A recent cross-country roadtrip confirmed to Kristi Gibson that something special is taking place in Catskill, N.Y.

Kristi, who opened Magpie Bookshop on Main Street after leaving her job as an urban studies professor, wasn’t surprised that few towns still have vibrant central streets.

“Elsewhere, it’s shocking how much civic social infrastructure is gone: banks, functional businesses, walkable streets,”she told us recently.

“People don’t realize how important they are until they’re gone.”

‘A strong sense of place’

“Catskill, N.Y. has a strong sense of place. It’s a community, it’s so easy to connect with people here. It feels especially authentic and vibrant, so alive,”she says.

Kristi deserves some credit for making it so.

Magpie Bookshop has become as much a destination for booklovers as it is for anyone interested in connecting on creative projects.

Bookshop doubles as creative hub

Concerts are a semi-regular occurrence and last week Kristi hosted Magpie’s first super club — a meal for 27 guests featuring food from local farms presented on ceramics made by a local artist.

So many visitors to Magpie are creative types that Kristi says she’s naturally inclined to introduce them to one another.

She says that in the last five years she’s noticed many more artists moving to Catskill, drawn as much by its emerging creative community as by affordable prices.

“I have 8 or 10 friends, artists, who have moved from Brooklyn,” Kristi says.

“Catskill, N.Y. is a little more casual and easygoing. I met most of them in through the bookshop. It’s become a hub for people to meet one another.”