El Cerrito Library tour reveals crowded building in disrepair; task force assigned to find a solution
on October 17, 2026
Signs of age are everywhere at the El Cerrito Library. Only two windows open, and there’s no air conditioning. Bloated linoleum tiles adhere to the floor with duct tape. The building has closed midday several times in recent years because of unsafe temperatures.
“We sign forms every year acknowledging that there is asbestos,” manager Heidi Goldstein said Tuesday during a public tour hosted by the El Cerrito Library Task Force.
The El Cerrito Library building opened in 1949 and has only been renovated once, in 1960. The 77-year-old building doesn’t meet modern seismic safety codes or building accessibility standards.
Tuesday’s tour took place four months after voters rejected Measure C, a parcel tax that would have paid for a new library. It was the city’s second failed library funding measure in a decade.
The library task force, which was formed to help the city produce a new or updated library facility after the Measure C vote, is now searching for funding as it weighs whether to repair the building or replace the building altogether.
The library’s public area is a single room crammed with shelves, a computer lab, and a kid’s section that doubles as an event space.
At the tour, Contra Costa County Librarian Alison McKee said the county library system hasn’t offered community wellness and tech support events in El Cerrito that they offer at other library branches in the county.
“ We just can’t offer these services here because there’s just no space for them,” McKee said.
Goldstein led a dozen Task Force members, city and county staff and El Cerrito residents out the library’s back door, where they found a slope covered in sand. Staff have been using sandbags to hold back water because the drainage system can’t keep up.
The basement, where employee offices and the “Friends of the El Cerrito Library” bookseller are located, has a history of flooding. In spring 2023, a flood destroyed multiple books that were too waterlogged to be sold or recycled.
City Manager Karen Pinkos, who also attended the tour, said she has worked to finance a new or updated library for 25 years.
“There’s been so many different evolutions, what we’ve tried to do, and different land we’ve tried to buy,” Pinkos said.
In 2016, voters considered Measure B, which would have authorized the city to take out a $30 million loan to finance a new library building. That measure fell 4 percentage points under the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
In June, 70% of El Cerritans voted down Measure C, a citizen-led parcel tax that would have funded construction of a new library. It would have charged property owners 17 cents per square foot of their real estate. One option considered was a transit-oriented development building near the El Cerrito Plaza BART station. The city estimated that would have cost about $37.2 million, which Measure C would have paid for.
Opponents called the measure a “forever tax,” noting it could have increased each year, based on the Bay Area cost of living or average California household income. As written, they said, the measure would have allowed City Council to increase the tax without voter approval. They also balked at being asked to pay a tax before the city had a building plan or a definite location.
Shay McGilvrey uses the library weekly and was there Tuesday, though not part of the tour. She didn’t vote for Measure C, though she supports renovations of the current building.
“I do have a problem being taxed for something I don’t know if it’s going to come to fruition, or if it’s going to really pay for the thing that I’m being taxed for,” McGilvrey said.
The task force was founded in February and its first official meeting took place last month. Pinkos says the Task Force will continue its original goal of searching for restoration solutions, as the library is still in disrepair. No new funding source has been identified.
”Whether the ballot measure passes or fails is irrelevant. As you saw, this building needs work,” Pinkos said. “Now that the ballot measure failed, the task force kind of has a charge which seems to be, ‘OK well, what do we do now?’”
The task force will next meet Nov. 10. Members said they will estimate repair costs and review public records of library building inspections.
A contractor determined that fixing the current library could shrink usable space on the main floor by 10% to 15%. Space between shelves and desks would need to widen to meet modern accessibility requirements.
At the end of the tour, task force members asked Goldstein what she’d personally want from a renovation.
“Windows would be really nice,” Goldstein said. “Probably my own office would be nice.”
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