Sunday, June 20, 2010

Vancouver Library Eliminates Public Computers for Seniors at Carnegie

A million dollars worth of City management staff put their heads together and decided that the popular public computers in the Carnegie Seniors Lounge that had been going full tilt 13 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the past 15 years, were best eliminated.

Those computers were one of the most in-demand services in the Centre. People would sign up and sit and wait for half an hour or more for their turn. Ever notice the crowd on the front steps of Carnegie in the morning when you drive by on your way to work? They're not all buying drugs; some are waiting for a security guard to swing the doors open at 9 a.m., so they can rush past him and dash downstairs to the basement Seniors Lounge and get onto a computer, ahead of the next guy. People use those computers to check email and to look for jobs on sites such as Craig's list.

But those computers had become a source of embarrassment to the million dollars worth of City Hall and Carnegie management staff, from Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty to City Manager Penny Ballem, who have been exposed for allowing security to block access to them as punishment for free speech. This harassment of people who speak up has been previously documented on this blog so I won't go over it again. But the VPL librarian, Beth Davies, and her supervisors in the VPL administration have colluded with this withholding of library services -- often it involves blocking access to the entire VPL branch at Carnegie for months or years -- and this removal of VPL computers looks like an extension of that collusion.

Now that the internet-surfing poor will have little reason to show up at the Lounge, the poor who operate more within the comfort zone of CUPE and City management will have the lounge to themselves. You can find them sitting in there any afternoon staring at the big tv, filling in the gaps between welfare cheques and staff pay cheques. Movies made available in this City government Lounge generally fall into the range of cowboys, gangsters, and that new federal government category, "busty hookers."

Now that VPL computer access in the Lounge has been eliminated in favor of allowing big screen TV access to predominate, it's important that the savings be passed on to taxpayers. The computers and the steady stream of people who came to the Centre to use them were under the supervision of Seniors Co-ordinator, Marlene Trick (formerly exposed for supervising the City's now defunct "Teddy Bear Picnics" for full grown functional adults.)

The computer program in the Seniors Lounge was also a rich source of make-work projects for Security guards who would be called to infantalize computer users who stood up to the belligerant coffee-seller, a ritual which involved security guards writing "incident reports" and executing barrings as punishments, and holding follow-up meetings. All of this will be gone now, meaning that less labour hours will be needed for the co-ordinator to co-ordinate and security guards to punish.

The cramped computer room by the bathroom at the back of the third floor at Carnegie remains open. In fact the computers in there have been replaced with new ones. But Seniors have to compete with other age groups to get onto a computer there, increasing the number of people on the waiting list. People sitting in the waiting area for their name be called to get onto a computer can sometimes get frustrated and ask the monitor questions like, "How much longer do you think I'll have to wait?," and some monitors -- not all -- get annoyed at the ongoing pressure and if a disagreement ensues, security may be called.

This tension can be expected to increase with the elimination of Seniors' computers by the million dollar management, which of course includes CUPE's Dan Tetrault who is Assistant Manager at Carnegie and, like BP CEO Tony Hayward, has a yacht which can be helpful for clearing the head of the problems of the "small people".

9 comments:

Rachel Davis said...

I remember bringing up the T.V. noise complaints of the seniors lounge computer users to the board when I was on it. Ethel Whitty's quick response was to say that perhaps there shouldn't be any computers in the seniors lounge, it was just to problematic. "Perhaps they should't be there" as if she was going to find someplace else for them to go.....but it was obviously a threat. Don't complain, or we'll just get rid of it.
I'm very very sorry to see this has come to pass.
The board of Carnegie needs to do something about this. Although I could never get anywhere trying to get those three lockers replaced that they took away from the third floor......
Slowly slowly, it becomes more and more about what is easier for Carnegie staff as opposed to what is useful for the patrons.
Lockers on the third floor caused a rush for there in the morning and it was uncomfortable for the staff who are cosily nesting there. Solution? Get rid of them!
Noise complaints about Davor's T.V. shows in the Seniors lounge interfering with computer users? Solution? Get rid of them!

Sad when things start out with the best of intentions, and they get all Animal Farm on you.

Anonymous said...

in case u didn't see - great article on DERA in National Post:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/21/the-woodward’s-project-poor-house-out-of-order/

Anonymous said...

i am in waves cafe and Michael Clague just sat down at the table next to me. he moved tables and got closer to mine In public he sits next to me every time An improvement over Carnegie where he wld come to my table and stand making small talk with my friends/standing with his groin at my eye level.

he barred me at carnegie

with bullies it's never enough

Anonymous said...

i am in waves cafe and Michael Clague just sat down at the table next to me. he moved tables and got closer to mine In public he sits next to me every time An improvement over Carnegie where he wld come to my table and stand making small talk with my friends/standing with his groin at my eye level.

he barred me at carnegie

with bullies it's never enough

Anonymous said...

Just found out the mayor held a secret meeting @ Carnegie classroom 2. Also senors coffee / tv lounge is closing for a month to save money starting July 31st.

reliable sources said...

Anonymous,

Thanks for the info.

Anonymous said...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the provincial government state several years ago, that the plan was to have every citizen access to computers, so most of government paperwork could create an easier system of access for citizens with their government....I have always been under the impression that TV, in group homes, transition housing etc. are not allow TV during the day as it prevents the client from being productive.
Are these leftover TV's from the Olympics? Interesting that City Hall wants all new computer Ipad's for themselves, but seniors aren't given the same access at a Community Center, which I believed was for the people, not just a select few.

reliable sources said...

"Are these leftover TV's from the Olympics?"

No, they've had a tv in the Seniors Lounge for years, and upgraded a year ago to a big screen stereo-sound tv. You can start watching tv at 9 a.m. and watch it until 10 p.m.

One reason that the three much-in-demand computers were removed was that they interfered with the ability of people to watch tv. Computer users would sometimes complain about the extremely loud volume of the tv making their ears ring, etc. and Ethel Whitty favoured the tv watchers.

A second reason Whitty got rid of the computers, was that she suspected that people were using them to discuss their experiences at Carnegie on internet sites. Previously, Carnegie had been a tightly scripted operation with Whitty literally providing misinformatioon to the media.

Anonymous said...

I suspect the second reason holds a lot of truth...very sad when Freedom of Speech is BULLIED out of the equation..

It sounds as if TV is the path of least resistance for the employee's as it makes their job easier.
I find it very difficult to believe that a building the size of Carnegie can't accommodate a few computers for seniors that don't want to sit in front of a TV all day.

Thanks for responding to my question, and keep fighting the good fight :-)