use on a daily basis, is considered such a bad thing. Who says that city departments, ones that deal directly with residents every day, should be housed in dimly lit, low-ceiling, cramped spaces.

I think the staff has come up with a good solution and hopefully, the city council will approve it on Tuesday.