I spent the better part of a month trying to write about my frustrations and wishes for keeping From My Shelf in Wellsboro. Granted, I was trying to do that while simultaneously managing the bookstore through the holiday season, so I'd write about a paragraph a day, get interrupted, go several days without writing, try to re-capture my train of thought, and continue trying to write something that would make sense.
After a friend here at the bookstore read it, she said, "So, what do you hope to accomplish, sending this as a letter to Chamber board members, or directors of TCDC?"
To answer that question, I'll summarize what I took more than six typed pages to say. I'll boil it down to the essence of what I hope to convey.
Many towns and cities really want to have a great bookstore. Tourists visiting From My Shelf comment -- ALL THE TIME -- on how lucky Wellsboro is to have an indie bookstore like ours, with such a huge, diverse selection; with new and used books; with a knowledgeable staff who are especially good with kids; with a range of prices; well-organized and open 7 days a week. Our local customers, too, tell us how much they appreciate us. And the love flows right back: we love our customers, whether they are once-a-year visitors or neighbors who live up the street.
As I mentioned, Corning's Gaffer District started 'courting' us as early as 2008, when From My Shelf was just a little store in the basement at 87 Main Street. They saw the potential of a bookstore that mixed new and used books, that hosted authors, that offered great community events. All over the country, downtown districts and neighborhood shopping areas are trying to get a bookstore to move in.
Wellsboro HAS a great bookstore. Why not do everything possible to preserve what you've got?
I'm still pretty flabbergasted that someone didn't step up and step in to try to help. I think, at the very least, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the TCDC board, the Tioga County Visitors' Bureau, or an owner of another 'cornerstone' store on Main Street could have come forward to ask our landlord if he would be willing to negotiate, go to mediation, or reconsider the situation in light of the greater community. I'm not aware that ANYONE did that.
When we asked members of the Chamber, the Borough Council, and other elected officials if they would be willing to step up and lend support to the bookstore, we got several vaguely neutral emails, basically saying, "we wish you luck with your situation", and a whole lot of nothing.
This is NOT to say that we don't recognize and appreciate the support of our COMMUNITY. People as individuals -- our customers, our friends, our 'fans' on facebook near and far -- have been INCREDIBLY supportive. Your support and encouragement has been awesome, humbling, and cheering. This is the reason we keep going!
I feel that From My Shelf asked for little to no help from official "grow business in Wellsboro" organizations as we grew not just our own business, but business in downtown Wellsboro overall. We have hosted dozens of events that included twenty or thirty OTHER businesses in Wellsboro, taking people throughout town. From My Shelf has worked in cooperation with tons of businesses, nonprofits, schools, and individuals over the last eight plus years. It seems like a "Little Red Hen" story to me, in reverse.... everyone got to eat the bread we baked, but when we finally asked for help reaping the wheat or baking more bread, all these officials, who supposedly have the town's best interests at heart, said, "No, not I. I can't help. I can't get involved."
What "the powers that be" in Wellsboro seem not to recognize is how fragile the health of our historical district is. We claim to be a tourist area, with much of our economy driven by tourist traffic. People come to downtown Wellsboro to shop, dine, and walk. They want to come visit the candy store, the ice cream place, the bookstore, the coffee shops, the little cafes and restaurants, the boutiques, and our unique department store. Tourists do not usually visit banks, insurance offices, or real estate offices. If they do, it's a quick stop. There's no reason these services can't be on side streets, just off the Main Street.
Because our landlord is short-sighted, because he seems bent on personal revenge or individual gain as he sees it, From My Shelf will have to move when our lease expires at the end of March 2015. At that point, we will have paid rent, every month, on time, to LYDA Properties, LLC, for all eight and a half years that From My Shelf has been in existence. Even though the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that From My Shelf had done nothing wrong, had not broken its lease in any way, our landlord continues to insist that we have done wrong, continues to accuse us of being bad tenants and bad people, to boot. He insists, in very public forums, that we continue to harass him and to harass our co-tenants, even though there were NEVER any charges of harassment filed, let alone charged.
We will move the bookstore because we are NOT giving up. We will not be driven from our hometown, or from the community that we love, who has supported us with their words and their feet and their presence and their purchases. But it will be extremely difficult on us -- personally, financially, physically, and emotionally.
Looking at this situation, I would like to remind the "Encourage Local Businesses" agencies AND the individuals who make up their boards, of the following: we are ALL in the same boat. There is no "Not I" possible here. If one of us goes down, everyone feels it. Especially if any of the "cornerstone" stores disappears. It IS a fragile balance here. We need to support each other, and we often do, but we need to do a better job. We cannot simply stand back and say, "I can't get involved." Once you have a business in Wellsboro, or in Tioga County, you ARE involved. If you have kids who go to school here, you ARE already involved. If you work in a business that draws money from tourism, you are involved.
We weren't asking people to take sides. We were asking people to write our landlord and let him know how important the bookstore is, how much good it does here. Since From My Shelf does so much for the community, since people want to keep coming here, it would really help if we didn't have to move. We wanted people to tell our landlord this, and keep the focus positive. We asked certain "key" people if they would be willing to talk with him, invite him to negotiate further with us. This is not taking sides. As I have said, we fully recognize that we ALL could have handled this better, and that a lot of little shit got out of control. It would have helped so much if a neutral party -- one who is interested in the health of Wellsboro and of Tioga County, who was NOT taking the side of landlord, game store, or bookstore -- would have helped us all figure out a way forward.
So, officials, what say you? Business owners, Chamber members, can we prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future?
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