Bye, bye Borders

It was fun while it lasted.

Note the comment from Octavia Books owner Tom Lowenburg: “I think it can be seen as a victory for New Orleans. Small businesses are the economic drivers in this city, I’m sorry to see anything close, but I don’t think that it’s a black eye.”

Does the closing have more to do with New Orleanians’ love of mom and pop shops, or the city’s 40 percent adult literacy rate? (Granted, that figure is based on 2000 Census data, and may rise now that many poor, uneducated people have been unable to return after Katrina, and the city is has experienced a “brain gain.”)