Rent and the City

By Roger Paradiso

Jim Drougas’s quest for a new locale for his bookstore was necessitated by the closure of the original establishment due to escalating rent costs. He has curated a collection of books available for purchase within Temperance Wine Bar on Carmine St., adjacent to the spot where he first launched Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books in the Village over three decades ago. Photo by Bob Cooley.

For over 30 years, Jim Drougas owned Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books on Carmine Street. He has been closed for over a year due to high rents. During our conversation about the future of brick-and-mortar bookstores, Jim said, “Bookstores would do well if commercial rents were not out of whack. The landlords wield the power. Businesses that sell necessary things like food or clothing can pay more rent because there is a constant need for resupply. High rent is the big drain on everyone, especially smaller shops. Even successful shops are gouged because rents are dictated by over-inflated property prices.” The only presence on Carmine Street now are two bookcases with some of his classic books. You need to go into Temperance, a wine bar, to find it. The bar is right next to his former store.

RP: It’s not like you can go 50 miles out of town and get rents like they were in the 1980s.
JD: Even though it is much cheaper outside of Manhattan, prices are still out of line. It’s not just bookstores. It’s anything that’s not part of a chain like an independent art house, movie theater or playhouse. I have been looking for good deals but nobody can pay $10,000 a month for a small space and still make a modest living selling books.

RP: What’s the future of bookstores and mom and pop stores? Can you do book fairs and make a living?
JD: Not really. Seasonal opportunities like book fairs are more about show and tell for publishers than meaningful commerce. There are some landlords who do not want to be greedy and some who prefer bookstores over other businesses. Thirty years ago, I paid $1,000 for rent and I could make a living. But the rent has skyrocketed because there are no controls.

RP: What would you say to a young person who wants to open a bookstore?
JD: I would wish them luck. It’s not easy to find the right place with the right rent. A small business would need some sort of rent stabilization to operate in Manhattan’s current climate. San Francisco and some countries do have that. Manhattan really needs this to sustain a viable existence.

RP: You can’t blame the landlords all the time. Let’s not forget high real estate taxes which the city needs to operate and keep from going bankrupt. So, everyone is stuck in this escalating inflation known as gentrification.
JD: I don’t think landlords are just squeaking by. They are making a lot of money. There are so many vacant stores and, if they could survive without making any rent for years at a time, perhaps they could find a way to lower rents. Young people understand this. Change can come very fast when the culture evolves and awareness breaks through to dispute the empires and finally recast votes via credit cards or make new agreements that take faith away from the large companies.

RP: Why don’t these bookstores give up the brick and mortar and just sell them on Amazon which many say is the biggest bookstore in the world?
JD: For me, it always seemed like you get a small piece of the action. It wasn’t even worth the effort. Amazon takes a very large piece of the pie and essentially has all the power just as the landlords do. It’s the new feudalism that Yanis Varoufakis talks about. A handful of dominant forces give the rest of us a small part of world commerce and lead us to think we are part of something larger, when in fact, we are like indentured servants when we put our faith in these online empires.

RP: Are brick and mortar bookstores endangered by AI?
JD: We don’t really know where AI is going in terms of commerce or politics. However, the same online empires will have dominance over that technology, so indeed it is a threat. Amazon is already a major force in the brick-and-mortar realm, in that they own Whole Foods and control markets well beyond the online realm.

RP: Do you think we need serious rent controls and stabilization?
JD: Commercial rent controls would go a long way. In the face of inflation and the vastly increased cost of living, nobody can afford to pay for anything that is not essential. A fair wage system that gives all workers a viable minimum salary, with free healthcare, would provide people with adequate funds for leisure entertainment such as the special illuminating and edifying pleasures of acquiring books.