Red Hook, BrooklynThe Hardware Store That Rebuilt After Sandy — and Is Rebuilding Again
Pioneer Hardware has survived two floods and one pandemic. The third flood is coming, and owner Pete Fontana is already planning the rebuild.
By Siobhan Reilly·
The Boroughs Hold the Line
From Washington Heights to Red Hook, New York's independent merchants are still here — and still fighting.
Lead Story
Brooklyn Bookshop Outlasts Its Fifth Corporate Neighbor
By Siobhan Reilly·
Word Up Books in Washington Heights has watched five chain retailers open and close around it. Owner Veronica Vásquez isn't surprised. 'Communities need roots,' she said. 'Chains don't have roots. They have quarterly reports.'
Word Up opened in 2011 as a volunteer-run pop-up. It became a full bookstore in 2013, a community hub by 2015, and a neighborhood institution by the time the pandemic hit. Through it all, the chains came and went.
The most recent casualty was a national pet supply chain that lasted fourteen months before corporate pulled the plug. Before that: a smoothie franchise, a fast-casual burger concept, a cell phone accessories kiosk, and a discount shoe store.
Vásquez attributes Word Up's survival to its refusal to be just a bookstore. The shop hosts ESL classes, quinceañera planning sessions, and a weekly reading group for Dominican grandmothers. 'We're not selling books,' she said. 'We're selling belonging.'
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Own a shop in New York?