This post came to Rochester Love Notes in belated recognition of Valentine's Day.
From Lawrence Jones of Rochester:
"I've been meaning to send a love note to Rochester for a while. A Valentine's Day prompt at the Monroe Branch Library finally got me to do it.
Hope you like it!"
♥-1-♥
When we moved to Rochester, there were five things that seemed
exceptionally cool about living here:
Great old houses at ridiculously low prices by
national standards (California, Boston, NYC, DC…)
The Erie Canal towpath, where you and your kids
can bicycle without any cars to worry about.
The park system.
No place else can touch the combined quality and quantity of our
parks.
The Public Market on Saturday morning is fun,
cheap, healthy and diverse – all good.
The
amazing Monroe County Library System, where you can borrow anything free for 1
to 3 weeks. At Central, they’ll even let
you borrow artwork for your walls!
When I made this list back in 1994, the papers raging in
a stadium debate. Yes, papers –
amazingly Rochester had two daily newspapers until 1997! The debate was whether the Red Wings really needed
a new stadium? Where is it going to be located?
Who is paying all this? As an
inveterate book lover, I quickly found my way to the beautiful, Art Deco styled
Rundel Library building, nestled along the east bank of the Genesee River. There I found that another public works
project was in the planning stages: a massive expansion of the Central Library
collection into a new four story building directly across the street. There would be two big libraries – connected
by a tunnel underneath South Avenue! What
struck me as a newcomer was that there was no debate about expanding the
downtown library. No raging editorials
about whether it was really needed or hand-wringing about who was going to pay
for it. The unspoken message: of course
it was needed and it was a good community investment. As a fan of both books and baseball, this
said a lot about my new home.
Looking back at my list of the five things I initially
loved about Rochester, buyers still get more house for their money here than
most anywhere else in the United States.
I’m embarrassed that I don’t use the Public Market, Towpath or the
amazing park system more often – they’re all still great. And the library? No embarrassment there, as I use it every
single week! I can’t imagine living here
without it.
♥
-2- ♥
When I moved to Rochester, the library system just blew
me away. It is so awesome that one card gives you lending privileges in over 30
libraries, all over Monroe County! Even
better, these 30 electronic catalogs are automatically searched together. It is perhaps our very best example of the
city, the suburbs, the towns and villages all working together toward the
public good, in a seamless fashion.
In 2013, I visited a great bookstore in Cambridge,
Mass. I bought a couple of books and then wrote down the titles of 16 others
that looked interesting. When I returned
to Rochester, I looked up all 18 of them in the catalog: the Monroe County
Public Library system owned 15 of the 18.
That’s an impressive 83%! The Monroe County Library System rocks! We’re all stronger together than we are
separately.
♥-3-♥
One great thing about the Monroe Branch, is that there
isn’t a children’s section or a children’s room: they have a whole FLOOR! The whole lower level is for kids, complete
with its own entrance. Kids don’t have
to worry much about making too much noise at the library or wandering where
they shouldn’t.
Mary Claire, Cherin and company are just great
people. They are the kind of people who,
if they found your wallet and it looked a bit thin, they add cash of their own
before returning it. They are also great library people. As one example, some branches have gotten rid
of older, quality children’s books due to wear and tear. At Monroe they tend to patch them up because
they know they’re irreplaceable. And
that is what the library is: irreplaceable.
I feel so very fortunate to have access to this amazing resource.
