A Bookstore, Finally, Comes To the Bronx (nytimes.com) 74
In no place was Barnes & Noble's diminished fortune felt as intensely as it was in the Bronx, where gratitude for what it provided far outweighed snobbishness. From a report: Five years ago when Barnes & Noble announced that it was closing the only branch it had opened there, residents and local civic leaders were angry and heartbroken and fought to save it. At the time, there were 90 bookstores in Manhattan. But the Bronx essentially had just the one, and now it would disappear.
Noelle Santos, who worked in human resources, was especially torn up. In 2014 she was on Facebook when she stumbled upon a petition to save Barnes & Noble. It pointed out how alarming it was that the Bronx was getting more and more cellphone stores and chain restaurants but would be left without a place to buy novels or training manuals or SAT preparation guides. Ms. Santos grew up in the Bronx, in Soundview, a rough neighborhood, and she stayed in the Bronx for college and graduate school. But she suddenly felt a radical need to do change things.
"Up to that point I had measured my success by how far I could get away from the Bronx," she told me recently. "I was disappointed in myself for thinking about leaving a community in no better condition that I had found it," she said. "I had never been inside an independent book store before I decided to open one." On Saturday, she will open such a store, The Lit. Bar.
Noelle Santos, who worked in human resources, was especially torn up. In 2014 she was on Facebook when she stumbled upon a petition to save Barnes & Noble. It pointed out how alarming it was that the Bronx was getting more and more cellphone stores and chain restaurants but would be left without a place to buy novels or training manuals or SAT preparation guides. Ms. Santos grew up in the Bronx, in Soundview, a rough neighborhood, and she stayed in the Bronx for college and graduate school. But she suddenly felt a radical need to do change things.
"Up to that point I had measured my success by how far I could get away from the Bronx," she told me recently. "I was disappointed in myself for thinking about leaving a community in no better condition that I had found it," she said. "I had never been inside an independent book store before I decided to open one." On Saturday, she will open such a store, The Lit. Bar.
Enter the techbro modernity brigade... (Score:2, Funny)
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Okay, I'll bite. Why is a freshman representative with no chance of getting re-elected your personal hero(in)es?
Re:Enter the techbro modernity brigade... (Score:4)
Just like Trump had "no chance of being elected." People will vote for her just to spite the upstate Mafia-wop called Cuomo.
Different situational. Her own district is turning against her, suffering a case of voters regret. A lot of it has to do with her scuttling the Amazon deal. Democrats in the house are fed up with her over that Green New Deal. That was a major embarrassment to the Party. There is even talk by the Democrats to eliminate her district and remove her seat. That is the equivalent of nuking her from orbit. An worse, Nancy Pelosi doesn't like her.
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You don't support a bookstore by petitioning or protesting.
You support it by buying books.
No, enter the Save Our Bad Neighborhood brigade (Score:2)
Thinking that bookstores are obsolete is so last year. Now it's a movement by the gangbangers and pimps who kept the old neighborhood "real" against gentrification. You allow a coffee shop to get built here, a bookstore there, and the next thing you know, white people will be walking around like they didn't get here by taking the wrong exit off the expressway.
The term activists use for fixing up old neighborhoods is "artwashing."
https://www.theguardian.com/ar... [theguardian.com]
Expiry (Score:2, Troll)
I give it until the end of the year. I'm being optimistic.
You know we've all known the Bronx is a hell hole (Score:3)
Is it just me or did American just kinda halt all progress sometime in the late 70s/early 80s? Hell, this generation is on track to be the first that earn and live less than their parents...
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"we've done nothing"
You're confused, it is the residents who insist on being lawless savages.
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Nah, books suck in general.
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If people in the Bronx don't want to buy books, then you won't find many book stores there. There probably isn't a store that sells fly fishing tackle in the Bronx either, but no one is going to complain about that and no news media would cover it even if they
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If you read beyond the first paragraph of that Wiki page you will find that rsilvergun is, in fact, correct. This is well known, except amongst politicians.
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I used to live in the Bronx, and my brother still does. They have local shopping within walking distance, but when it's time for major food restocking or other purchases (including bookstores) they take the car and go up to White Plains, the next city north of the Bronx. The reason is local stores have no parking, and large amounts of food or books are heavy, and it is a real pain to carry them by foot.
The Subway, which in that part of the Bronx is actually above street level, is also within reasonable wa
B&N Snobbish ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like they have never been in one. Not to date myself but I remember going to sale annex and picking up sale Math Textbooks for a buck or two. The only way bookstores are snobbish is they appeal to people that like books.
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The summary is essentially misleading just like the headline a quick Google shows there are book stores and comic book stores and that just the places that google lists. That doesn't include the privately owned bookstore with no internet presence.
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snobbish is they appeal to people that like books.
Yeah, those snobbish well red edumacated people.
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It's a small business opening in a small community
Not disagreeing with your larger point, but can you really call a burough with 1.5 million residents a "small community"?
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I lost your phone number. Shoot me the directions.
I need directions. Dallas (Score:2)
I need directions.
Actually, I wonder how many Slashdot regulars are in the Dallas area. Might be fun to have dinner sometime.
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Why not have this on /.? Observing teh death throes of an old technology might be useful in the future. When the current technologies are dying. You don't expect to be FaceTwitting in forty years, do you?
The party sounds delightful. Will you be streaming it?
Pay for books, how quaint (Score:2)
Most public libraries offer a wide range of books for free. If you're really that cheap there are probably a lot of places that you can download anything for free.
I will still pay good money for signed first edition hardcover books though,
Textbooks, not so much...
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Most public libraries offer a wide range of books for free.
Unfortunately, for several decades, library schools and professional organizations have worked to indoctrinate librarians with the idea that their purpose is not to serve their clients with access to books, but to bias their collections in order to indoctrinate, in turn, their clients.
This has been largely successful.
There's something better than a petition (Score:5, Insightful)
You know - shop there and spend money. You can sign petitions all day long, but petition signatures don't pay the rent or the employees.
I saw the same thing in an area of Nashville where I used to live. There was a really nice Target there, but they weren't making the numbers so Target Corp. closed the store. In the month or so before it was to close, people were making petitions and what-not. I guess being a business owner I have a different perspective, but a petition isn't going to save a business. Cash flow is the only thing that will ultimately save it, and that means sales.
If you want stores in your neighborhood, shop at them. And, even if it costs a little more, maybe it's worth it to pay that premium knowing that you can walk in there and buy something and not wait for two days.
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The problem is rent. The vast majority of physical stores, restaurants, etc. don't own the land they're on or the building they're in.
If they get a hint of success, the rent goes up. This repeats as often as is legally possible in the area, up to the point where one bad quarter can take out any small business, and one bad year can cause any chain to shut down a location.
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The problem is rent. The vast majority of physical stores, restaurants, etc. don't own the land they're on or the building they're in.
If they get a hint of success, the rent goes up.
A friend of mine and his family opened up and ran a used book/dvd/game/etc store near the college years ago. It did pretty well and had a good amount of people going there constantly. Unfortunately after about 5 years the owner of the space tripled the rent. So they basically moved to another building near the expanding light rail station hoping to get foot traffic from there. They ended up dying 2-3 years in due to less business, cost going up there, and just general loss of interest in the family as it
Is it really a problem? (Score:2)
Is this really that big of an issue? If
Does the Lit Bar actually solve this bookstore shortage, if there's another indie bookstore literally across the Harlem River less than 2 miles away?
(I assume we're not counting college bookstores, which sell training manuals and SAT guides, of which many
Where books sell get book stores (Score:2)
Wages, transport, hours open for what amount of profit?
Part of a city where people want to read, enjoy reading and have a history of reading will get book stores.
Part of any city where books don't sell will not see loss making attempts at selling books.
That new book store can be opening in a part of a city with well understood past book sales.
Customers walk in and select a book they want, order a book they want. Buy
In other news ... (Score:2)
Brand-new stenography school to open in the Bronx.
They also teach how to use a slide-ruler.