A New York moment: 

Last week a longtime used book store on the Upper West Side, Westsider Books, announced it was closing. Locals were heartbroken: another cherished shop driven out by rising rents. You might have seen the bookstore at some point on the big screen. The narrow, dusty shop has appeared in movies like 2018’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? and 2017’s Wonderstruck.

A New York moment: 

Workers just put up the dreaded scaffolding outside of my apartment building. Under a 1980 law, passed after a piece of falling facade killed a pedestrian, all city buildings must have periodic facade inspections. Indeed just last year, two blocks from me, a huge chunk of a facade fell onto the sidewalk—thankfully injuring no one. 

LOS ANGELES—When Weird Wave Coffee opened doors between a pawnshop and a check-cashing agency in the mostly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights, its owners envisioned someplace different from Starbucks or hausfrau coffee bars. They wanted to create a cozy communal space for the community—but they didn’t anticipate that the community might not have space for them.