Library "Sidewalk Cafes": Serving a Menu of Outdoor Recreation Opportunities to Library Patrons

Placing a  Citybench in front of  NYPL's  Muhlenberg  library created a Wi-Fi/Read-Fi outdoor reading room. The city has hundreds of sidewalk cafes in from of restaurants that privatize our sidewalk and become pay to use parks. How about our libraries offer  public "Sidewalk cafes" , only instead of serving up a burger and fries, the Library Sidewalk Cafe menu    will offer up  books,  portable computers, DVD players, jump ropes, Scrabble etc.

Chez Muhlenberg

Menu

Books
Magazines
Jump Ropes
Hula Hoops
Scrabble
Nok Hockey

This is the Johnson Branch Library in San Antonio(right) .  Exercise equipment, a walking trail, and playground were built adjacent to the library on the library's lawn(left) . by adding recreation equipment  loan to the library it then can  becomes a parkhouse for the adjacent"park"

 This NYPL Tottenville  branch on Staten Island, has no park withing 3 blocks but  already has passive recreation benches on its lawn.(left middle)  Add parkhouse equipment to this branch and you have an active recreation park with parkhouse.



This is Staten Islands St Georges Branch Library. Note the lawn that is I suspect currently mostly used by birds and local squirrels.

By offering Recreation equipment loan of items like  hula, hoops, jump ropes, lawn chairs, board games,  etc, this space  can be transformed into a outdoor playspace for the neighborhood.