From Publishers Weekly:
Indie booksellers throughout California are contending with mandatory evacuations, power outages, road closures, and air quality issues as fires continue to rage in the state.
The situation in Northern California for many indie booksellers can only be described as dire, with a number of NCIBA member stores being forced to close their doors–some since Saturday. Other stores are staying open, but only by overcoming huge obstacles in creative ways.
“We have had our power shut down since Saturday,” said Luisa Smith, the Book Passage’s buying director, of the retailer’s Corte Madera location. Smith told PW that some in-store events were canceled, while others were moved to the San Francisco store. “[The power] just came back on, but they say they will be turning it off again tomorrow,” she explained on Tuesday. “This is true for all the bookstores in Marin, and many in the East Bay.”
A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland responded to almost three days of power outages by both reducing store hours and selling books by candlelight. Owner Kathleen Caldwell described Sunday at the store as “a party,” with people bringing wine to sip while browsing. Although the store’s booksellers were able to ring up credit card sales using their iPhones, overall sales were down 65% on Sunday, and about 80% on Saturday and Monday.
. . . .
“We know that at least 100 booksellers have been evacuated,” Binc executive director Pamela French told PW.
Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly
With rise in wildfires, prescribed burns may be a solution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY5dSzWHpzM
THE BURNING SOLUTION: Prescribed Burns Unevenly Applied Across U.S.
https://climatecentral.org/news/report-the-burning-solution-prescribed-burns-unevenly-applied-across-us
So is a lot of California, Publishing Weakly is again looking for special snowflakes.
A few hints for CA which won’t be taken:
Controlled burns remove fuel and help reduce the chances of the big uncontrolled burns you’re now facing.
Power lines – how about no trees at all under them or within a hundred feet? I’ve seen that here in Texas, it might be grazing or cropland, but nothing that can’t easily be plowed under if/when needed. Why a hundred feet you ask? Because you have only so many cutting crews and so many miles of line. If it may be five years before a crew will have the time to visit that place again then we’d like there to be at least that much clearance.
To those whining that it looks ugly or is unnatural, wildfires are natural – stopping them is not. As to ugly, what’s uglier, a clean-cut line or a valley of ash and burnt out homes/businesses?
Bingo. Driving thru MS, AL, and GA every summer I notice 2 things: lots of forest, and lots of heat. Driving thru in winter I notice something else – controlled burns.
CA sued the power company for their lines starting fires – because of trees they weren’t allowed to cut back as far as the power company wanted to and now whine that the power is being cut off if there’s a chance of high winds.
And there is no fix because some people just can’t/won’t understand that to have some things you sometimes have to give up something else.