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In 1996 San Francisco
inaugurated its $30 million New Main
Library with an elaborate Civic Center ceremony. In a spectacle
where
Mayor Willie Brown took center stage, a skydiver
came from the blue on cue to present the mayor with a ceremonial key to
the new building. The pageant also included construction workers who built
the facility, local school children, library donors, and others. Topping
the whole thing off was Beach Blanket Babylon's Val
Diamond with the New Main Library added to the City landmarks on her
famous hat. Soon after the "New Main" was dedicated, City officials revealed
that the building actually holds fewer books than the old Main Library
a few yards away. Increased shelf space and other improvements would cost
another $30 million. What the new building lacks in stacks
it makes up for in the abundance of natural light that comes from its
5-story
skylight and many windows.
Native American activists
condemn one of the statues outside the library's north entrance. They say
the statue, which clearly depicts a missionary and a settler subjugating
a Native American, is racist. You may judge for yourself. |