There are several libraries in the Bronx (33 by my count). But just as a bookstore isn't a replacement for a library, a library isn't a replacement for a bookstore.
Sometimes you want to own a book, be able to write it in, tear pages out, and make it your own.
Hey, none of that! Books are sacred! You can't desecrate a book by writing in it, and Logos forbid that you rip a page out and destroy the sanctity of the text!
Or, if you're Pepe Carvalho, rip off and toss the page you just read into the fireplace.
(Some writers know how to pull strings.)
My mistake- I finished that article with the impression that there was a more general "book desert" than just an absence of small book stores.