A million people and no bookstore

[Dazrin]

How does not having a book store "create a lack of self-worth"? Why does having a bookstore say anything about your self-worth? It might say something about the overall conditions in the Bronx but certainly not an individuals self-worth.

I was also amused by what she is doing to fix the lack of bookstores. Instead of opening a new bookstore; she is opening a wine bar that sells books. It's like she already believes that she won't sell enough books to support the business. I might be getting cynical here but I wonder if she realized calling it a bookstore gets more press than opening a wine bar would.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

How does not having a book store "create a lack of self-worth"? Why does having a bookstore say anything about your self-worth? It might say something about the overall conditions in the Bronx but certainly not an individuals self-worth.

I was also amused by what she is doing to fix the lack of bookstores. Instead of opening a new bookstore; she is opening a wine bar that sells books. It's like she already believes that she won't sell enough books to support the business. I might be getting cynical here but I wonder if she realized calling it a bookstore gets more press than opening a wine bar would.

Oh so self-promotion. I like your cynical.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

How does not having a book store "create a lack of self-worth"? Why does having a bookstore say anything about your self-worth? It might say something about the overall conditions in the Bronx but certainly not an individuals self-worth.

I was also amused by what she is doing to fix the lack of bookstores. Instead of opening a new bookstore; she is opening a wine bar that sells books. It's like she already believes that she won't sell enough books to support the business. I might be getting cynical here but I wonder if she realized calling it a bookstore gets more press than opening a wine bar would.

I wondered something similar. While the video seems well-intentioned it also seems disingenuous as a few things don't add up. A wine-bar/bookstore doesn't seem like the best way to combat some perceived lack of book availability, especially for children- one of whom is a large part of the video. But, still, it's something, and I get the impression less that she added 'bookstore' in as a gimmick and more that she is trying to offer both a wine bar (which may also be rarer in the Bronx) and a bookstore to improve the quality of culture in the area on both counts, thought a combination of the two would have a better chance of succeeding than just one or the other, and found her promotional focus in this video anyway more on the lack-of-bookstores-in-the-Bronx side than the wine bar side.

As to the claim of lack of self-worth, it sounds a bit exaggerated, but I do see what she's getting at. If you live or grow up in an area with less access to cultural/intellectual offerings despite being a built-up area near other built-ups areas that do have those types of offerings, then you may feel even if subconsciously more like your community and therefore you yourself for some reason don't deserve those types of offerings.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I wondered something similar. While the video seems well-intentioned it also seems disingenuous as a few things don't add up. A wine-bar/bookstore doesn't seem like the best way to combat some perceived lack of book availability, especially for children- one of whom is a large part of the video. But, still, it's something, and I get the impression less that she added 'bookstore' in as a gimmick and more that she is trying to offer both a wine bar (which may also be rarer in the Bronx) and a bookstore to improve the quality of culture in the area on both counts, thought a combination of the two would have a better chance of succeeding than just one or the other, and found her promotional focus in this video anyway more on the lack-of-bookstores-in-the-Bronx side than the wine bar side.

As to the claim of lack of self-worth, it sounds a bit exaggerated, but I do see what she's getting at. If you live or grow up in an area with less access to cultural/intellectual offerings despite being a built-up area near other built-ups areas that do have those types of offerings, then you may feel even if subconsciously more like your community and therefore you yourself for some reason don't deserve those types of offerings.

I think it depends on the situation but in most cases, you really don't think about what the other side of town, next city over has. You just live your life.

As to the culture stuff, let's take the wine bar. Do that many people really drink wine in a bar and not with a meal? Will the people accept it or will they think this woman wants to change them?
Let me tell you about the town I grew up in. It had 3 sides and then the town next to it.
You had the upper class side, the working class side and the poor side. (Though truth be told the middle class side had some money people too). The people from the upper class side did all the cultural stuff, (sometimes the working class side did too), but the poor side never did.
(And they dang sure hid the public school for pregnant girls on the poor side: even if the demographic showed it wasn't the poor girls that were pregnant).
Even the poor high school was in a different district football wise.
Now the upper class side had the football team that pretty much went to state every year.
I know the working class didn't give much thought to culture as they had their own culture.
Note: this town also had bars and beer joints by the dozens and a few strip clubs and more than a few working girls.

You will see I mentioned the next town over. It had very few bars but higher end restaurants and shopping. Not sure about cultural stuff but I think they had high brow stuff. Cost of living was higher across the board over there.

So the word on the street was one town was good for partying and the other town was good for raising kids.

Except for statements like I just made, no one really gave a thought to how the others spent their leisure time.

Now the area has changed. That started in the mid 80's when they closed the poor high school and just divided that district up. (That was a scandal in itself due to football. )
All the neighborhoods have changed, most of the bars have closed and there are no more working girls or really cheap motels. It is no longer two distinct cities but one big area. The only constant is the oilfield.

I will say that yes we have time to think about culture and how everyone lives, but when one is just trying to survive there isn't much time to think about how the other half lives.

Now growing up until my parents divorced ( Thank God), I really wasn't sure what class we fell under. Dad had a blue collar job, but we were the first on our block to have a dishwasher, microwave, video games, etc. I also got enough of an allowance to buy my own stereo on my 13th birthday. ( $128. ) We went out of town quite often. Usually to visit relatives.
But I also wore nothing but hand-me-downs or homemade clothes.

After the divorce, dad started his own company and mom and us kids wound up moving to another town where I went to the minority school. So part of the year, I was daddy's little rich girl and most of the year, we were poor kids just trying to make a little money to help mom with the bills.

In both cases, I never worried about what anyone else was doing as I was just trying to survive.

So I don't think self-worth has a darn thing to do with what people outside your world are doing. I think it has more to do with what you make of your world.

Now yes, if you are the different one in your world, yes it will make a difference to your self worth. (Can you spot the one that was teased for her clothes, glasses and whatever else they could think of? )

[ApK]

Originally Posted by issybird

Two demographic factoids about the Bronx:

Arrrrgh!!! Are they true? Then they are just FACTS!!

That's up there on my pet peeve list along with "literally" being used to mean "figuratively."

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ApK

Arrrrgh!!! Are they true? Then they are just FACTS!!

That's up there on my pet peeve list along with "literally" being used to mean "figuratively."

It has a secondary (or primary, depending on which dictionary you cite) meaning: a brief and trivial item.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by issybird

It has a secondary (or primary, depending on which dictionary you cite) meaning: a brief and trivial item.

It is used that way. It's wrong.
Descriptive dictionaries include wide-spread mistakes born of nothing but ignorance and laziness. No reason we have to embrace it.

We can respect evolutionary changes while still killing malignant growths.

We have a perfectly good word for a fact. It's "fact." We have perfectly good suffixes to mean "little." -oid isn't one of them.

Considering why the word was originally coined, it seems especially distasteful to make it mean it's opposite. It's a win for the yellow journalists and hateful gossip-mongers.

As I said: pet peeve.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ApK

Yes, I know. It's wrong.

And I accept that's your position. It's one I frequently take myself.

One example: Decimate does not mean devastate or destroy, it can only mean "reduce by a tenth." I do get your rage.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by issybird

And I accept that's your position. It's one I frequently take myself.

One example: Decimate does not mean devastate or destroy, it can only mean "reduce by a tenth." I do get your rage.

I'll take one shot at your pet peeve since you took a shot at mine:

There are a lot of things that end up pretty devastated if you wipe out 10% of it.
Kill one out of 10 men in your army, and your army would feel pretty devastated.
Knock down every 10th building in NYC, and the city would be pretty devastated.
So, at least there is a logical reason why that word took on an extended meaning.

OK, we're even, truce.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I forgot about most people using public transportation in NYC. So my apologies.


Now on the Bronx not technically having a book store, since they have 10 colleges and universities, I wonder if their bookstores and libraries have all the books covered. Or I am assuming the BBC article meant bookstores not associated with an institution.
Without farther research, doesn't the Bronx also have one of the largest public libraries?

Maybe, like you said about the small towns, perhaps the Bronx doesn't have a reader population to sustain a bookstore because they are already being served by the institutions.

You are correct especially in the New England states on the book stores.
Alas in Texas, you have to go to a major city to find even Barnes & Noble.
I see you are in New England. I am in a region known as the Permian Basin.
The two areas have roughly the same land mass I think. The big difference is the towns are farther apart and not sure but many of our small towns are less than 1000 people.
Oh and we have no public transportation to speak of. At least not to go between the towns.

My town has 2100 people, up 600 from fifteen years ago. We even have a traffic light now and seven speed bumps.

No bookstore, but there is a library with ebooks.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phogg

My town has 2100 people, up 600 from fifteen years ago. We even have a traffic light now and seven speed bumps.

No bookstore, but there is a library with ebooks.

Massive influx of people or lots of babies?

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Massive influx of people or lots of babies?

A bit of both. The four lane to nowhere west of town is getting closer to connecting to Dallas. After it is widened all the way up here from the south I expect the commuter population to mushroom.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phogg

A bit of both. The four lane to nowhere west of town is getting closer to connecting to Dallas. After it is widened all the way up here from the south I expect the commuter population to mushroom.

I thought you were too far east for the oilfield influx or too far west if Kilgore had started again.

[Phogg]

Oil runs all along the border, and we are maybe five to seven miles south of Oklahoma. There is a good sized field even in the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge which is a fairly short drive from us.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Oil runs all along the border, and we are maybe five to seven miles south of Oklahoma. There is a good sized field even in the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge which is a fairly short drive from us.

I've been near you numerous times. Yep, that would bring some people your way.