Cody’s books on Telegraph is closing. This news, sent to me by Janet Dawson, is simply mind-blowing. Berkeley isn’t Berkeley without Cody’s. Yeah yeah, they have these little satellites but Cody’s anchored Telegraph Avenue. It is a great independent bookstore, run by open-minded caring, concerned people who understood Berkeley, tolerated street people and vendors politicos and change, was where you went for everything from the newest hot thriller to the latest poetry chapbook by Julia Vinograd.

There’s a great history here, but I’m not going to rehash it. You don’t know Cody’s and you want to? Go here* and read the history of an admirable place run by admirable people. One comment in this article from owner Andy Ross is this: “The Telegraph store has been declining in sales for more than 15 years. We are now doing only 1/3 of the business that we did here in 1990.”

*http://www.codysbooks.com/news.jsp#183

Fifty years – fifty hears of books and signings, support for the community, for People’s Park for independent merchants fighting corporate greed. At a corner of Telegraph Avenue, it to me represented the best of Berkeley in so many way. Not a chain store, even when the face of Telegraph was changing and becoming unrecognizable to me, just another street in another college town with Gaps and ice cream shops with cute names. I know it wasn’t all great to have headshops but it was my village. I lived up a few blocks from there, up past People’s Park in an apartment building until I moved to Sixth Street. I bought drawstring pants from a woman with a table on the plaza outside Cody’s and a macrame watchband from another vendor. I ate the best nachos in the world on that street, and spent a good chunk of my free time at the center of the sf/fannish universe, the Other Change of Hobbit, when it was there. I bought a bentwood rocker from a furniture store on Telegraph, and still think Blake’s barbecue sauce is excellent. I worked on Telegraph too, at the Center for Independent Living. It was my home, and one of my most favorite places in the world. Despite the panhandlers and the crazies – what can I say, I didn’t mind? I found great clothes and great books and great food and great people on Telegraph. And Cody was one of the pegs that held it down.

And like so many bookstores, it’s going. The last time I was in Berkeley I went to Cody’s; I don’t actually go to lots of bookstores because I can’t afford to buy too many books. But we were staying at the Berkeley City Club aka the Berkeley Women’s Club (Julia Morgan designed it) (no kidding, go look - http://www.berkeleycityclub.com/) and were running hither and yon, so I had to hit Moe’s and Cody’s. Moe’s was the first place I ever shopped in Berkelely – years before I moved there, visiting my sister, I wandered in to Moe’s – the would have been like 1975? – and bought so many books (I don’t know that I’d ever SEEN a used bookstore before) that I had to ship them back east, back home. And I think I found that book of David Lance Goines artwork this time. And at Cody’s I found some fantastic postcards offering beautiful graphic designs of bay area landmarks. And a book or two of Julia Vinograd’s poems. (Julia’s typesetter, until he died, was the late great Dick Ellington – those of you who are s.f. fans might remember this wonderful guy. I never knew the connection until I read Julia’s poem about Dick.)

Cody’s has a little offshoot in west Berkeley and therein lie some of the most mixed feelings of my life. You see, one of the last battles I was involved with before leaving Berkeley, and politics, and Bob was the battle over the fancy-shmancy upscaling of Fourth Street. I lived on Sixth Street and we were overjoyed when a low-income housing project was built in our neighborhood. The senior center was across the street. Spenger’s had a little “take out and cook it at home window” and when we were feeling spendy, I’d go and get a couple of their kebobs for dinner. Big deal. Rich people lived in the hills. They could afford it. They could go anywhere. We didn’t want chi-chi. And we lost. We heard promises of how great it would be to have businesses nearby. Hell yes, we said, we could use some businesses nearby. How about a hardware store. A laundromat, or a place for kid’s toys? How about well, how about places that low-income folks would shop at. But we got retro diners and elegance. And yeah they have some “seconds” stores and outlets – Crate and Barrel. Dansk. I dunno that folks living in low=income housing can exactly shop for Dansk seconds. Fancy restaurants, high-end goods. It wasn’t what we wanted. It went chic. And I left.

I would rather have seen Cody’s go in ANYwhere but on Fourth Street in Berkeley. Despite the fact that Cornelia’s hometown signing is THERE tomorrow night and gods, of course I’d go if I were there. It’s just, well, there’s this weird feeling.

Cody’s. Damn. I hope it will be missed. It deserves honor.