Jonetta Rose Barras, The Examiner
2008-08-11 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Scott Abel is at the cash register, ringing up customers. He seems to know them all by name: Chris, Anita and Jonathan. Others step up, books in hand, satisfaction on their faces. I know that look.

Bookstores relax the soul. They bring a certain peace, even in venues as lively as Kramer Books & Afterwords. They add a richness that can’t be duplicated by stores selling CDs and DVDs. I can’t imagine Dupont Circle without Kramers; it’s a cherished cultural institution.

Once, the District was filled with independent bookstores: Vertigo was down the street on the south side of Dupont Circle; now it’s in College Park.  Sisterspace & Books, Chapters and Olsson’s in Penn Quarters — have all closed.  Fortunately, Kramer, Politics & Prose, Olsson’s in Dupont Circle, Lambda Rising and an array of used bookstores like Idle Times, Candida and Second Story still provide a feast for the city’s readers.

 “We continue to fight the good fight,” says Abel, Kramer’s general manager, who, on this day, is at the register because a couple of staffers are out. “What has made us successful is attention to controlling what we can control. We pay attention to the books that sell and keep them on the shelves.

“The main customers are from the neighborhood and the city; that doesn’t change,” he continues, adding that in the summer, tourists come. “For the last couple of years, European tourists have increased.”

The value of the dollar hasn’t done well against the euro, so Europeans have money to throw around. New York and other major cities also have seen an increase in foreign visitors. Conversely, few Americans are traveling abroad. Many are rediscovering the United States. Kramer benefits from both trends.

It’s not just the books that bring folks to the Dupont Circle store. There’s the café. I confess to being addicted to its banana splits.

“It’s books, burgers and booze,” Abel says with a laugh. “Maya Angelou sat at that bar for a couple of hours one day after buying books.”

Dupont Circle could be a commercial for what’s best about the District: diverse population, wonderful restaurants, fabulous public transportation and a great park. I find myself in the Circle on a bench, the sun washing my face and the fountain a healing music to my ears; I marvel at the incredible mix of people sitting on the grass.

Alan Ehrenhalt, writing in The New Republic, says “urban pockets” are witnessing “demographic inversions.” People who lived in the suburbs are changing places with inner-city dwellers. It’s not about race. Rather, a younger generation fed television shows like “Friends” and “Sex and the City” finds urban centers exciting and can afford to live where they please. It’s a rearranging of cities — 21st-century-style.

Changes in the District lead me not to question Ehrenhalt’s analysis. I hope, however, that such shifts nurture — rather than destroy — existing cultural institutions like Kramer Books.

Jonetta Rose Barras, an author and political analyst, can be reached at rosebook1@aol.com.