One block over is the new home of A Contemporary Theatre. The Paramount Theatre, whose renovation was funded almost entirely by Ida Cole, a former Microsoft executive, is nearby. If the old museum felt like a warehouse jammed full of artifacts, Garfield wants the new museum to be like a Web portal, with links to information about the past, present, and future of the city and strong connections to the region's other museums. We're thinking about a bus or trolley route that would take you to those places. The idea is to reinforce the smaller, local neighborhood museums and cultural centers.
People come here to reinvent themselves, to start a new enterprise.
Jeff Bezos came here to start Amazon. The result is that we don't attract people who are interested in the past. Now we're at a turning point, and it's important to look at how we got here and to look for clues about where we're going. Jacobs, the city librarian, had taken the job only a few months earlier. She had been to visit all of the proposed sites for the new library.