Wife of a Liberal Senator Gets ‘Mugged by Reality’

American Thinker.com ^ | December 9, 2018 | Taylor Lewis

[Kaslin]

I feel sacrilegious for invoking such numinous phrases, but it’s hard to think of a better personal metaphor for the Strand, New York City’s iconic bookstore located in Greenwich Village. Visiting the store is its own pilgrimage for any starved bibliophile. In a world of Amazon shipping and the $.01 paperback, Strand is an oasis, offering a rarified shopping experience that slakes our need for spontaneity through the adventitious wandering of stacks. The atmosphere begs for browsing books, both old and new. It’s anonymous and crowded, like a self-contained city.

And, as everything else in our harried age, it’s in danger of going under; but, thankfully, not for lack of business. Rather, it’s meddlesome government regulators who are threatening the Strand’s financial viability.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering whether or not to designate the Strand a city landmark, protecting the store from financial marauders who want to scoop up its valuable real estate. But, in a bit of Shakespearean irony, the iconic bookstore is threatened by those charged with its preservation.

Strand’s current owner, Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of Oregon senator Ron Wyden, is not letting her liberalism balance the books. “By landmarking the Strand, you can also destroy a piece of New York history. We’re operating on very thin margins here, and this would just cost us a lot more, with this landmarking, and be a lot more hassle,” Wyden told the Commission during a public hearing.

[LRoggy]

Even better idea . . . have the city claim it under eminent domain and open a homeless shelter in the building . . . and THEN declare it a landmark

[SKI NOW]

...appealing not to the Commission’s egalitarian instincts, but to the principle of privacy. “Just leave me alone,” Wyden beseeched...

That's amusing, that a good liberal would consider that even possible. A little bit of Schaedenfreude for those hurt because of those petty tyrants.