Oh and don't complain. You guys voted for Bloomberg. You reap what you sow.

Madonna is right. NYC is boring now.

Target Upper West Side....look for it...

Hop to:

Westsider Books - 2246 Broadway OR

Westsider Records - 233 West 72nd Street

I really don't know how business make money in Manhattan to begin with.

Recent visits to B&N always get the Nook ebook reader sales staff swarming. In view of the recent bad financial news from their parent company and heavy Nook promotion, I'm wondering if bookstores will fade like music stores sooner than rather than later.

Isn't it funny how they're their own downfall? The music industry intoduced the CD where music can be ripped and distributed for free and now it's the same thing with Nook.

That's so sad! It will probably be replaced by a bank. It has to be a tenant who can afford the insane rents and still do well in that location. If it has to be a big box retailer, I vote for a Uniqlo / Muji superstore. And not another watered-down Muji store like we already have. One like the ones in Japan, which have a lot more stuff.

I KNOW! With sufficient Saudi backing, THIS could be the site of the Islamic Community Center now planned for Ground Zero. Maybe they could even do "diversity nights" with the JCC just up the street.

I moved to New York and to this area literally a week before this store opened, and have lived in this area ever since. Whenever people ask me why I put up with the rent I pay (although rent stabilization has helped, although not as much in recent years) I would mention proximity to the park, two sets of subway lines, and all the amenities of Lincoln Center, chief among them this book store. It has been a place to chill when my apartment seemed impossibly small, to meet friends, read, browse, find a bathroom and yes, buy some books. I know things are always in motion here, but this is a real blow to the area. Tower Records, Circuit City (whose showcase store across the street opened just months before the chain went bankrupt), several independent movie theaters all gone and now this. Looking further afield, anyone remember all those tiny off off off Broadway theater companies that found performace space on the LES in the early-mid nineties, only to lose it all once the neighborhood recovered and the landlords jacked up their rents?

One can only imagine what they are demanding for this space. And what retailers are left who might plausibly occupy this huge space and have the money to do so? (Nordstroms?)

WalMart.

I'm not a big fan of B&N. But the location made it a positive staple to the area, and it's a shame to see any book store close.

Ah too bad, that BN is great to kill time if youre early for a movie at the Lowes

glad to know I wasn't the only person that valued it for that reason

This store really has become a part of my lifestyle. I'm sorry to see it go. First Tower Records, then Victoria's Secret, now this.

Too bad. This was a great place to use the bathroom and browse for books that I would then buy at Word, Posman's, or another of the (dwindling) independent bookstores in the city.

Sad sign of the times.

I love Barnes & Noble! Can't think of a better way to spend a few hours than chilling in B&N going through all the books & magazines. Pretty soon all bookstores will just be a memory just like record shops.

but the day Strands closes that's the day this will cease to be New York City.

It wasn't nearly as good as the original but i miss the downtown Strand.

Agreed.

If only classical musicians, ballet dancers and self-help junkies sprawled across the floor could be used as currency... It is sad, though. I've relied on them many times for books not at other locations (must be something about my taste?).