Looking forward to drive-thru at new library

West Island’s needs not the same as those of downtown

As a voracious reader and West Island mom passionate about fostering a lifelong love of reading in my children, I could not be any more excited about the brand spanking new library opening up on the West Island. Its trendy design struck me as a little odd at first, but as I’ve watched its construction, it has grown on me. I love that it has won a design award, will feature a coffee shop and that the interior will look neat and futuristic. Last but not least is the great plan for a drive-thru drop off open to cars, bikes, skateboards, inline skaters, parents with strollers and even wheelchairs. The idea seemed absolutely brilliant to me when I initially read about it. I thought, wow, here is an example of city officials responding to the needs of their citizens. So it was disappointing to hear the member of Montreal’s executive committee in charge of culture recently question the need for a library drive-thru on environmental grounds. What works downtown don’t always work in the West Island, and what works in the West Island don’t always work downtown. Our downtown elected officials need to allow West Islanders to dictate what does and does not work for us. In this instance, Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough Mayor Dimitrios Jim Beis submitted plans for the library years ago. For this issue to be raised now, when West Islanders are waiting with bated breath for our trendy new library to be complete, is yet another glaringly obvious example of how ridiculously out of Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed is the founder and editor in chief of CanadianMomEh.com, a lifestyle blog.

As a mom, I think back to all those times when my kids were little and I had to go to the library to drop off books.

touch with the needs of the West Island our elected officials downtown really are. It seems that some are trying to impose Plateau standards for ensuring that people can get to where they want to by bicycle onto the West Island, where people rely on automobiles to get around. It would be better if those officials were in touch with how things work in the West Island, and not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. As a mom, I think back to all those times when my kids were little and I had to go to the library to drop off books. In the winter, I’d have to dress them in their snowsuits, mitts, toques and scarves, drive to the library, park, take them out one at a time, strap them into their stroller and push the stroller through the snow to go 200 feet to drop the books off. The alternative would have been to leave them alone in the car, which was tempting but ultimately unthinkable. I had wished I could just drive through and drop my books off. I cannot begin to wonder how many fewer library fines I might have had. One thing I have always loved about libraries is that they are accessible to all: the young, the old, the newcomer, the college student — the list goes on. In Pierrefonds-Roxboro, where there are significant income disparities, many people do not have a computer to research jobs or study for exams. Not everyone can go out to buy new books, and many who can choose not to. Having a local library is like having access to a treasure chest. There are a slew of things I would much prefer to have our elected officials debate, not the least of which is vehicular access to the REM, rather than another way in which the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro is creatively responding to the needs of its citizens. So while some of our elected officials are busy criticizing changes that West Islanders are thrilled about, I’m merely looking forward to having an accessible library to visit as a family and using that drive-thru window to avoid those pesky late charges.