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Comment by navane | Hacker News Reader

"libraries wouldn’t exist if they were to be proposed today"

This is so sad. I spend so much time growing up in libraries. Been locked up there accidentally more than once.

What a library is today is so different. I'm not sure I would leave my kids alone in one like my parents used to. There was always the homeless element, but now there's rampant drug use in and around, anti-social behaviour is ignored or tolerated and it's not really about the books (digital or paper) but the free internet to troll your social media. Libraries used to be accessible jewels of knowledge, now they're generic community spaces.

I'm sorry to hear your library is like that. Mine isn't, and I don't think this generalization is fair.

Maybe in your area. Certainly not in my area.

The last time I was in the Seattle Downtown library, there was a gentleman shaving and taking a "shower" in the sink of the shared public restroom.

I'm of the mind there should be a place he could do that safely and easily, but that place shouldn't be the library.

Unfortunately, I don't believe there are many such places. If one is living in their tent, car, or similar situation, there are very few places where one is even allowed to exist peacefully without spending a few dollars, let alone take care of one's hygiene.

Libraries are one of the precious few places where one is not charged on entry or otherwise expected to buy something. Even public parks are increasingly hostile to the homeless, but often no real alternatives are offered. And I think that's a shame.

"should be" and "are" are often very different things.

Uh, yeah

Downtown Seattle does not exactly resemble 99% of other places in the country.

Better a library than nowhere if it will help him find a job and escape homelessness.

There should be. Libraries have taken on that role because no one else will.

My city started a program to train librarians to administer narcan and the city distributes narcan to libraries [0]. I can't imagine Chicago is has a larger homeless population than most other cities (as it's very affordable here).

[0] https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/health_pr...

During the energy crisis libraries were places that old people could go to for heat.

Libraries are also used as a free Starbucks to work in.

This isn't generally true, I am in the Boston area and only the Main branch is anything like this, all the tens of other libraries are safe places where a kid would be fine for hours.

yup i remember using the sound proof booths they had for patrons at my library and not hearing the announcement that the library had closed got locked in and only noticed when they librarians started turning off the lights to leave.

It's very telling of the cultural shifts that have occurred over the past century.

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