I'm wrapping up a five-day visit to Denver for the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting. This is the fifth Midwinter Meeting I've attended since 1999, and over time I've learned that locations are not of much significance when it comes to the meeting itself. The ALA is a large organization, and its conventions can be held in only a limited number of cities. The cities hosting such events follow a very similar pattern in constructing convention centers, with the usual crop of big-chain hotels clustered around them and all the associated businesses occupying the remaining commercial real estate. The majority of these are also outposts for large corporate chains, so you can have the experience of going to different places around the country and feeling like you're always in the same place. People who make their living in event planning will tell you I am oversimplifying and that there are vast differences in amenities, services, facilities, costs and the like from place to place, and of course they are right, but unless you're the kind of conference attendee who is attuned to such details it's unlikely you'll pay much attention to these differences. Instead, homogenization and conformity may be your chief impression.
Despite the samey character of these conference locales, there is some advantage to the organization in having a choice among them because it can dangle before each city the infusion of cash that a conference booking will bring, not only to the conference facilities but to many nearby local businesses, and so there can be competitive bidding or negotiations for discounted rates, a good thing for lowly librarians not known for commanding big salaries or working in institutions that earmark hefty travel budgets. Moving from place to place is also a benefit to those who will attend only if it doesn't mean having to travel across the country, so each year a conference is "local" to some segment of the population.
The real advantage of being in a different city, however, comes only when you get beyond the convention center's cocoon and into the city itself. Because I'm always on the hunt for cheap accommodations, I've never stayed at an official conference hotel and this trip was no exception. My hotel, about a mile and a half from the Colorado Convention Center, was on East Colfax Avenue, and the neighborhood is quite different from the one around the Center. The simplest way to describe it is as a kind of "skid row" district, characterized by a lot of low-rent independent businesses, several vacant storefronts, a sizeable population of homeless men and women patrolling the streets, and a slightly run-down character. This is not to say that it is highly distressed: unlike other neighborhoods I've known, it's got plenty of life and most of its residential buildings appear to be occupied. There are no lots filled with rubble from demolished buildings and walking the streets is not a menacing experience. The state capitol is a short distance up the road and so on some streets an evening stroll means going through places deserted after 5:00 pm because the buildings are mostly government offices, but elsewhere you get a sense of close-knit communities and struggles to stay afloat. There is even space for the arts, with at least three concert venues along a one-mile stretch.
I describe the area as a "skid row" in part because of the nature of many businesses here. There is a liquor store or bar on just about every block (in some cases right next to each other), check-cashing establishments, some charity thrift shops like the Salvation Army store, and a few places that seem to be set up as day-laborer hiring halls. On the next tier are several independent retail stores of the kind that no longer exist in my own county, including record/CD stores, book stores, video stores, head shops, and vintage clothing shops. There are also numerous hole-in-the-wall grocery bodegas and restaurants selling Chinese, South Asian, and Mexican food; and, of course, the big-chain fast food places.
Visiting some of these places, especially the independent music and book stores, reminded me once again of how much I detest what has happened to my own county over the last 30 years. Back when I was a child, the commercial sectors of Hackensack, NJ were already struggling under the pressure of their proximity to the Paramus shopping malls, but there were still numerous independent businesses in a variety of retail categories and one could experience all the things that came with the stamp of personality and difference in dealing with each one. Even the malls themselves made room for independent businesses and small chains. Starting in the 1980s, however, a succession of real estate booms in the region, the rise of big-box stores, and some very aggressive takeovers wiped out a huge number of independent retail stores. In losing them, we lost people with strong ties and commitments to our towns and became subject to the decisions of corporations with headquarters thousands of miles away, people who could care less about us and what we wanted. Today you can search in vain throughout Bergen County in search of independent book stores, music stores, office supply stores, and hardware stores. At the same time, independent furniture and clothing stores are also on the ropes.
Many people seem to have no regard for what is lost when small local businesses give way to massive corporate chains in one commercial sector after another. For the last several years my local paper has featured letters from people complaining bitterly over the absence of a Starbucks in town, as though it is some sort of hardship or insult to our status to be spared from this overpriced boutique. I frequently hear people gushing over the latest big-box store to open in their area and their willingness to drive for miles to get to it for the sake of saving a few bucks when the real cost of such businesses (including more auto traffic, more pollution, more wasted time, more precious land given over to massive parking lots that must necessarily surround such places, and the devastating impact of these stores on local businesses) is ignored. While shopping for books for my daughters in December, I was staggered at the extremely narrow range of publishers on display in the local big-box chain store (which still required a drive of several miles) ... but unless I wanted to do all my shopping online I had almost no alternatives in the region. Increasingly, one's options are limited in area after area. Nor do the social costs stop there, for as open-air, mixed-use downtown Main Streets have given way to the total control and surveillance environments of enclosed malls, where every inch of space is private property, so too have people been subjected to increasing regimentation, subliminal marketing, and less freedom and diversity. There is no freedom of speech or assembly in a mall.
The negative consequences of such narrow concentration are apparent during periods of both boom and bust. Large corporate retail giants employ many people and operate with large fixed costs - just think of what it takes to keep a hulking Home Depot open each day. When profits sag, the magnitude of impact can be far greater on a local population dominated by a few chains as thousands of jobs are lost because of a single decision. Of course, we are seeing this happen now.
The people on Colfax Avenue in Denver are not, of course, immune from the impact of an economic downturn. If anything, they may be more vulnerable to the general pressure of an economy on a sharp downward spiral. How many of the local businesses will be forced to close when the young people who go slumming here on evenings and weekends no longer have as much disposable cash? How many of those currently homeless will face greater desperation as their numbers swell and the patchwork of private and public relief agencies that now enable them to survive each day receive less support and more demand? There is little doubt that this neighborhood will be severely tested in the months ahead ... but at least not all of its eggs are in one basket, and maybe it's possible that neglect by the wealthy may turn out to offer some small advantages as it contends with the turmoil to come.
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