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Adios, Movie Place
The Times today ran a long piece on the closing of Movie Place, my neighborhood video store. Like La Rosita, our beloved Cuban restaurant that will close next month, Movie Place provides more than a commercial experience. These are the gathering places of the community - not a community center, and not (just) a store - but a place that joins the best of both experiences.
From Lights Out:
But the decline of the video store is more than a story of small merchants undone by technological change. Like movie theaters, and unlike delis or drugstores, video shops in a city as film-saturated and film-savvy as New York emerged as centers of neighborhood life.
Their selections mirror the people they serve, and their proprietors, like Mr. Dennis, can be beloved figures with a deep knowledge not only of local inhabitants' film tastes, but also of other aspects of their lives.
See also: The urban experience and La Rosita
