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LW! Author’s Talk: “We Are Staying” by Jen Rubin in conversation with Amy Harmon of the New York Times
October 15, 2018 @ 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Monday, October 15th 6:30pm-7:45pm
For eighty years, Radio Clinic (R.C.I.), a family-owned and run appliance and electronics shop, was a fixture on the corner of 98th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side. When the 1977 blackout hit New York City, looters broke into the store, leaving the shelves bare. But Radio Clinic’s owner, Alan Rubin, wouldn’t consider giving up, posting a simple, reassuring sign in his window: “WE ARE STAYING.” Then, one day in 2014, R.C.I. was gone. Another rent hike victim, it took with it many collective memories of a particular time and way of life on the Upper West Side. In We Are Staying: Eighty Years in the Life of a Family, a Store, and a Neighborhood, Jen Rubin, granddaughter of Radio Clinic founder, Leon Rubin, and Alan’s daughter, writes poignantly about life in the shop and the community. In conversation with UWS resident and New York Times journalist Amy Harmon, she shares a story of all that a family business brings to a neighborhood, and reflects on what we all lose as stores like these disappear from our neighborhood’s–and city’s–streets.
