News stories are not really talking a lot about community resiliency.
There are many stories of how people are helping each other, walking to local businesses, and there is a dramatic shift in looking at neighbourhoods as places that meet the “popsicle test”: being able to send a child safely down a block or two to go purchase a popsicle at a corner store and return safely with the popsicle not entirely melted down or eaten. That’s a standard of local shops and services we need to attain, and we’ve covered that in this Viewpoint Vancouver article.
Via the New York Times is this remarkable story of neighbourhood resilience when a local magazine and newspaper shop was closed down due to pandemic restrictions.
Kate Dwyer with the New York Times wrote about Casa Magazines which is located in West Village in New York City. In the middle of one of the most tech savvy cities this old time shop bursting with thousands of different newspapers and magazines is a comfortable familiar haven to the locals. And if the co-owner Mohamed Ahmed who has owned Casa almost 30 years has to run out of the store, he often asks a customer to mind the till.
Along with Syed Khalid Wasim the two owners know their customers and try to make the contact with them in their store special each time. When sales started to decrease in the magazine store in 2017, one consultant in the area started to send stories about Casa out on instagram. Today Casa’s instagram account has nearly 35,000 followers. Casa itself specializes in hard to find magazines, and is a draw for out of town visitors as well as immigrants from elsewhere that want to read something from their home country.
As one customer said her evening visits to Casa Magazines were “such a small thing, but it made such a big difference, especially for an immigrant. They’re immigrants too, so it was a really nice comfort to meet all the small businesses here and see them morning and night.”
The business operates treating the customers as family, and that is also evident in the name of the place which means “house” in Spanish. If there is a rare or sold out magazine, the owners work to secure a copy for a customer through their print networks.
Ms. Dwyer also notes that Casa Magazines “encourages conversation between strangers, perhaps because of the physical closeness inside the small space, perhaps because the novelty of print makes you feel as though you have something in common with the other customers. At Casa, you feel as though you are privy to a well-kept secret that has been preserved by neighborhood characters and the literary cognoscenti alike.”
Casa Magazines is ingrained in the neighbourhood dynamic, and is part of everyday life. The short video below describes how a loyal group of thirty customers sparked interest and support for the business during the pandemic through a surprising source: Instagram. That social media platform also provided a place for others to write about their personal experiences and stories about Casa Magazines.
Here’s an example of how electronic information assists in maintaining its ancestor, newspapers and magazines, in a small shop with personal contact central to a neighbourhood’s identity.
Images: NewYorkTimes CBC
