Final chapter for Spartacus in DTES

Final chapter for Spartacus in DTES

But quirky Hastings Street book store will begin new story on Commercial Drive

IAN AUSTIN

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THE PROVINCE

  Sparta­cus is down, but not out for the count.

  Sparta­cus Books, the little coun­ter-culture col­lect­ive that could, has bucked tradi­tions and sought so­cial change for dec­ades on the Down­town East­side.

  Now the main­stay is mov­ing to Com­mer­cial Drive, pushed out as gentri­fi­ca­tion grips Hastings Street and the sur­round­ing area.

  In an age when book­stores are vanish­ing, Sparta­cus has a coun­ter-intu­it­ive busi­ness plan that has so far beaten the odds—nobody gets paid.

  “We’re all volun­teers,” said Alex­ander Daughtry, the long­est-serv­ing col­lect­iv­ist—he signed on to the non-profit so­ciety in 1976, three years after it opened.

  “Maybe I’m in a rut,” chuckled the 69-year-old, who credits his youth­ful ap­pear­ance to work­ing with a re­volv­ing volun­teer work­force of over 1,000—most of them kids.

  “Most people are about 20 years old—they come and volun­teer for a while, then go back to school or get married or get a job.”

  While left-wing activ­ism and books may both seem to be en­dan­gered spe­cies, Sparta­cus sur­vives by of­fer­ing what others can’t.

  “These are tools for so­cial change,” says Daughtry. “Unlike a store that sells just the same sev­en popu­lar novels, we carry hun­dreds of titles that people can’t find any­where else.”

  Old-school, not-for-profit touch­es abound—free pub­lic wash­rooms, free com­puter use, even a 24-hour free phone just out­side the entry.

  Regu­lar visitor Miranda de Groot makes the trip from Burn­aby because she finds what she’s look­ing for.

  “That’s why I come here—it has things that I’m inter­ested in,” said de Groot, work­ing her way among the books crowded on dona­ted book­shelves. “I can’t find these things at Chap­ters.”

  And she’s got what a good book store needs—loyal­ty—which means she’ll also be mak­ing the cross­town trek to the store’s new loca­tion at Com­mer­cial and 18th Avenue.

  “I’m not going to change—I live in Burn­aby, and it’s defin­itely worth the com­mute,” she said.

  Long a fix­ture near Vic­tory Square, the col­lect­ive’s fu­ture was dark­est in 2004, when a fire—books’ fier­cest enemy—had the group fear­ing for the worst.

  “Our con­trib­u­tion to the com­mun­ity is recog­nized by the peo­ple who sup­port­ed us when we needed it most,” says Daughtry. “We didn’t have fire in­sur­ance, so we lost every­thing.”

  Sparta­cus leaves behind a gen­tri­fy­ing block fea­tur­ing the Union Gospel Mis­sion Thrift Store, Mis­sion Pos­sible, and Tin Tin Print­ing, bound for a former neigh­bour­hood gro­cery near the Croa­tian Cul­tur­al Centre that can ac­com­mod­ate new-age, car-free readers—with a bus stop out­side and a SkyTrain line run­ning over­head.

  And an army of volun­teers pre­par­ing to move a boat­load of books across town—as always, free of charge.

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Spartacus Books, a long­time fix­ture on Hastings Street in the Down­town East­side, is being forced to leave the neigh­bour­hood.  JASON PAYNE/PNG FILES