January 10, 1999

Santa Cruz County Sentinel
207 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

RE: "Borders Plans Capitola Store" in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 7, 1999

To the Sentinel:

I am a writer and an avid reader. Since moving here in 1984 I have been grateful for the diversity of independent and second-hand book dealer in Santa Cruz County. I live in Live Oak and do many of my errands in King Plaza. About four days a week I go to the Capitola Book Café to buy the papers, look over the new books, check the bargain counters, talk with the owners and staff. At least once a week I visit Bookshop Santa Cruz downtown, for its unparalled resources in politics, criticism, lesbian and gay literature. I value both these stores, along with The Literary Guillotine downtown, Mockingbird Books in Aptos, and the finds in used poetry and cookbooks at Top of the Heap in the Arana Center.

These bookstores are owned and shaped by a variety of diverse individuals who know and love books. Their appeal is precisely that they are individualistic, scattered around our county, and found in a mix of other small local businesses. When I visit Capitola Book Café I can also drop into Palace Art & Office; Top of the Heap is near a well-used laundromat, a small deli and Lucy's seamstressing and alterations. Bookshop Santa Cruz is on a block of small boutiques, all ungeneric and locally-owned.

The proposed introduction of a huge, publicly-traded corporate chain bookstore in Capitola is utterly wrong for this area. The attempted malling of our coastal towns, the destruction of their liveability and character, the wipe-out, by hugely capitalized chains, of small local enterprises, many of which had to survive the '89 quake and did, with community support - this isn't "competition". This is unbridled, unrestricted financial power against every other human consideration

As a reader and book-buyer, I want the varied book culture that our local bookstores provide. As a writer, I'm revolted by the policies of the chains (selling prime space to publishers who are willing or able to pay for it; dictating to publishers what titles will or won't be "marketable" even before publication.) I want to see in my local bookstore a range of choices, not dictated by corporate deals.

In chain-marketing, a store can open in a community that has been studied and targeted, thanks to the success of local business owners, and can mirror the attractions of local efforts. But once having destroyed its competition, secured it captive purchasers, the chain store is simply part of a huge mass-market enterprise, which can merge at any time with other unrelated enterprises, and which need not be responsive to local values, concerns, or employment, ever again.

Adrienne Rich
Santa Cruz, CA

cc: Capitola Mayor Tony Gaultieri
Members of the Planning Commission

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