vox-pop-042110.jpgOh, boy. Here we go again. Vox Pop, the popular Ditmas Park hang-out, appears to be in trouble again. A year ago, the Cortelyou road coffee shop announced that it had solved its financial and managerial woes. Last night, however, we were forwarded an email by a reader that suggested otherwise. The email is posted in its entirety on the jump, but the short version is that there are still unpaid State taxes from 2006 and 2007. The shop has managed to pay back most of the micro-loans from customers though. Oy vey!
Photo from The Coffee Beaners

Here’s the letterL

Vox Pop has once again been seized by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for back taxes accrued in 2006 and 2007 while under the stewardship of Sander Hicks.

As I am sure you all remember, Vox Pop was seized just a few days before Christmas for the same reason. At that time, we raised and made a payment of $10,000 towards the 2006 and 2007 unpaid taxes in the amount of $56,000 as a down payment and were in the process of negotiating a repayment plan that Vox Pop could realistically pay. Unfortunately, the Supervisor we were working with has left the State agency, and his replacement will not be available until tomorrow. We have paid, and continue to pay our current taxes.

At this point in time we are waiting to speak with the State to determine what the appropriate next steps are. The midlevel representative from the State who chose to seize our assets today stated we must pay the complete newly assessed tax debt of $66,000 prior to reopening, but we are hoping to renegotiate with the new Supervisor.

On a more positive note, Vox Pop is proud to say that it has almost completely paid off the legacy debt to vendors, former employees and the landlord over the past year and we are optimistic that the warming weather will increse our revenue and allow us to accelerate our payments even further. Ironically, we were poised to launch our new outdoor patio cafe with table service and anticipate being able to do so as soon as we are reopened.

Thanks so much for your continued interest and support and I will fill you in on further details as soon as they are available.

Debi Ryan
Vox Pop Inc.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. IF the old Vox Pop was under the stewardship of Hicks, why didn’t they just close the “Vox Pop” that he created and made a huge mess of, and then the people that worked for him could open their own place in the same location, but without owing the state a ton of (Hick’s) taxes ? Then if they felt they owed their old vendors they could have paid them off as a side deal or something.

    This whole thing makes no sense to me.

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