Mayor's Corner
By: Mayor Will O’Neill
Palaces For The People
One of the great American legacies belongs not to an American, but instead a Scotsman named Andrew Carnegie. He worked his way up from a poor, working-class family to become one of the richest men in the world with an estimated net worth of $75 billion in today’s dollars.
Along the way, he devoted several billion dollars toward grants that helped fund 1,689 public libraries in the United States, Hawaii and Puerto Rico (plus another 660 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and 25 in other countries).
When asked to explain why, he said simply: “It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and the ability and ambition to develop it, as the founding of a public library in a community.” Carnegie came to call these public libraries “palaces for the people.”
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg titled his book about public infrastructure after Carnegie’s public library nicknames (which you can conveniently borrow from the Newport Beach Public Library, I might add). In his book, Klinenberg notes that “social infrastructure provides the setting and context for social participation, and the library is among the most critical forms of social infrastructure that we have.”
In other words, ensure that nearly every public infrastructure project has a component that will allow for – and perhaps even prompt – social engagement. You’ll notice this approach in the way that the Corona del Mar library was re-designed to have more open space and moveable stacks. You’ll see the approach in the way that the Junior Lifeguard Building was designed.
At our core, our City functions best when we facilitate rather than dictate or command. So get out there and be open to learning. We have a whole lot of people worth meeting!
Mayor Will O’Neill is serving his second term as Mayor of Newport Beach, having previously served in 2020.
Follow on IG @realwilloneill