How Bread Stuy Didn't Die
Over the weekend the Times had a piece on how community members rallied to save Bread Stuy after it was shut down by the feds. The article looked at how people in neighborhood see the 6-year-old coffee shop as “part of the fabric of the community,” and threw three fundraisers to help its owners pay…
Over the weekend the Times had a piece on how community members rallied to save Bread Stuy after it was shut down by the feds. The article looked at how people in neighborhood see the 6-year-old coffee shop as “part of the fabric of the community,” and threw three fundraisers to help its owners pay the $10,000 they owed in tax penalties. The outpouring has given Bread Stuy’s owners both a psychological and financial boost: “Having run through their savings and being unable to leverage their home, they thought they would simply have to move back to Oakland, Calif., where they lived before coming to New York in 2000. But the generosity of the neighborhood—one woman gave Mr. Porter $25 on the street ‘for milk and Pampers,’ he said, reducing him to tears—has given the couple new resolve. ‘Every day, I am making coffee with a purpose,’ he said. ‘Like, ‘I am going to make the best cup of coffee in America.’ We’re going to make this happen.'”
Saving a Place to Bump Into People [NY Times]
Bread Stuy Seized By Feds [Brownstoner]
Photo by anonymous rose.
How could I not accept your e-handshake Benson? I’ll even go so far to say that my general antipathy towards the clergy might have influenced my position on the Green Church issue–although I STILL think I was right :-).
I got quite upset about your posts regarding MacDonough St., especially when you suggested that your Condo’s DOB problems (serious though they are) were worse than those of that elderly lady, who was forced out of her home through no fault of her own. On first reading (and, indeed on subsequent re-reading) that DID seem mean-spirited, but perhaps that wasn’t your intent.
As much as I liked the NYT article about Bread Stuy, I see your point and I’ll go so far as to agree that the Newspaper of Record’s local coverage leaves much to be desired. Even though it’s improved in recent years, the News and the Post (right-wing rag that it is) are often better on local issues.
I doubt that we’ll find much else on which to agree and I remain an un-reconstructed left-liberal who reserves the right to needle you when I think it’s appropriate. No doubt you’ll do the same with me.
No contributions towards your plumbing problems though. Yesterday I spent $160.05 to have a ball cock replaced on my ground floor toilet (aka terlet). At age 65 I find it mildly annoying to be just a little too inflexible to lie under the tank and fix it myself. Sympathy? Contributions? I think I perform as much of a public service here as Benson. If you contribute Benson I promise to give it to some lefty cause you’ll hate 🙂
omg it’s a wonderful life was like THE dumbest and most boring movie EVER!!! we were FORCED to watch that crap in grade school, and we weren’t allowed to opt out and go to the library or something!!! TORTURE!
*rob*
ROFL, wasder!
At one of the Brownstoner drinks Benson told me that he always throws tomatos at the TV at the end of “Its a Wonderful Life” because it pisses him off so much that George’s bank got bailed out by the townspeople.
Sorry, benson, but I have to disagree with the use of the word “fawning”. I didn’t see anyone here or in the Times fawning. Saying Bread Stuy is a cool place, and writing about a community supporting a business is not fawning.
I also don’t find it relevant or necessary for a reporter, or for us here to investigate the why’s and wherefore’s of their financial state. Do we look at the finances of every business we talk about, or does the Times write about the finances of every small business they choose to write a community piece on? I don’t think so. A lot of people and small businesses have both tax and financial problems. It makes them human, not potential criminals. Bread Stuy was a victim, like thousands of others, of a slow economy. If they weren’t selling a lot of goods, then they may not have had sufficient funds to pay taxes. Taxes come whether you are doing well or not. How many prominant people and huge businesses have had tax problems? If they are bailed out by us as taxpayers, or their wealthy friends, how is that different, or more honest, than being the recipient of a fund raiser? No one made those people contribute, they chose to, and that is a good thing, one of those stories that makes us think there is still good in this city, good in plain, everyday folks like us.
Even the tough guys of the old neighborhoods depended on the patronage of their neighbors, as does any business. NYC is hardly uniform in it’s thinking, and about as unorthodox as it gets. Unless there is some insidious orthodoxy in supporting one’s neighbors, which is all this is.
Beyond that, benson- this is simply your interpretation. It’s tough to be in business- especially if you’re a small business. From your posts I bet you didn’t even read the article or you would know why this guy wound up where he is. I have a hard time understanding why you think he should have just walked away-it makes no sense whatsoever. Bread Stuy is the kind of business communities like this need- and the community clearly recognized it, and pitched in to help. Seems like a very old-fashioned , positive sense of values which you now deride. But why should hard times mean giving up? I have far more admiration for people who know when to ask for help ( it’s a lot harder than you credit) and for those willing to give it. That’s what makes NYC great- people coming together to help each other.
We would contribute if you did provide a community service 😉
Folks;
WOW!
First, let me say that I am moved by Bob’s post.
(e-handshake to Bob)
Bob, you’re reading too much into my statements. While I agree that I became quite upset over the Green Church issue (and to this day, I think rightfully so), I’ve not done so with subsequent discussions. I like to be a little dramatic in my statements of objection 🙂
I don’t like the self-referential and self-congratulatory tone to this story. If folks want to help out these folks, hey, that’s fine by me (as a good conservative, I believe folks should be free to do what they want with their money).
What I object is the uncritical trumpeting of this fundraiser as evidence of just how community-minded these folks are, and of course the NYT is happy to do so, as it has become part of their daily operation to flatter their readership (which is why they made a point fo quoting a guy from the UWS).
Call it what you will, but at the end of the day Bread-Stuy is a private business. The fact that they fell so behind on their taxes ought to raise at least some questions. Do we get any such skepticism in the NYT or Brownstoner? Nope, just fawning coverage, which again, flatters their readership.
IMHO, one of the problems NYC suffers from right now is an orthodoxy in thinking about many areas of life. I kind of find this funny, because I believe what made NYC so great in the old days was a tough-mindedness that seems to have vanished.
That’s it for me today folks. I’m home having my HW heating system fixed. It will cost me $800. Anybody want to contribute, as I provide a community service to this site? 😉
Have a good day all.
Absolutely appalling to read this. Don’t those misguided do-gooders know that Park Slope is the ONLY place to invest money in local businesses? What a frakking bunch of losers to spend it all there instead of our failing Yogo Monster.