Keep 1913: Conservation, Guidelines, Run Counter to New Library

Dear Sirs,

I am writing this afternoon to respectfully request that the Planning and Zoning Commission take into account the views of so many of the citizens of New Canaan to preserve our historic library.

Like so many others, I regularly visit the library and take advantage of its fine resources...from books to CDs to DVDs to just relaxing and reading the local or national news in one of the library's reading spaces.

The library has become the central meeting place for so many of us in town. I understand that there are some that desire to build a more modern facility, perhaps to keep up with neighboring towns such as Darien, Greenwich and others. Our quest for building a new and larger facility runs counter to a number of salient factors including the fact that the existing library is sited within the Village District and is thus subject to the design guidelines appurtenant thereto.

It would also seem to me that the plan runs counter to our conservation and development plan which prioritized the preservation of historic structures such as the 1913 library. Most importantly, it is unclear what goal we are trying to achieve when we consider the demolition of a widely-loved historical structure in our town, a town which is changing faster, in many respects, than, "we the people", believe is prudent or otherwise advisable.

If those that are in favor of the demolition believe that bigger is better and that, moreover, newer is better than old, perhaps we should reconsider the anachronistic foundation for this perspective.

We are in a digital age, the age of analog media (books, CDs, DVDs, etc.) is rapidly being displaced by on-line access to distributed learning, on-line access to video conferencing (thus displacing or greatly mitigating the need for in person meeting facilities), and other digitally native emerging trends that should inform us as a community that some things of inherent value like our 108 year old library are worth preserving.

Ask anyone who understands technology trends whether a larger physical footprint is better, you'll discover that bits, bytes and binary coding had displaced that thinking years ago.In closing, it is New Canaan's charm that led many of us to establishing this town as our home.

Let's not destroy that charm, that ambience and that sense of history, in the name of progress.

Sincerely,

Steven H. Einstein