‘Our sense of connectedness is waning'

To the editor: I lament the closing of The Bookstore, one of the few drawing cards for this writer to downtown Warwick. Indeed, it may not have satisfied, at times, the instant gratification of shopping at a super store like Barnes & Noble or convenience of Amazon.com, but The Bookstore had a special ambience - a personality. And, yes, sometimes if a book was not in stock it was necessary for one to exercise patience - a quality endangered in our increasingly impatient society. Sadly, as a friend much younger than myself who was raised in Warwick observed, Warwick simply does not have “a scene” - that there is a dearth of cultural and social stimulation in downtown Warwick. I believe that this circumstance might have been owner Mike McDermott’s mission to alter just as it might have been Scott Dunn’s vision in yesteryear when he operated his equally missed health food store. Ironically, both of these gentlemen were raised in Warwick. Their vision was to establish well-patronized businesses where people could convene and experience the well-being of community spirit. Other upstate villages such as New Paltz, Rosendale, Woodstock and Rhinebeck are wonderful ‘hangs’ unlike Warwick because of sustainable downtowns with much vitality and energy - a sustainablity that Mike envisioned, especially as a native Warwickian. Instead, in downtown Warwick, we have a thriving Burger King and CVS - businesses that feign the practice of community spirit: No public bulletin boards; the avoidance of facilitating the distribution of non-mainstream arts, health and political publications; homogenized, unaesthetic structures with little if any character where faceless employees carry on their daily, boring routines. Let the closing of The Bookstore be a wake-up call to we citizens of Warwick. Our sense of connectedness is waning. Thank you, Mike, and best of luck. Russ Layne Warwick