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SHOULD WE FIGHT TO SAVE INDIE BOOKSTORES?
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J- D9 ]) d( J2 i% `I’ll admit that at times I’ve responded to news of random indie-bookstore shutterings as I do to news of catastrophes in faraway lands: with a pang of concern that soon settles into a vague sense of unease about the world and the problem of human existence. But I’ve always suspected that, should the war come home, I’d feel differently. And indeed, when news reached me Friday that a link to a petition to save St. Marks books was going around the Internet, I got that queasy, vertiginous feeling you get when you’ve been dumped, fired, evicted, or told that your kitten’s been run over. St. Marks is one of my bookstores, I screamed at the Internet: who thought they had the right to take it away?
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我承认,现阶段,我在听到那些关于自由独立书店的营业模式的消息的反应,正如我在听到遥远的大陆发生大灾难时的反应。伴随着一阵阵的担心,并且很快习惯于一种隐约的不安,这种不安和世界以及人类的存在有关。但我总是怀疑,战争是否应该开始,我有一种异样的感觉。确实,在星期五的时候,当我收到一封请愿书,为了拯救St. Marks的书而建立一个链接,此链接即将上线,(1)。St. Marks是我所知道的书店之一,我不禁要在互联网上大声呼吁:谁认为自己有权利将它们收回去? " x! N, t E. C0 I" _6 k. w
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The answer, according to the petition, is indirectly New York City and its sky-high rents and less indirectly Cooper Union, the target of the petition and the owner of the building St. Marks books occupies. The bookstore would like Cooper Union to kindly lower its rent.
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' w. \2 q3 v) l6 _1 j5 A) T; b3 W根据那封请愿书来看,答案直接和纽约的高租金有关,同时也和Cooper联盟有一点关系,这个联盟就是请愿书的目标同时也是St. Marks书店占据的这座建筑的拥有者。书店希望Cooper联盟好心降低租金。
+ R1 G, W* o' cThe St. Mark’s Bookshop has a long tradition in the Lower East Side and serves an admirable and increasingly rare function. St. Mark’s is struggling to pay the market rent that Cooper Union is charging them at 31 3rd Ave. A significant rent concession by Cooper Union could save this irreplaceable neighborhood institution.
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0 v& `; Y$ l x+ p% ZSt. Mark’s Bookshop在下东区有着悠久的历史,并且对上东区有一种令人钦佩却又越来越稀罕的功用。St. Mark’s正在支付市场租金中挣扎着,因为Cooper联盟命令他们在313号大街上交。Cooper联盟若对租金做出一次重要的让步就能够拯救这个无可替代的友邻的位置。
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( l) l: U1 I4 [2 QI had a friend once who would go on and on and on about rent control and how it unbalanced the rental market for the rest of New York, arguments I found mostly convincing. Imagining the apoplexy that would seize him if he read the petition, I hesitated for a moment before signing. But the thing is that I really don’t want St. Marks books to close, and by hook or by crook (since it obviously won’t happen by book), I want it to be saved. My stance is entirely based in emotion:I have an emotional attachment to a certain vision of New York, and that vision includes a good indie bookstore on the L.E.S. |