This week in Salt Lake City, a famous architect went to bat for the intellectual freedom of the public library users. As noted in the article from the Salt Lake Tribune, Moshe Safdie made a request to the city that they not build a police station on the same block as the new Main Library building he designed. Along with the Library Director, and other library supporters, Safdie believes having the Police station and emergency center next to the open layout of "Library Square" would act as a kind of censor to the intellectual freedom and free speech of the area.
Now, I don't know very much about the building or area in question, but I could definitely see how putting a police station right next to the library would cause concern. The library would hope to be a place where alternative ideas are defended, and patrons have privacy from a governing authority, the police in such a close proximity could intimidate potential patrons or groups from using the grounds and services.
Judging simply from the quotes in the article, it seems that the Mayor who is making the location recommendation received the letter well, and is likely to agree. What a stir this will make if he is somehow convinced to go forward with the next-door location!
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3 comments:
I think this could really be much ado about nothing. Our local public library in New Albany happens to be across the street from the police station, jail, and city-county building, and I've never heard anyone complain about their close proximity.
Maybe I don't fully understand the issue, but I don't see how being next door to a police station hinders intellectual freedom. Are police going to stop and search people when they leave the library with books? Probably not. It sounds like people are assuming that being next door to the police will lead to surveillance and worse, and I don't think that's the case at all.
I guess in SLC, the library was designed to have a large public square/congregation area in front of it called "Library Square". It is here that people get together for protests, and "alternative" activities.
In addition, some library goers might just want to avoid contact with police in general. Or they might self-censor, knowing that their friendly neighborhood cop might see them going into the library and ask what they were doing there. No one should ever feel like they have to defend their actions in a library, even if they are innocent enough.
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