Waterloo needs books, not baubles

So how smart really are the people running Waterloo? A decade ago, the city proudly celebrated being named the world’s most “Intelligent Community of the Year” because it was so energetically innovative, so wonderfully tech-savvy and so gung-ho on education.

But you have to wonder if the city would stand a chance of earning that accolade today with city politicians favouring baubles over books, glitzy decoration over solid edification.

The evidence of these skewed priorities came just last week when the city’s finance and strategic planning committee voted to spend a hefty $806,000 to install a glow-in-the-dark section of trail in Waterloo Park. Unanimously, no less.

The project — which would be the first of its kind in Canada — was extolled as a future tourist attraction, a sophisticated display of public art as well as a way to promote uptown businesses.

And, if you consider the glowing pathway in isolation, it would have a certain “wow” factor, especially the first time you saw it. The second or third times, we’re not so sure.

The problem is that as these civic leaders are focused on frills, Waterloo’s cash-strapped public library system has been weakened by relentless cuts and faces an uncertain future.

While there’s strong public support to build and operate a new library branch on the city’s east side, no one knows exactly where all the money to do this would come from.

Even without the issue of expansion to deal with, chronic budgetary woes have already convinced the library to end Friday and Sunday hours at the John M. Harper branch. The library system has also saved money by not hiring replacements for workers on maternity leave.

Last summer, library board chair Karen Scian explained that “our problem at the library is about sustainable funding.” Isn’t anyone listening?

It’s inconceivable that a city that can’t cough up more cash for a public library system that provides valuable services for families, students, immigrants and low-income residents is poised to blow $806,000 on a special kind of aggregate concrete that will shine at night on a 300-metre stretch of trail running around the Perimeter Institute.

Let’s hope council will consider these arguments and review the committee decision.

Is there any real evidence the trail will attract tourists? Does the cost of maintaining the trail or the fact it would be covered by snow for part of the year make it an even more dubious investment?

And, if council proceeds with this project — which a federal funding initiative did not support — what is it prepared to do for Waterloo’s public libraries?

Please don’t say the money for the trail will come from a separate account. It’s all coming out of the city’s treasury. And all that money comes from the public.

It is said that you can tell what matters to someone by how they spend money.

In the coming days, Waterloo city council will reveal what matters to it by how it spends $806,000.

Unless it can find more money for its libraries, the city should spend less on this trail.