Letters: Community still shocked, concerned about Kepler's Letters: Community still shocked, concerned about Kepler's (September 14, 2005)

Sad to see loss of Kepler's, Anderson's Chevrolet

Editor

It is sad to see both Kepler's Books and Anderson Chevrolet closing their doors in the same week as reported last week. Not only will the city lose sales tax revenue, but also residents of Menlo Park will have to go further afield for books and Chevy service; more importantly, employees and business owners at both establishments have lost jobs and investments.

However, the city should have seen this coming. Downtown Menlo Park is virtually inaccessible from either the Bayshore Freeway or Interstate 280, with inadequate two-lane roads that provide only one lane for shoppers to make their way downtown. On top of that, wending one's way to downtown from Willow or Marsh roads can't help but confuse and put off outsiders, and there are few signs to help the newcomer navigate to downtown. Menlo Park's past traffic decisions, made to limit vehicles and their speeds, have real-world consequences for downtown business.

People sometimes justify traffic calming and roads with too few lanes on the grounds that they preserve our supposed "small town feel." Small towns don't have stores like Kepler's Books, because they lack adequate population for a capital-intensive business that appeals to educated people to be successful. Take a drive and stop at some small California towns, and you can see for yourself. If Menlo Park continues to pretend to be a small town, downtown businesses like Kepler's will continue to fail.

Brian Schar

Laurel Avenue, Menlo Park

Kepler's closing a publicity stunt

What an obvious publicity stunt has been perpetrated by Kepler's bookstore. Like we don't have plenty of other sources for books in our area.

With his willing accomplices in the local media, Mr. Kepler is bent on getting his rent lowered below market rates and coaxing some others to pour money into his business. Clever. Pictures of one blubbering "customer" and a few letters to the editor of the local accomplice paper and presto, "readers mourn." Indeed!

The closing of the Menlo Park Buick and Chevrolet dealerships brings far greater hardship to the residents who own those marks. So Buick and Chevy owners of these great American cars must travel several towns away for service. Now, that is a loss to the community.

But little is said about them because they don't have the local "connection" that Mr. Kepler does.

What a ruse! I'll never shop at that crumby store again. D. Braun Woodland Avenue, Menlo Park

A tragedy for the whole community

Editor:

It's too much. There will no hand wringing by the president over the closing of Kepler's Book's in Menlo Park, but it is one of those not-so-small tragedies that affects whole communities.

This is a book-reading area, and if Kepler's can be saved, then more power to the people who not only read, but who take themselves off of their backsides and drive, walk and stumble onto the actual premise where books have been sold with enthusiasm and knowledge for years.

We need to smell the printers' ink, read new and old books, meet some of the authors, the poets and the agitators. Amazon can't provide that ambiance. Kepler's has it all including, Harry Potter. If we hope to keep Kepler's alive, we'd better believe in magic.

Trish Hooper

Portola Road, Portola Valley

Shocked by the news about Kepler's

Editor:

I learned about Kepler's closing last Wednesday morning in a phone call from my sister. She wanted me to hear it from her. She knew it would matter.

The shocking news left a pit in my stomach, disbelief and a deep sense of loss and failure. Kepler's has been a part of our family's milieu for more than 20 years. Earlier, as a teenager in the late 1960s, Kepler's was a "destination" as part of annual trips to Stanford for debate competitions.

During those visits, I discovered "A Net of Fireflies," (Zen and Haiku), Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,", Anais Nin, John Updike, The Rolling Stone and so many other sources of ideas, fiction and information.

Casual conversations gave me a safe haven to formulate my own ideas about the war in Vietnam and women's rights. Kepler's was a destination for the mind and spirit.

Over the years, our family depended on Kepler's in so many ways: The bookstore was a destination on "date night" for peaceful browsing; Saturday outings to the humor section for a "sit down" with "Calvin and Hobbes," author's nights ("She signed my book!"), and; a place of refuge for a brief respite from work pressures. Rarely would we depart without new "finds."

The bookstore and booksellers who served us so graciously gave us a sense of place: A place to be shared with family, friends and community; a place of new ideas and imagination; a place of stance taking against censorship and book burning in the 21st century.

Hopefully, our family didn't simply take Kepler's for granted. Collectively, we, along with others, could have been more diligent to ensure that our community, in the aftermath of the Internet boom and bust, would not lose the finest bookseller on the Peninsula. Unfortunately, it may be too late for diligence in this case.

We owe a deep sense of gratitude and thanks to Clark Kepler, his family and the staff who have served this community for so many years. A fitting legacy to Kepler's will be for our city leaders and community-at-large to take stock to ensure that we are creating a business development environment that will, in the face of challenging economic realities, enable community businesses to fare better.

Kepler's was a rare treasure. Mona Cross Sowiski

Menlo Park

To buy, or not to buy, from local merchant

Not surprisingly, most of us do not fully understand, or fully appreciate, the contribution of the small business entrepreneur to our community, or indeed, to our country.

These intrepid mini-venture capitalists have chosen to dedicate their careers to providing their product or service to the community. That product may or may not be unique in the generic sense, but it is unique because they are providing it in a way they have gambled will best meet our needs or pleasures. And, of course, the profit stays in the community.

Circumstances differ across the spectrum. But, often the small businessperson, although better situated to know and meet local needs, cannot achieve the economies of scale available to the large regional or national provider. All too often, the chain outlet presents itself in the form of a cookie-cutter template repeated throughout its geographic reach.

Again, often unfortunately, this may be accompanied by one-size-fits-all policies that may or may not best serve the local customer. If they do not serve well, getting them modified, updated, adapted or made an exception may depend upon a distant, nameless, uninterested executive who regards your particular need as a minor and needless bother.

Is it worth the money to stay with the local retailer? It's a trade-off. It's up to you. A dollar or two difference may not be the only element of value to you in the total mix that makes up your daily life. It will be a far less appealing environment should locally owned business become an endangered and diminishing species. Many of us have traveled across the country, visiting distant shopping venues, anxious to experience a new local subculture. Instead, we frequently find the same branches of the same stores, with the same displays and same products we find at the mall back home.

Some towns, such as Carmel, have sought to retain their appeal and individuality by encouraging local shops and discouraging the chain outlets. We may have spent a few more dollars there; we haven't kept track. Like at home, we just keep going back. We think it's worth the price.

There is a downside to the private venture. For one or more reasons, the venture may not succeed. This can result in anything from a minor setback to an agonizingly devastating emotional and financial black hole. It is heartwarming to see many hands reaching out to Clark Kepler to help him out of that hole. It can get pretty dark and lonely down there. Dean Holman

Winchester Drive, Atherton
How could I ever live without Kepler's?

Editor:

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard a brief mention of Kepler's closing on KQED radio last week, so I walked over to Kepler's and I, and many others, stood stunned as we read the notice on the door. For me, this isn't just another store closure. I feel shock and grief, as though I've been told the news that a good friend has just died suddenly.

It's difficult to make ends meet living in Menlo Park, but I've felt so blessed to have Kepler's, and Borrone's next to it. I always thought, how could I leave here? How could I leave Kepler's -- and where else would I go that had a bookstore that drew me in quite the same way? I've yet to find one in the area, and right now I feel so hurt and sad -- and angry -- that I don't want to look for replacements. There are none. I want Kepler's.

Kepler's has been such an important part of my life -- a literary oasis, a life-blood connection for this writer-wanna-be to a culture of the mind, fueled and fed with visits from so many of my literary and cultural heroes. I stood in awe watching and listening to Jane Hamilton, Houston Smith, Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris, Jane Smiley, Chitra Divakaruni, Amy Tan, and on and on, and so many more, right in my neighborhood, in a little bookstore on the corner of El Camino and Ravenswood, in downtown Menlo Park.

Add to that monthly poetry readings, writing and reading groups. How wonderful it has been to listen to my friends reading at Kepler's, to see them signing copies of their books, to see their books on Kepler's shelves; to hear the famous and those on their way up the lit ladder talking about how great it is to be back at Kepler's, their bookstore refuge during their lean writing years.

With all the catastrophes that have happened in the world and in our country, I suppose this would seem like a small thing. But for me, and I know for many others, this is a literary and cultural earthquake with long-lasting reverberations for us personally and for our community.

Kat St.Claire

Menlo Park

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