About David Kobe

Posts by David Kobe:

Business, news No Comments

Despite the ‘Shift to Thrift,’ Some NYC Vintage Stores Are Running Ragged

By

(Photo via @woodensleepers/Instagram)

On July 6, Wooden Sleepers, a destination men’s vintage store on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, announced it would be closing. 

“When I opened the shop on March 15, I didn’t realize it would be the last time,” Brian Davis, the store’s owner, wrote on Instagram. “I figured Covid-19 would pass and I could get back to business as usual. Fast forward 4 months and here we are, still closed.”

While Phase 2 of New York City’s reopening plan allowed in-store retail to resume June 22 under certain mandatory guidelines, Davis felt that his roughly 400-square-foot couldn’t meet the social distancing criteria. And with a newborn at home, Davis, who had been quarantining since mid-March, still had concerns about Covid-19. More →

Arts & Culture, news, Social Justice No Comments

People Are Decolonizing Their Bookshelves, But Will the Publishing Industry Follow Suit?

By

When Kalima DeSuze, founder of feminist bookstore Cafe Con Libros, opened her Instagram account days after the killing of George Floyd, she was shocked to see over 99 mentions. 

“I said, ‘What the hell is happening? What is going on?’” DeSuze remembers. “I realized that someone had sent the list out of books to read and someone then said invest your money in Black-owned business, Black-owned bookstores. My life has not been the same since.”

DeSuze’s “tsunami” of orders for books about race in America was a small reverberation felt across the bookselling and publishing industry in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. More →

Arts & Culture, COVID, Health & Wellness, news No Comments

Birders Watch Warily as Parks Become NYC’s Living Room

By

Birdwatchers in Central Park. (Photo: Ralph Hockens via WikiCommons)

Late last month, video of a confrontation between an avid birder and a dog walker in the Central Park Ramble went viral. While Twitter and the op-ed pages rightfully prioritized the degree to which white privilege, prejudice, and misplaced fear motivated the dog walker’s more than inappropriate response, the exchange also underscored long-standing tensions between birders and dog walkers in the Ramble, and sparked broader conversations about city park usage in general. That conversation has become all the more timely now that parks are playing host to massive protests against police brutality and systemic racism. More →