Our favorite bookstore is closing. That is Murder Ink and its companion, Ivy Books. They are located on Broadway and 94th Street, or thereabouts. The Murder Ink is of course the mystery store. Mrs. Bubba bought alot of mysteries there the past 3 years. I enjoyed seeing what they would put out and recommend, and I enjoyed chatting with the employees, or petting the old dog. We tried to buy all our Christmas books there, but we did some Barnes and Noble shopping as well, just too easy to ship back to Texas. But alas they can't afford increasing rents, so they are closing the doors.
That is a little how the Bubba's feel. But while the NY Times featured the closing of the bookstore in its Sunday "City" section, there will be no mention of the Bubba's moving out of the city in the NY press. More and more the local resturants, book stores, and curiosity shops are closing. Manhattan looks like a big suburban mall, all the same chain stores. But what is more alarming to us is Manhattan is becoming a place for the rich only. We did alright without child, but now with child we can no longer afford our 1 bedroom and child care. Remeber that we are professionals, licensed engineers, it's not like we're waiting tables. When the average bonus for the Goldman Sachs folks is 800,000 dollars, there is just not room for us. Sad really. I feel for NY, as it has "recovered" from the dark 70's, but it faces another crisis now, it is losing it's identity and becoming a enclave for the rich and famous.
If you read the previous post you might think I'm conflicted on my views of NY. You're right.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This really saddens me as I really thought that was a lovely little store and enjoyed shopping there when Bubba's Dad and I would visit. I know I would be totally bereft if my favorite bookstore in Houston closed. It is also a "murder" bookstore, charming & quaint. I hate to see everything shoved to the middle and the small, independent merchants not be able to make it when up against the merchandising giants. We see it in the suburbs with all the so called "big box" stores with lower prices and the smaller merchants have no choice but to close. Maybe this is the trend in all of America now, and if it is, how sad.
I am very sad it's closing. We'd stop in there almost every time we passed it. It's not fair.
Post a Comment