It's just Walter Pecks all the way down...

Have you ever heard the expression 'sometimes helping is not helping'? No? Huh...now that I think about it, I might have just coined it. Let's just say I did. Anyway, do you know who should hear my newly minted expression? The Landmarks Preservation Commission in New York. How come? Because the commission wants to declare The Strand Bookstore in New York an historical landmark.

"Hey, we're preserving landmarks here! Forget
about it-wait, don't forget about it!"

-L.P.C. Chair Sarah Carroll

at a recent unveiling

Above: monsters.

"But what kind of monster would declare a building a landmark?" You might say. The aforementioned L.P.C, that's what kind. But I haven't actually gotten to the outrage part, so like, simmer down. Back to the L.P.C. Their stated goal is, and I'm summing up here, to protect '...New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites...' '...for the education, pleasure and welfare of the people of the City.' And all of that sounds pretty great, right? Well, here's the thing...

It does, unless you're Bess Wyden, the owner of The Strand. Wyden is pleading with the Commission to please, please, not recognize her building as landmark. Because, say it with me now: sometimes helping isn't helping.

Pictured: just another worthless eleven story
building in the heard of Manhattan. 

Seriously, nobody wants to hear about
how they didn't have turkey in 16th
century England. It's goddamn delicious. 

Recognition as an historical landmark means that Wyden won't be able to make improvements or repairs to the store without an ok from the Commission despite owning the building itself. The Commission, like that irritating pedant who takes the Renaissance Faire way to seriously, is super-into authenticity and preserving things like the architect's original intent and where possible, the materials available at the time of the building's construction. And yeah, hurray for historical preservation, but the result can be a potentially crushing financial burden for the owner.

And independently owned bookstores aren't exactly flush with cash right now. Not like online businesses like say Amazon...who after driving most bookstores out of business opened a few physical bookstores of their own. Which seems sort of like the retail equivalent of murdering someone and then wearing their skin, but then I'm not a business person.

Nothing beats the feeling of community you get from browsing an
unstaffed bookstore where algorithms make recommendations for you. 

"City government is famous for not getting
  shit done, how come this is so hard?"

-Bess Wyden

Hey speaking of Amazon, Wyden brought them up at the Commission's hearing reminding the comissioners that:

"The richest man in America, who's a direct competitor, has just been handed $3 billion in subsidies. I'm not asking for money of a tax rebate...Just leave me alone."

-Bess Wyden, shortly before producing

a mic which she then dropped to the floor

So the obvious question is why am I talking about a shop owner's fight with a municipal agency in a city I don't actually live in? A lot of it has to do with the fact that I, like a lot of people with internet access, have strong opinions about things that don't materially affect my life.

People chiming in about shit they've got no real stake in is a major, load-bearing
component of the internet. Without us, the whole thing might collapse.

Without the L.P.C. New York might
look like San Jose...what? Have you
been to San Jose? It's basically a mall.

But the other part is that as someone who works in one of the increasingly few independent bookstores in America, I feel for Wyden. The Strand's historical and cultural value isn't so much the building or the architecture as it is its status as one of the last places to get books that isn't not owned by a faceless chain or Amazon. And I get that the L.P.C. does important work and without them New York might have lost much of its character. But you'd think they'd recognize what landmark status would mean for Wyden. New York is lousy with interesting buildings, you'd think the Commission could go bother one of them.

But instead they're blundering through with their well-intentioned but likely disastrous help that isn't help. They're like a commission full of Walter Pecks about to shut down the containment grid, smugly insistent that what they're doing is what's best for the city, but tragically unable to see that all they're doing is playing right into Gozer's hands.

Yeah, I kind of got lost in the metaphor
 there, but I think my point stands.