Locals. Not Yokels
Here’s another upbeat story in downbeat times. One where locals pitch in to help locals.
It starts with Casa Magazine, a holdout newsstand in New York’s West Village. This old school store is doing well in a digital age, selling newspapers and magazines from all over the world. When they went new school, tapping into Instagram to build and promote their business, things really took off. did it:
My Spanish ain’t so good, but I think casa means home. And that’s what this place is for the locals who keep it going. It offers a sense of community. Casa encourages banter and hangin’ around, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings when people gather for the morning paper and grab a coffee from La Bonbonniere down the block. Hey, if one of the regulars doesn’t show up, they call and make sure they’re okay. They’ll even bring the papers and coffee to them. Sometimes the regulars jump in and man the counter when the owners are unpacking newspapers and magazines. Now that’s pitchin’ in, Charlie.
This is good stuff. This is us at our best. One of Casa’s fans is Billy Grand, a NYC DJ. Billy wasn’t spinning a lot of tunes during the pandemic, so he got resourceful and started a company called Neighborhood Spot that does silk screening and embroidery designs spinning off local businesses like Casa Magazine. Sales from the merch go to help the businesses on the designs. So far, Billy and Neighborhood Spot have distributed $150,000 to local businesses and he’s still going. I bought a Casa Magazine hat the other day.
This is how you get things done. This is how we’re going to get out of this mess. It ain’t happening with politicians. As the Globe’s Kevin Cullen puts it, “D.C. is a gridlocked snake pit.” Real change happens in the neighborhoods when locals shop in little stores and startups like Neighborhood Spot step in with some added support to them make it through. If we lose the locals, we’ll be stuck with nothin’ but Dunkin’ Donuts, Dollar General and Walgreens. It’ll be all over, Bucko. Keep your dukes up.