To the editor:

Will ANY of the proposed downtown libraries best serve Lawrence (taxpayers)? Unlikely.

Replacing an adequate downtown library by spending $50 million to $70 million on another downtown library will mostly satisfy the special interests of downtown property owners and developers, rather than library patrons from all parts of an expanding city.

No downtown library will conveniently serve west (of Iowa), or south and southeast Lawrence neighborhoods.

Two new satellite libraries will better meet the needs of Lawrence, and could be built for less than half the cost of replacing the current downtown building.

No amount of (expensive) parking will make a downtown library handy for residents living in the western and southern areas of Lawrence.

A $60 million downtown library will be an outrageously expensive “white dinosaur.”

Satellite libraries will much better serve outlying neighborhoods, as well as Lawrence taxpayers.

Bob Blank,

Lawrence