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.
THL- too true. And the reason Bread-Stuy got so much community support is because it was perceived not just as an amenity, but also an important functioning part of the community. Communities used to work like this – small local businesses were part of the community, run by friends and filling a crucial role. Maybe because they are more working class communities (I see a lot of the same feeling in CHN), and those communities are used to doing more for themselves.
maybe this place probably was decent to their employees. lots and lots of food establishments in nyc treat their employees like doggy doo-doo and pay them way less than minimum wage because they know they can get away with it.
*rob*
any details on what caused them to be behind on the taxes? I would imagine a six year run (& apparently quite popular establishment) would mean it’s a profitable biz. and if profitable biz, surprised owner couldn’t come up with the 10k or 20k to pay off the lien. if not profitable, then it would make me really question my desire to open a biz in bed stuy or crown heights – ie even a popular biz like this in a good location cant make money, how will you be able to pull it off
Get a freakin grip.
People did something nice and it nauseates you? So typical.
There’s always going to be something more important, a bigger cause, a more urgent matter. Does that mean we don’t do anything to help anyone else until the most pressing matters according to Benson’s list of ‘better causes’ are dealt with?
By all means, give us number one on the list and we’ll cease any and all giving and assistance to anything else until it’s cured, corrected and rectified.
unbelievable. They don’t get more envious than that folks.
Newcomers? Right- so sorry they wanted to do something for the community they love. I had no idea there was a seniority requirement to live or work in Brooklyn. Yet they brought more to Brooklyn than, I daresay, some of those folk who sit wallowing in their own jealousy.
Seems these owners are nice folks, and I generally agree with the sentiment that an independent coffee shop is a good “third place” and vital part of the fabric of the community.
But, as rob said, aren’t their more pressing — and important — local issues folks could spend their charitable dollars on? I guess it is not my place to tell other people how to spend their money, though, so if they want to do it helping their local coffee shop more power to them, I suppose. But did they at least get shares in the business (as the Times says happened with Vox Pop) or some potential upside, or was this purely a gift to a for-profit enterprise??
Rob;
Man, you are so right on target with this one.
Don’t you know that these newcomers are into COMMUNITY, yes, COMMUNITY, and what better way to SHOW that they are into COMMUNITY than this??? Visiting a home-bound elederly, sick neighbor just on your own? Man, that’s not going to get you into the NYT. Watching a neighbor’s kid while they attend to an urgent matter? Not going to cut it. Fundraising for a precious cafe with the cute name to demonstrate COMMUNITY – now that’s the ticket!
Simply nauseating.
You think the NYT would run a similiar story if the owner were Nick Thetapoulos who runs a diner in Bayside, Queens and names it simply “Nick’s Diner”? Not on your life. Why, they don’t have COMMUNITY in such areas. No Upper West Siders moving to there who can tell the NYT how much they love the COMMUNITY there.
ok fair, enough, that’s what i figured.
*rob*
I was addressing Rob in my last post btw. Good points, bxgrl.