Babbit"s Bookstore and babbette to close in Normal

Jake Glass
  through the years I have loved visiting the old musty books of Babbit's in downtown Normal and being denied many times by the owner Babbette whenever I tried reselling books. Babbette is the black cat that prowled the area leaving its scent mark all over this store and now after six years Babbette decided it was tie to move on. Babbette and its owner Brian Simpson are either looking to close the store or find a new buyer for this location in order to keep it as a second run book business which it has been since 1990. one of the more disturbing trends in the transition of downtowns all over the Midwest by politically connected crony developers has been the rush to tear down old buildings and destroying independent businesses such as Babbit's books. In suburban Chicago and Milwaukee huge Condo complexes with empty store fronts that were ostensibly suppose to have businesses underneath predominate in many areas making the area looking oversized and under performing in servicing a community with downtown walkable retail. many of these stores are huge expensive fitness centers or doctor offices giving nothing of a unique community or business environment for shopping and this is disgraceful. Everything is about the profit and perhaps no town is worse that Itasca's neighbor Roselle, Illinois in this part. As far as one of my college towns Norman, Il . I have confidence they will never go in this direction with all the college students and business opportunities having twenty thousand students but I have seen many college towns that no longer even have a independent bookshop yet alone a Barnes and Noble. I loved this store because it was a mess and huge fire hazard but this black cat Babbette couldn't give a shit. She would look around and wonder what all these humans were looking at and marveled at our stupidity of crouching down on a dirty floor to read and decide if a book was worth the trouble of purchase. Whether tis cat Babbette can find a new owner for another beloved animal in the community to roam about and greet and get to know its diverse customer base that made this the most well known downtown business.