Reston Library

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Giant redevelopment of that area will be coming soon. That will shake things up a lot.

Do you know if they are keeping the homeless shelter near the library?

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't the homeless shelter have more ootions for them like computers, etc?

[Anonymous]

Some homeless shelters make their people leave during the day (like, out by 9:00 a.m. and back by 6:00 p.m.), so it's possible they have computers at the shelter that can only be accessed in the evenings.

The problem is everyone (well, most everyone) agrees that we need to have a place for homeless people to sleep (especially in the winter), but nobody wants them near them. I think the problem with the Reston shelter is that they put it immediately adjacent to the affluent Reston Town Center, which is home to $1 million condos and townhouses. Maybe it was there long before the area was built up to be so wealthy, but it seems that if they're redeveloping the entire area, now would be a good time to pick a different part of town. The area surrounding the RTC is extremely valuable, especially once the Metro opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some homeless shelters make their people leave during the day (like, out by 9:00 a.m. and back by 6:00 p.m.), so it's possible they have computers at the shelter that can only be accessed in the evenings.

The problem is everyone (well, most everyone) agrees that we need to have a place for homeless people to sleep (especially in the winter), but nobody wants them near them. I think the problem with the Reston shelter is that they put it immediately adjacent to the affluent Reston Town Center, which is home to $1 million condos and townhouses. Maybe it was there long before the area was built up to be so wealthy, but it seems that if they're redeveloping the entire area, now would be a good time to pick a different part of town. The area surrounding the RTC is extremely valuable, especially once the Metro opens.

I take back what I just said. I looked them up, and the shelter is open 24 hours a day. I think the shelter should have computers available there (and perhaps they do). I will investigate further, but it could make for a nice "civic action" type drive - raise money for computers at the shelter and free up the ones at the library.

[Anonymous]

Oakton and Chantilly libraries are both in your area and nice.

[Anonymous]

Go to the library in Oakton, Great Falls, Vienna, Mclean. We stopped going to the Reston Library at least 10 years ago. It used to be a fine place but not now. I've limited where I buy produce as well.

Fairfax County is spending huge amounts of money on redevelopement that is not needed. New homeless shelter etc. Library will still have the same problems. Any new library. Why put long term units and families with the problematical population? Why have they let the library be ruined for community use?

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/

I read public meeting info and comments. Reston has a performing arts stage in Hunters Woods. People want that in this project also. The public schools have stages. Spending other people's money never ends.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/shelter-design-manual.pdf

[Anonymous]

Complain to the library manager. Complain to the system director. Tell them you are going to lobby against financially supporting the library, since you can't use it any how.

They need to get some security and crack down on the homeless. The problem sounds like the homeless have taken ownership of the library and the county and the librarians need to take it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Complain to the library manager. Complain to the system director. Tell them you are going to lobby against financially supporting the library, since you can't use it any how.

They need to get some security and crack down on the homeless. The problem sounds like the homeless have taken ownership of the library and the county and the librarians need to take it back.

Op here. Yes, that's exactly the problem. Two issues, though:

1) The decision to allow the homeless to render the bathrooms unusable and be given priority over the computers was obviously made "higher up." They are afraid that placing restrictions will lead to disruptive behavior, so they defer to them. I complained once and was told that the homeless still have constitutional rights to go to public places, and there's nothing that can be done.

2) There's no such thing as refusing to support the library financially. They get their money from our County taxes, which of course keeps going up and up. Have you seen that Taj Mahal Fairfax County built?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the library in Oakton, Great Falls, Vienna, Mclean. We stopped going to the Reston Library at least 10 years ago. It used to be a fine place but not now. I've limited where I buy produce as well.

Fairfax County is spending huge amounts of money on redevelopement that is not needed. New homeless shelter etc. Library will still have the same problems. Any new library. Why put long term units and families with the problematical population? Why have they let the library be ruined for community use?

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/

I read public meeting info and comments. Reston has a performing arts stage in Hunters Woods. People want that in this project also. The public schools have stages. Spending other people's money never ends.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/shelter-design-manual.pdf

Ugh. (OP here.) I looked at that redevelopment plan, and contained within it are both the homeless shelter and the subsidized townhouses at the corner. Are they going to knock those down, too, and re-build them as well? (If they want to update kitchens or whatever, fine....but not an entire rebuild I hope.)

I'm fine with the subsidized townhouses being near the library, since the low-income kids can make use of it to advance their education (and to learn the pleasures of reading in general), but why are they leaving the homeless shelter there? JFC. Fairfax County knows that the homeless are ruining the library, and now would be a chance to relocate it. This is political correctness run amok.

P.S. The library is even more needed now that the Barnes and Noble left.

P.P.S. The nearby Harris Teeter used to have a problem with homeless people, some mentally deranged, wandering their store and upsetting customers. They finally cracked down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to the library in Oakton, Great Falls, Vienna, Mclean. We stopped going to the Reston Library at least 10 years ago. It used to be a fine place but not now. I've limited where I buy produce as well.

Fairfax County is spending huge amounts of money on redevelopement that is not needed. New homeless shelter etc. Library will still have the same problems. Any new library. Why put long term units and families with the problematical population? Why have they let the library be ruined for community use?

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/

I read public meeting info and comments. Reston has a performing arts stage in Hunters Woods. People want that in this project also. The public schools have stages. Spending other people's money never ends.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/shelter-design-manual.pdf

Ugh. (OP here.) I looked at that redevelopment plan, and contained within it are both the homeless shelter and the subsidized townhouses at the corner. Are they going to knock those down, too, and re-build them as well? (If they want to update kitchens or whatever, fine....but not an entire rebuild I hope.)

I'm fine with the subsidized townhouses being near the library, since the low-income kids can make use of it to advance their education (and to learn the pleasures of reading in general), but why are they leaving the homeless shelter there? JFC. Fairfax County knows that the homeless are ruining the library, and now would be a chance to relocate it. This is political correctness run amok.

P.S. The library is even more needed now that the Barnes and Noble left.

P.P.S. The nearby Harris Teeter used to have a problem with homeless people, some mentally deranged, wandering their store and upsetting customers. They finally cracked down.

I'm not sure who lives in those subsidized townhouses, but I doubt they are causing any problem at the library (stinking up the place, being disruptive, etc.).

There used to be a tent city in the wooded lot across the street from the library. When I wrote to the county to complain about it, they basically shrugged and said "the homeless have to be somewhere, so they might as well be near you". I suspect that will be their attitude towards relocating that shelter somewhere else in the county (which needless to say, would arouse intense opposition wherever they tried to move it to).

[Anonymous]

Some severely scary/mentally ill/threatening homeless out there. I am tired of crusades to idealize them -- down to kids school drives. It makes them seem all cute and fuzzy when they are frankly ill and unpredictable. We need real funding for their treatment and a change to laws regarding humane institutionalization. This overlap with libraries is a real problem in our region, Build reading rooms just for them or better yet institutionalize them and get them help. Time to examine our laws. It's very idealistic to think that a place that serves the after school kid crowd and promotes literacy is the place for chronic homeless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to the library in Oakton, Great Falls, Vienna, Mclean. We stopped going to the Reston Library at least 10 years ago. It used to be a fine place but not now. I've limited where I buy produce as well.

Fairfax County is spending huge amounts of money on redevelopement that is not needed. New homeless shelter etc. Library will still have the same problems. Any new library. Why put long term units and families with the problematical population? Why have they let the library be ruined for community use?

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/

I read public meeting info and comments. Reston has a performing arts stage in Hunters Woods. People want that in this project also. The public schools have stages. Spending other people's money never ends.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth/shelter-design-manual.pdf

Ugh. (OP here.) I looked at that redevelopment plan, and contained within it are both the homeless shelter and the subsidized townhouses at the corner. Are they going to knock those down, too, and re-build them as well? (If they want to update kitchens or whatever, fine....but not an entire rebuild I hope.)

I'm fine with the subsidized townhouses being near the library, since the low-income kids can make use of it to advance their education (and to learn the pleasures of reading in general), but why are they leaving the homeless shelter there? JFC. Fairfax County knows that the homeless are ruining the library, and now would be a chance to relocate it. This is political correctness run amok.

P.S. The library is even more needed now that the Barnes and Noble left.

P.P.S. The nearby Harris Teeter used to have a problem with homeless people, some mentally deranged, wandering their store and upsetting customers. They finally cracked down.

I'm not sure who lives in those subsidized townhouses, but I doubt they are causing any problem at the library (stinking up the place, being disruptive, etc.).

There used to be a tent city in the wooded lot across the street from the library. When I wrote to the county to complain about it, they basically shrugged and said "the homeless have to be somewhere, so they might as well be near you". I suspect that will be their attitude towards relocating that shelter somewhere else in the county (which needless to say, would arouse intense opposition wherever they tried to move it to).

OP here. Just to be clear, I'm fine with the subsidized townhouses being near the library. It's the homeless from the shelter who are is causing the problems.

But you're certainly right that nobody would want a homeless shelter near them. But why put it next to a library? And now that the homeless problem at the library is so obvious (it has been for years), why is Fairfax County not taking the opportunity to relocate it as part of the new redevelopment plans? They're going to spend millions on the new library, and within 6 months it will stink to high heaven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some severely scary/mentally ill/threatening homeless out there. I am tired of crusades to idealize them -- down to kids school drives. It makes them seem all cute and fuzzy when they are frankly ill and unpredictable. We need real funding for their treatment and a change to laws regarding humane institutionalization. This overlap with libraries is a real problem in our region, Build reading rooms just for them or better yet institutionalize them and get them help. Time to examine our laws. It's very idealistic to think that a place that serves the after school kid crowd and promotes literacy is the place for chronic homeless.

You've nailed it. I'm not saying we should demonize these people - many, if not most, are mentally ill - but we are swinging to the opposite extreme. Giving them priority at the library computers - or just simply allowing them to hang around all day, ruining the experience for taxpayers - is completely lopsided.

And I agree that many, if not most, are mentally ill, yet we're fine with them roaming around? I went to the Panera at the Reston Town Center for lunch and couldn't find a booth. Then I spotted a few empty ones near the corner, but when I got there, there was a homeless guy sleeping. None of the adjacent booths were fit for eating because of the smell. That's why they were empty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the homeless shelter have more ootions for them like computers, etc?

Have you ever spent any length of time in a homeless shelter, observing?

You can't have anything like that because it will be broken, stolen or vandalized in short order. That's just the nature of the situation. This is a group of people who, by and large, are incapable of taking care of themselves, let alone community type property like you're describing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't the homeless shelter have more ootions for them like computers, etc?

Have you ever spent any length of time in a homeless shelter, observing?

You can't have anything like that because it will be broken, stolen or vandalized in short order. That's just the nature of the situation. This is a group of people who, by and large, are incapable of taking care of themselves, let alone community type property like you're describing.

+1. These aren't normally people who are just having a bad month and lost their houses. Most are mentally ill.