Iconic Strand Bookstore at risk of closing,
but bouncing back with public’s help
BY JESSICA PARKS
Strand Bookstore is calling
for the help of all New Yorkers
to keep its doors open
and its bookshelves stocked after
announcing it is suffering a 70
percent loss in revenue on Friday.
“We need your help. This is the
post we hoped to never write, but
today marks a huge turning point
in The Strand’s history,” read the
nearly century-old bookstore’s
post on Twitter.
The post includes a letter from
third-generation owner Nancy
Bass Wyden who spoke of the
bookstore’s long history in its
Manhattan neighborhood—
standing as the last remaining
original book shop from the
famous “Book Row” on Fourth
Avenue— and its past resilience
through such struggles as the
Great Depression to shifts
towards online shopping.
“We’ve survived just about everything
for 93 years,” she wrote.
“We are the last of the original 48
bookstores still standing from 4th
Avenue’s “Book Row.”
But they need the public’s assistance
to make it through the
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
ongoing pandemic, as funds from
federal stimulus loans have dried
out and a decline in foot traffi c
led to profi ts drastically less than
what’s needed to sustain the
iconic bookstore.
“As I watched my grandfather
and dad working side-by-side
evaluating piles of books at the
front door buying desk, never did
I imagine that the store’s fi nancial
situation would become so dire
that I would have to write friends
and devoted customers for help,”
Bass Wyden wrote.
The bookstore’s call for help
was met with an outpouring of
support — enough to reportedly
back up their website— and one
author even offered a signed
bookplate if followers buy books
from the Strand.
Others criticized Bass Wyden
for her plea for support, bashing
her for buying Amazon stocks,
firing numerous employees
before applying for a Paycheck
Protection Plan loan and for being
anti-union.
De Blasio hopeful Manhattan could
fill up again by early next year
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
New Yorkers should expect to see
Manhattan offi ce buildings fi ll up
more by early next year, Mayor
Bill de Blasio said during an interview on
WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show Friday
morning.
The comment came after Lehrer asked
the mayor to confi rm or refute claims that
the city had agreed to bring back 25% of
city workers by the end of the year. As of
Sept. 18, only 10% of Manhattan offi ce
workers had returned to their buildings,
the Wall Street Journal reported late last
month.
De Blasio confi rmed that City Hall had
indeed been considering bringing back
more of its workforce, but new developments
were put on hold due to the recent
COVID clusters in Brooklyn and Queens.
City offi cials will decide when to increase
the percent of city workers allowed back
in buildings based on how the city “comes
out” of the boroughs’ problem areas.
“It’s all going to be based on what our
healthcare situation is and what our positivity
level is,” de Blasio said. De Blasio add
The 73 story One Vanderbilt office tower, the latest super-tall skyscraper to
grace New York’s iconic skyline, is set to open while the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) keeps the largest and richest U.S. office market almost empty, in
midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S., September 9, 2020. Picture
taken September 9, 2020.
that it has been diffi cult to allow for more
offi ce workers to return to midtown given
its large concentration of offi ce workers.
De Blasio then reminded listeners that
although midtown offi ces may not be full,
that the city’s outer boroughs are “vibrant”
FILE PHOTO BY REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR
and full of activity.
“I think that a lot of business leaders
think of the world as midtown out and the
rest as ancillary and I think it’s the other
away around,” de Blasio said. “Midtown
is important but it is not the center of the
universe.”
The comment paralleled an earlier statement
de Blasio made during his interview
with Lehrer in which he called President
Donald Trump’s description of New York
City as a “ghost town” during Thursday
night’s presidential debate a “fallacy” and
“unfair.”
“Look at what’s happened to New York,
it’s a ghost town,” said Trump.” For so
many years I loved it, it was vibrant–it’s
dying, everyone is leaving New York.”
President Trump fi rst referred to the city
as a “ghost town” during the fi rst presidential
debate with former Vice President
and Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden. New Yorkers quickly mocked
the comment on social media with many
posting photos of people struggling to fi nd
parking, enjoying outdoor dining, walking
their dogs, and in general continuing on
with life in the new normal.
“Areas like midtown have a long way
to go but we have made a hell of a lot of
progress,” de Blasio said. “You know I turn
it on him, the only ghost town is going to be
Mar a Lago after he is forced out of offi ce
by the decision of the people on election
day,” de Blasio said.
14 October 29, 2020 Schneps Media