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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, what do you propose they do that results in the outcome of a functioning and pleasant library space AND serves a growing homeless population effectively and in a humanizing way?

You speak a lot about getting them out of the library, which I get, but you say nothing of the needs the homeless have and that those needs should be met in a compassionate way. I'm interested to hear your solution or desired outcome(s) before I call you a heartless B. And I don't say that because of your complaints - I get them and I agree. I say it because of the way you complain and how it's sounding.

-- Dirty Liberal who found my way to this thread and also grew up in Reston and has family members in those million dollar houses who use the library without complaint[/quote]

I'm a DP but you're being unfair to the OP.  Typical 'liberal limousine elite post'. Do your relatives who live in those million dollar houses actually use the library?  I find that what happens is a lot of those wealthier families slip the library.  They buy books instead for their kids and themselves.  Easier to order with a click off of Amazon than scour the shelves.  So support for the library goes down.

Personally I LOVE libraries.  And my solidly middle class family cannot afford to buy every single book the kids want to read.

So while this issue may not affect your rich family members in their million dollar houses, it certainly does impact the lives of middle class families who moved there for a safe place to raise their kids.[/quote]

Restonite NP here. Look, the homeless are not [I]using[/I] the library to meet their [I]library related[/I] needs. They are sleeping there, watching internet there, hanging out and smoking out front, and also sleeping rough round the sides and back. While the earlier PP is accusing everybody of special meanness in proposing to deny this one group doing what they prefer to do at the library, while this one group makes the library an unattractive destination for everybody else who is interested in using the library for its purpose.

I still use the library, but disruptions are not uncommon there and the police have been there several times when I have been there. Last month a mentally ill woman was having a series of loud outbursts and the librarians looked harassed, powerless, and discouraged. Later I read the police had been called to the library that day for a separate incident, unrelated to what was going on when I was there. It must have been a long day for the librarians. I get leered at on a regular basis going in and out, and dropping off returns when the library is closed sometimes feels rather more dangerous than a mid-day activity in RTC really ought to be.

Really, direct daily intervention on intractable social pathology - this isn't what librarians are trained to do.

I'm following the redevelopment plans and don't think there is much hope of change here. They are going to keep the library adjacent to the homeless shelter, with both being larger and more luxurious.

Great Falls library is really nice.

[/quote]

Couldn't agree more, with your entire post.  I'll add that one of the homeless men came up to me outside the library (while I was with my daughter) and begged me to give him cash in exchange for a Wendy's gift card.  Gee, I wonder what he needed that cash for.   :roll:

It's political correctness run amok and it disgusts and infuriates me, considering the taxes are paid by county residents who want to actually use the library for its intended purpose.[/quote]

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