Letter to Damn Arbor: The Library Green Conservancy and AADL

NOTE: This is a letter to Damn Arbor from former AADL Director, Josie Parker. If you'd like to submit a Letter to Damn Arbor, please send it to damn.arbor@gmail.com. 

The Library Green Conservancy's Observer Ad

When I first saw the Library Green Conservancy’s full-page ad in the Observer, insinuating that an unrealistic rendering of a building over the Library Lane garage, was actually an AADL document, I was reminded yet again of how this group is willing to sacrifice the good reputation of the AADL to meet its own ends. A number of years ago, there was another drawing showing a walkway from William Street through to the parking garage rooftop across the properties of the AADL and the University of MI Credit Union. Seeing the published rendering was the first that AADL knew of its existence and there was no answer to our queries of what was intended. We did, however, have to spend a lot of time reassuring our neighbors and the general public that the rendering was not an AADL document. 

It seems that this group knows it has failed to deliver on its promises from when the ballot proposal designating the public property owned by the city as "The Center of the City” was passed in 2018. Many years later, nothing has changed, and the Library Green Conservancy seems determined to take no responsibility for that. I am sadly not surprised. 

From the moment that a paid worker gathering signatures for the initial 2018 ballot initiative stopped me in front of a library branch and asked me to sign so that the Library’s proposal for a park could go on the ballot, I knew that the AADL was being used. When I challenged a leader of the Library Green Conservancy, I got a smirk and a shrug. Years later after failed attempts to raise money and deliver on their promises, they approached the AADL about financially contributing to an investment opportunity to support their work. I declined after explaining that it would be an unlawful use of library funds and I was very disappointed at having been solicited. Once again, I got the smirk and the shrug. 

I remember seeing a name listed among the Library Green Conservancy’s supporters I was surprised to see there. When asked, these claimed supporters were also surprised to hear they were on a list of supporters of an organization they decidedly did not support. This has happened to local businesses as well. A smirk and a shrug. 

Over the years the AADL met with the Library Green Conservancy several times, because an activated public space in that area serves all of the community’s interests. Our efforts were met with ridiculous, unworkable proposals, such as a cryptocurrency that would be unique to their Commons, or drawings playing fast and loose with scale, showing large mature trees growing in surface pits. They would propose that the Commons could include meeting rooms and art galleries and develop collections of local history. Just like a library. 

The Center of the City’s infrequent events, usually announced on short notice, accompanied by last-minute requests for Library support, became a challenge for the library services running next door. They would close the parking lot for a weekend and hold a 12 hour event with just a handful of attendees. They would drape cables unsafely down the parking structure stairs or leave equipment on site after their event permit had ended. Alcohol was sold at one of their events, without a permit, just steps from the Library. 

Ultimately we came to the realization that distancing the operations of the AADL from the Center of the City was the wise and prudent choice. 

Now, when the City and the AADL are working together to make the corner of 5th and William and the parking garage roof a place to live, work and play for generations, the Library Green Conservancy with their ads and mailers are once again trying to misuse a beloved and valued public institution’s reputation, and for what? They don’t appear to be serious about developing the area as a park. They are accountable to no-one and take no responsibility for their lack of progress since 2018. Shouldn’t an organization that wants to be responsible for public space take some responsibility for their work on that public space? I think it is worth the public’s time to ask them. 

I hope that those of you who vote in the City of Ann Arbor will see through the Library Green Conservancy’s attempts to confuse the public and avoid accountability, and vote yes on Proposals A & B by August 5th. We’ve all seen what they can do with the surface of a parking garage. Now let’s see what the Library can do with it.