> that didn't take anything away from Helsinki residents

That's the real problem I have with the false promises of places like Austin's Central Library and other Oodi-likes.

The biggest threat to libraries and the social goods they're ostensibly designed to produce are not really the people trying to tear them down to tighten budgets. It's way more pernicious than that:

The biggest threat is the people trying to tear them down and replace them with places like this.