Queens Residents Launch Campaign To Bring Bookstores Back To Borough
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A group of women from Queens are making an active effort to keep bookshops alive in the borough.
In the beginning of January, Barnes and Nobles closed their locations in Bayside, Fresh Meadows and Forest Hills. Now, Natalie Noboa, 23, of Forest Hills, has teamed up with a few of her friends to start the Queens Bookshop initiative, dedicated to bringing bookstores back to the borough.
Noboa remembers the last day the Barnes and Nobles in Forest Hills was open. She was crying in the store.
"I've grown up here, I grew up in the kids' section reading Judy B. Jones," Noboa told WCBS 880's Stephanie Colombini.
Noboa and her friends passed out flyers to spread the word about getting another bookstore opened in the area. They are also relying heavily on social media to spread the word.
"We've always loved books, we've always wanted to do something like this," Noboa said. "We just want a community space."
The women said they aren't picky about where the new bookstore would be, but hope to keep bookstores as a place for people to work and come together.
"...There's something different about books that you just need to see them; you need to feel them, you need to open them up," Noboa said. "You need to be able to do that. And that's why this space is important."
For more information, and to get involved, click here.
