KATIE GUTIERREZ PAINTER PLANS TO OPEN BOOKSTORE IN LAREDO, TX

It will be the first since the closing of the city's only one

Austin, Texas, February 8, 2010-- Laredo, TX, with a population of 250,000 (and 600,000 just a few steps away in Mexico), is now the largest city in the U.S. without a single bookstore. The 1,200 square-foot B. Dalton, owned by Barnes and Noble, was recently closed as part of the company’s transition to “large format” bookstores. The closing was covered by such media as MSNBC, CNN, The LA Times, National Public Radio, and The Wall Street Journal—which dubbed Laredo “a poor city filled with immigrants who don’t speak English, let alone read it.”

The sting of such criticism follows closely on the heels of media reports denouncing Laredo as a breeding ground for criminal activity—drug and gang violence galore. Yet Laredo is the largest import/export hub in the U.S., and the B. Dalton was, according to its parent company, profitable.

"The truth is," says Laredo native Katie Gutierrez Painter, owner of Legacy Editorial Consulting, "without a bookstore, without a focus on the importance of reading and writing, Laredo is a city at its most vulnerable. At its most exploitable, corruptible, and defenseless. Never have I felt more moved to make a change than I do now."

Gutierrez Painter plans to open Laredo’s first bookstore since the closing of its only one—and ultimately to help raise the literacy rate in her hometown; currently, as many as 47% of adults in Webb County lack basic reading skills.

In the planning stages of her venture, Gutierrez Painter has established a blog to chronicle her efforts, and hopes to foster an online community of book lovers who support the plan. She is also planning on leveraging social media to publicize the endeavor, and is in the process of applying for grants.

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For more information, or to schedule an interview with Katie Gutierrez Painter, please e-mail her at katie@legacyeditorialconsulting.com.

09.02.2010. 04:17