[Durham INC] 'South Durham losing its library' -- explanation

[Melissa Rooney]

Just wanted to clarify a statement I made in my last email regarding turning the 'old' Parkwood Library building into a much needed rec center for this area of South Durham.

Yes, South Durham is getting a new 'South Regional Library', and it will be ~1.5 miles from the current Parkwood site, as the crow flies. And the current site of the new South
Regional Library is the best Durham could do at the time. So I am grateful to get this new library. 

But the new Southwest Regional Library site is not 'easily' accessible to most South Durham residential
neighborhoods. Just do a google map search for 4418 S Alston Ave, and
you'll see what I mean.The site is on a busy road,
between Highway 54 and I-40, an area that is hardly walkable for most
South Durham residents. So these South Durhamites will have to get in their cars and drive
there, like all the other Durham libraries we've had to drive to for our programs to date,
except Parkwood...

Parkwood is linked to many South Durham neighborhoods via residential
roads (that we can bike) and wooded trails that we can walk (like the
one behind the Parkwood ballfield). But once it moves, the idea of a library that is part
of the community/neighborhood is lost to South Durham... 

The East Regional Library's location, right in the middle of a
neighborhood, has been touted by gov't officials and users alike. When
I visted the East Regional Library, all I could think was 'This is the
way the Parkwood Library used to be,' back when it was an award winning neighborhood. 

So for me and my neighbors, we are losing our library. It will be nearly as easy for us to drive to Southwest Library as to the new South Regional Library. 

I just think
we should be very careful before we let Parkwood, and this area of
South Durham lose their current community center (i.e. the Parkwood Library, in its neglected but much loved state), as the new South Regional library
will not come close to replacing it.


Melissa (Rooney)




      
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