I think this beautiful structure should be renovated to become a charter school or some sort of community facility. I am not seeing how a library is a viable long-term use.

Highland Park was once a prosperous city of 60,000, and this grand building was built to serve a city of this size. Now Highland Park is losing folks much faster than even Detroit, and is on course to cease to exist within a few decades. There are only a few thousand people left in the city.

So what would happen if we spent all this money on this beautiful structure, but there was no one left in the city?

I think a charter school could serve Detroit, Hamtramck and other surrounding communities. A community center could also have a larger geographical draw. A HP municipal library doesn't seem to make sense, unless it could also serve other nearby communities, because there are almost no potential users left within HP.