LOCAL
— Article originally published on May 7, 2012.31
Four years ago, ex-retiree James Kendrick found a counterintuitive way of getting back in the daily grind.
With the rise of digital media compounded by an economic downturn and publications diverting more of their budgets to online resources, Kendrick opened what seemed to be the last thing a revitalized neighborhood needs — a newsstand.
“I was trying to fill a void in the downtown environment, not just with the artists but with the local citizens as well as our visitors who needed periodicals to read while on jury duty, and to supplement my retirement,” Kendrick said.
Rags, located at North Broadway next door to The Crosby restaurant, looks more like an East Coast inflection, though it blends in with Downtown Santa Ana’s East Village vibe.
After 40 years of slogging through the bureaucracy of corporate America, Kendrick, more popularly known in the downtown arts district as just Jim, opened Rags International Newsstand, serving up anything and everything still considered print media, from typical cash register fodder like People magazine to rare ‘zines often reproduced in limited quantities like Poseur.
Kendrick offers a 5 percent discount on periodicals to junior high, high school and college students when they present their student I.D.
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