If you go to Sacramento’s Central Library, you’ll see that the I Street sidewalk looks empty. That’s because all the benches are gone.

A library official said the benches were removed in part because they were obstructing the area for disabled patrons. But an advocate for the city’s homeless population disagrees, and thinks the benches were removed because homeless people used them for resting.

All the benches -- there were more than 15 -- were taken away from the library’s sidewalk, according to Don Tucker, director of facilities for the Sacramento Public Library. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will refinish the old benches and place them in various locations in Sacramento, he said.

Two new benches will arrive at the I Street sidewalk adjacent to the library in two or three weeks. If the library finds that its customers need more than two benches, the library will add more benches, Tucker noted.

The library was receiving feedback from disabled patrons and mothers with babies in strollers that the benches were blocking access to the library, Tucker said. Removing the benches “helps to provide access,” he added.

The library also conducted a survey on the benches about a year-and-a-half ago, according to Tucker. It showed that only 7 percent of the people using the benches were library customers, he said.

“What that told was that we had too many [benches] out here,” Tucker said.

The removal of the benches, and the upcoming replacement of two of them, is part of a beautification effort at the library’s I Street entrance, Tucker explained.

Removing the benches has lead to an increase in the number of bicyclists because it is now easier to access the bicycle racks on I Street, he said. “We’re noting a lot more bikes and bikers using the library, which we’re very pleased about,” Tucker said.

The library did not receive complaints about homeless people on the benches, he said.

Library officials were assured by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership that there were an adequate number of new benches and tables at Cesar Chavez Park for people who used the I Street benches but were not library customers, Tucker said.

But Garren Bratcher, co-director of Loaves & Fishes, said he thinks the reason for the removal of the benches was because homeless people used them.

“It is my belief that they were removed because homeless people use them to rest,” Bratcher said. “Having been at the public library at its peak hours, I’ve never seen any accessibility problems.”

Photos by David Watts Barton

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.