six steps down / Book Store on West 25th street closing

and today Sunday June 22 , 2008 will be an auction of contents in their storefront six shops north of the west side market on West 25Th street. For over thirty five years Mike O' Brien and a rotating staff of helpers have served the lower West side of Cleveland quality books at affordable prices. A visible erosion and failure of the rebirth of the retail nature of this commercial strip is apparent. When Mister O' Brien opened at this location in 1979 , his commercial neighbors had a daytime face and among them were a Department store , drug stores , five and ten cent stores , hardware's , furniture stores , banks , dry cleaners , shoe stores , haberdasheries , counter restaurants , and ethnic groceries. Now this once vibrant shopping area has been yuppified to a sickening degree , and is a regular night time tangle of bars and fancy white tablecloth dining joints. Just what Cleveland , Ohio does not need . Yet another commercial strip dedicated to the tastes and fancies of the gentrified high and mighty , and their suburban kin based around alcohol and food. Bars and culinary grift joints will be the death of this fast disappearing city. Mike O' Brien has served in an unofficial capacity as the street's social worker and go to person for the many low income and mentally disturbed citizens who reside near bye. A natural social worker who lead with his heart and came across for those he served. A humble man from Louisville , Kentucky who did not leave his gentle manners at the southern Ohio border , Mike will be missed in a very large fashion. It is business's such as this very bookstore that are supposed to be the winners , not losers when a neighborhood such as the West 25Th street district near the west side market is gentrified. Not so in Cleveland , Ohio. Booze and greasy fleshpots are all the rage. Can vomitoriums be next? Literary affairs and basic civilization is in severe decline here in Cleveland , Ohio 2008 and it is with great sadness that I report this loss of a unique institution that should have been celebrated not ignored by the local hipsters and their poetic kin. More later on this subject. By the way Mister O' Brien informed me that rumour has it that another lower west side book store is planning to apply for a beer and wine license. A sardonic twist to an allready sordid west side tale.

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