Opinion: Vote No on C

We have devoted our careers to the pursuit of knowledge - and to libraries. That is why we cannot support Measure C.

By James Porter and Maria Pantelia

This opinion was published April 17, 2026 in the East Bay Times. It is reprinted with the authors' consent.

The El Cerrito library at 6510 Stockton Ave.

We have spent our careers in and around libraries — one as a scholar of classical literature, the other as director of one of the world's great digital humanities libraries. We know what a library means to a child discovering reading for the first time, to a teenager who finds in its stacks a world larger than the one outside the door, to a family that cannot afford to buy books but can borrow them freely. Libraries are among the most democratic institutions a civilized society has ever devised.

Which is precisely why we cannot support Measure C.

El Cerrito voters will be asked on June 2 to approve a permanent parcel tax — indexed to inflation — to fund a new 20,000 sf. library facility whose details have not been finalized, at a site that does not yet exist, contingent on a BART development that may or may not be built, financed through thirty years of bond indebtedness. The city will begin collecting the tax in December 2026, but construction won't start for several years after that, and only if the project secures competitive state funding. Supporters are asking residents to write a blank check and trust that the money will eventually be put to good use.

The Structure is Broken Before the Foundation is Poured

The current cost of the space is $37.2 million if building starts in January 2027 -- a 75% increase from the 2023 estimated cost of $21 million. For the average homeowner, this tax starts at roughly $330 per year but through its indexing clause could increase substantially over the life of the tax without voter approval. The measure contains no revenue target, and no explanation for why taxpayers should begin paying before the project has a design or approved budget. That is a staggering commitment to extract from a small city before a single architectural drawing has been approved.

The preferred site compounds the problem. The plan would lock El Cerrito into a 99-year lease at a BART Plaza housing development, effectively subsidizing a developer by building out space the city may not need — in a development whose financing depends on conditions that no longer resemble the environment in which this plan was conceived. El Cerrito would pay perpetually for a building it would never own.

This Is Not What Modern Libraries Look Like

The library of the future is not a larger version of the library of the past. It is a porous, networked institution that extends its reach into communities through digital infrastructure, partnerships with schools, mobile services, and embedded community programming. It is built around innovative future-oriented flexibility, not square footage.

El Cerrito already owns its existing library building, and renovation plans were developed years ago. Those options — less glamorous, less politically legible, but fiscally coherent — have been quietly sidelined. Nearby cities like Kensington and Richmond successfully secured grants to expand their libraries without open-ended permanent taxes. El Cerrito was eligible but failed to apply.

The Fiscal Moment Demands Honesty

El Cerrito has already passed multiple tax increases since 2014. Residents are not opposed to civic investment — they are opposed to being treated as an inexhaustible revenue source while city finances remain murky and accountability mechanisms remain weak. Layering a permanent, escalating parcel tax onto that history, during a period of inflation and economic uncertainty, is not bold leadership. It is fiscal recklessness dressed in the vocabulary of community values.

Let us be clear about who we are and what we are saying. We are not fiscal hawks, or opponents of civic spending. We are scholars who have spent our working lives inside libraries and believe in them with the conviction that only comes from professional intimacy. It is because we know what libraries are — and what they can be — that we cannot in good conscience support this measure.

James and Maria are University of California professors who live in El Cerrito. James is Distinguished Professor and Irving Stone Chair in Literature at UC Berkeley. Maria is Professor of Classics at UC Irvine and director of a digital library, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. The authors write as individuals and do not speak for their institutions.