Good News, Bad News for LA Indie Bookshops

On the one hand, my former employers at Dutton’s Brentwood Books found out that the store’s location has been declared a landmark, recognizing the historical and cultural significance of the 56-year-old building and making it slightly more difficult for the store to be displaced by redevelopment. But down in Leimert Park, Eso Won may not be able to stay open, as bankruptcy threatens the city’s most prominent African-American bookstore. The community is rallying around the store, with encouragement from local authors and pastors, and major writers like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama come through on their tours, but the store’s owners warn that it may not be enough “to compete against the Internet and the big chains.”

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