That was Then. This is Now.

By Roger Paradiso

We are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Village View. At our monthly Founders meeting, Kim and I suggested we follow up on articles we wrote for the first issue. I chose two articles from my favorite mom and pop shop entrepreneurs—Jamal Asner and James Drougas.

First, A Note About The Lost Village
James Drougas, of the Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books on Carmine Street, was in my film, The Lost Village. He was one of many shop owners, students, and activists to talk about the high rents in the West Village, the high cost of education and the rise of prostitution among undergrads—or as George Capsis called it, “Prostitution 101.”
The Lost Village lives on in the digital world as a popular film in countries around the world. It is not popular in Hollywood or in many red states. It is still in demand at GlobalCinema.online, the hottest streaming “new kid on the block.” Daria and Bruno stream films that you won’t see at the multiplex or even at former art theaters. The Lost Village has won dozens of awards and accolades for the courage it took for those in the film to speak about what is really happening in the Village.

“The mom-and-pop shops are being displaced one by one. And in their place, we have banks, chain stores, condos, and the dawning of the age of Artificial Intelligence.” -Roger Paradiso, The Village View

The Headlines Then And Now
Here are the headlines we used last year for the articles I wrote about Jamal Asner and Village Music World on Bleecker and James Drougas and his iconoclastic bookstore on Carmine Street.

The End Days of COVID on Bleecker
Published December, 2022
Note: I met Jamal Asner during the first days of COVID when I interviewed him the day New York City and the Village stood still. There was an order to close up shops and for residents to quarantine in their homes

Village Music World at 197 Bleecker has been Jamal Asner’s home for 28 years. I was there when COVID had taken over the city. I was there the day the city shut down. Jamal shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to close his store. No one knew what would happen but I don’t think anyone thought we would be dealing with the repercussions to this day.
I recently asked Jamal about the difference he saw between Thanksgiving of 2021 and Thanksgiving of 2022. He said, “It’s not a big difference from last year. It’s less traffic in the store. The streets have improved with a little policing in both the streets and subways, but we need more so that people will feel safe again. Most people don’t feel safe at all.”
Note: Here’s how Jamal and I ended our conversation that night one year ago.
“On Tuesday night November 22, 2022, I have a screening for my film. It’s called Searching For Camelot. My son and I are waiting for our guests. They wander out of the darkness. The streets at Cinema Village are quiet but it is still early, and it appears safe, but I don’t know. When the screening is over, we rush to our car parked on West Third. We pass dark streets and suddenly see a line of young people waiting to get into a club. There are people braving the dark. Is the lighting as bright as it can be? We go in and out of the darkness until we reach our parking garage near Sixth. I wonder if this is how it always was. Was it always dark with strangers passing by?”

One year later. December 1, 2023

How has the year gone for you?
It’s not the greatest definitely but it’s much better than the one before … a little better but not financially and mentally.
Has the COVID syndrome gone completely or are there things remaining from COVID?
I say it’s 90 percent gone, hopefully. In some cases, it’s better because people are around more.
How are rents doing?
Rents always go up as you know.
How is your business doing?
Not great but slowly improving… hoping for the holidays … the cost of being here is too much to begin with.
Are the police doing a good job keeping the streets safe?
Much better in some cases.
Are there more drugs in the Village?
Way more than any time before.
Are there more homeless people?
This is the main issue in NYC and it is increasing.
What is the future of the Village?
I’m always optimistic to the better things to come with more improvements.

Another Mom-and-Pop Bites the Dust—For Now
Published December 2022

I checked in with Jim Drougas and the Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books on Carmine Street off Bleecker. Back in June of 2021, he had told me he was closing the shop on July 1, 2022.
“What’s happened?” I asked him recently.
“We had been negotiating to stay and get a new lease with the new owners since the summer of 2021. We actually agreed to get out at the end of June 2022,” Jim explained. “Then they finally offered us a deal we could not refuse which included six months free rent going forward from December and letting us off the hook for the back rent. My lawyer did a great job of getting us that much though it took many months to get the deal on paper and signed.  I felt that the partner was sincerely apologetic about shutting us down at the end.”

One year later. December 1, 2023
How has the year gone for you?
It has been a year and a half since we had to close down Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books after over 30 years at 34 Carmine Street.  We were quickly kept alive directly next door in a pop-up with hundreds of books on two shelf units in a room of, and at the indulgence of, the Temperance Wine Bar at 40 Carmine Street, literally on the other side of our old wall.
The search for a whole new bookshop has been unsuccessful as yet. Rent prices are still too difficult and we also don’t want to jump into the wrong opportunity.
Are you doing better or worse?
I was more confident at first but the climate in the Village is still tenuous, in large part as a symptom of COVID-19, past and present and future fears. That specter still lingers, though less visible. The effects are long-term in commerce as well. I have not lost hope that we will find a way somewhere in the Village. I watched other new and old businesses rise and fall so quickly during the past year.  Until recently there were 10 empty storefronts in the immediate radius of the original shop. About half of them are finally occupied in recent weeks.
Thankfully the bulk of the sheds are gone.  There were just too many for a time.  I am a little jealous of the idea of having a weatherproof extra-large area to work with but only restaurants and bars and coffee shops get that allowance.
Are the police doing a good job keeping the streets safe?
To a large degree, police have appeared often times to be more laissez-faire than usual.  We hear of crimes, and we see a more aggressive kind of panhandler in the streets which actually feel unusually unsafe.
Are there more homeless people?
There was a time when we would mourn the passing of those one or two local vagabonds. That was always a mild presence here, just now the magnitude is far greater as in every 100 feet, as if they divide territories.
Are there more drugs in the Village?
The West Village is not hopping with people in search of human delights in general as it used to be. When my shop re-opens, there will, no doubt, be a grand showing of the iconic documentary about it, 34 Carmine Street for now, just showing on Vimeo.
What is the future of the Village?
The future is hard to predict. The mega complex of Google offices by the river below Houston Street stretches enormously wide as a city unto itself though it is bound to have an uplift of people eventually.  There are still plenty of empty offices and plenty of expensive empty apartments too. Hence fewer people. Much of the bustle here is displaced to the East Village and other areas of the city and that trend too is not new.  We are all up against the same dark clouds of high rent and dwindling visitors.
Has the COVID syndrome gone completely or are there things remaining from COVID?
Woeful and disheartening events still abound perhaps indirectly related to COVID. Darkness in the way of unprecedented world events appears, again, more in the magnitude of woefulness than in form. Anxieties and animosities are bigger than ever.  The threat of WW3 is emerging and the strong threat of a new Trump ascendency rises more blatant and carefully vengeful than the last. Then devastation and destruction of so many of our most vulnerable youthful beings either by war or single-handed rampage, both psychotic or by an official disregard for life by enraged governments.
But there are good people and good officials and there is still hope.

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A Note from the Author
: What remains in both Jamal and James is their resiliency and optimism. But in the end, there is no place for the old charm of the Village in the current Village.