Library Lust

Library Lust is an insider study of tactics, goals, and world views perpetrated in modern urban battles between city departments, political cadres, City Hall officials, and the people's interests. Here is a tale of public sector power grab, common in the current milieu of activist tyranny and situational ethics of modern big city governance. After two decades of planning and construction, the San Francisco library commission, along with an array of supporting communities and citizens groups, completed the city's imposing new six-story Main Library building, and it was opened for use.

Although it should have been a joyful celebration of literary citizens' efforts, the entire library system disintegrated into nasty turf battles launched by various city forces. A wide variety of self-appointed cultural elites demanding their divergent political, literary, and monetary paradigms ignited a battle that raged for years via no holds barred attacks by tenacious groups of politically connected city power brokers, library professionals, and national figures, the chaos fueled by one-sided press coverage. Hard lines were staked out, with a variety of underhanded and illegal tactics used in City Hall's attempt to covertly gain control of the library system from afar, thus enabling them to establish lockstep political priorities.

Into this maelstrom was immersed, by chance, an inquisitive system analyst, so amazed and disillusioned by events, this tale came to light. The most discouraging aspect being an extensive array of primitive Rockefeller-era tactics dominating the system, various styles of tyranny and autocratic dictates diligently defended. The unveiling of this Jurassic union monster, overseen by aloof city officials micromanaging underfunded city departments on the fly via toxic malfeasance and crude threats, provides an unsightly picture of modern political rule. New-age Tammany Hall's digital weaponization of government service, matched with 1920s intuition-based management, is routinely used to block progressive options. So if you care to peruse the hidden government fallacies of modern mercantile cities and their fraudulent operating strategies, this is your chance.