Baker Street Civic Centre Co-Operative Has Nice Ring

(February 05) - My daughter learned something at a very early age: birthdays are far too important to confine to only one day. The best ones go on for at least a week. The library took a bit longer with its lessons, but it learned well. It is about to have a 125th birthday celebration that will last the best part of a year. It kicks off at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday in the downtown main branch.

The Friends of the Library will be there. Mayor Karen Farbridge will be there. James Gordon will be there. Stephen Lewis will be there. The Suzuki Strings will be there. You should be there too.

Lewis, a well-known local artist, will unveil a special commemorative sculpture commissioned for this occasion. Gordon, one of Canada's finest songwriters, composed a special song to celebrate his hometown library. He'll sing it for you. Farbridge, a life-long supporter of public libraries, will share her thoughts on our library's inspired journey. The Friends of the Library, still blushing after the success of last autumn's giant book sale, will encourage you to take out a membership. It's a good way to show how much you value literacy and learning. You, who are one of the 100,000 reasons our library exists, will enjoy a lively slide show taking you through 125 years of healthy growth.

And that's not all. After the speeches are spoken, the songs are sung and the sculptures are shown, the Suzuki Strings will entertain while you enjoy light refreshments. It's a lot for one afternoon, but it is the Official anniversary ceremony. That's official with a capital O, which stands for occasion, and this is going to be one.

When the time comes to celebrate the 130th anniversary, there will be a new downtown headquarters for this public treasure. We don't know what it will look like, but we do know where it will sit. It will be the anchor of a vibrant new Baker Street municipal complex. What is now a bleak cement block could become a green and healthy public space.

The city has sent out a request for proposals to developers to find out who wants to step forward and build the building. The first draft of the RFP said the Baker St. development would be built on a lease-back basis. City councillors removed that stipulation, giving us at least until July to have a public discussion about the ownership options. There are several.

In my view, the least desirable is to turn the ownership of the building over to the private sector and lease back the library space. We've owned the library building for more than a hundred years and shouldn't stop now. Leasing will get the city off the hook for an upfront capital budget expense. The savings will be illusory, though. For the rest of time the leasing costs will be paid for through the operating budget. What we save on the cabbage we'll spend on the rhubarb.

There are other ways, and the city is now committed to exploring all of them. The best is always outright ownership. The city takes $10 million out of its future bank account and pays a developer to build it for us. We come out the other end with a public asset that can only grow in value. It should be a no-brainer. The Baker Street vision is complicated a bit by the proposed mixed use. There will also be a municipal parking garage and a commercial residential component. Public-private partnerships don't work. We've been through it before, and it wasn't a happy time. No matter how much we hack and cough, we can't get the phlegm of Nustadia and Subbor out of our throats.

We shouldn't let these sorry experiences turn us against public ownership. Why not a co-operative venture? The Baker Street Civic Centre Co-operative has a nice ring tone. Failing that, what about a condominium structure? With the garage and the library, citizens of Guelph would have a controlling interest in any governance structure under either option.

There are some imaginative, civic- minded developers in Guelph. They are doing quite well for themselves without having to constantly belly up to the public trough. Will one of them step forward and become the Andrew Carnegie of Guelph's 21st century? Philanthropy used to be its own reward. Maybe it still can be.