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Collectively running a lefty cafe and bookstore is just not as romantic as it sounds. Vox Pop in Ditmas Park is in deep weeds; the health department shut down the food-and-beverage operation at the shop in January because of $29,000 in unpaid fines, not to mention evidence of vermin. Now the phone's been disconnected, they're three months behind on the rent, and some locals are worried that the demise of the four-year-old gathering place may signal a broader degentrification in Ditmas Park. Employee Debi Ryan explains to the Times: "There are financial problems due to—I don't want to call it mismanagement, I want to call it lack of management." Former co-owner Sander Hicks, who also founded Soft Skull Press, resigned over the unpaid fines, but it's a vicious cycle: without revenue from the cafe it's hard to raise the money to pay the fines to reopen the cafe. All this has customers like Oliver Moné deeply vexed: "This is aggravating. I like the coffee. I like the place. Dunkin’ Donuts is O.K., but this is prime stuff. I mean, I hate Starbucks. God, I hate Starbucks."
Vox Pop, Lefty Cafe & Bookstore, in Dire Straits in Ditmas Park
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I know the crowd over there, including Debi. I know a large percentage of the users here probably roll their eyes at "leftie pinko elitists" like this describes, and you might not be that far off. But it is a genuinely valid element of the community: They serve good food, offer sales space for local authors and artists, hold open-mics and music shows regularly, and even show movies by local filmmakers. It will be a shame if this place goes under.
The problem is that the former owner/operator, Sander, was a scumbag. He ignored health code violations, owed massive backpay to employees, often used the space to glorify his own interests, and cooked the books. Then he opened up an unnecessary second location in Manhattan, operating in the front section of the Bowery Poetry Club - it was a mess, but gave an excuse for him to hang out with a better class of hipster. Regulars of the BPC regarded it only as a negligible obstacle to access the stage area, and it generated zero profit.
I would hope that the many subpar inspection results would be enough to shut them down even if the fines were paid.
They are still open to the public as a gathering space, a donation jar near the door to generate a few bucks. They ask that if you consume anything like take out coffee, bring a receipt to show that it was not sold at VoxPop.
Didn't Hicks also run Soft Skull into the ground?
Check out the comment on that article by "John Doe". Hicks, in his infinite narcissism, gives a pretentious elegy for himself. I guess he sees himself as some kind of "rogue poet" version of Douglas MacArthur.
ah, capitalism by communists
Aw, this is a drag. I played a show there about a year ago and liked the laid-back vibe of the place.
Were you the gal with the guitar and Keyboard who showed up late? My friend Matt played just before you. I was the guy who slipped a phone number into your tip jar, which was admittedly (and intentionally) a dorky thing to do.
Nope, that wasn't me -- for one thing, I don't play for tips.
Well regardless of whether you do, they generally pass around an empty pitcher for tips/contributions/whathaveyou to give the performers. Unless you were part of that brief experiment to pay for musicians with a door fee.
I specifically requested that the tip jar not be passed around.
It's a good little neighborhood place. I don't always agree with their well-placed politics and the coffee was never that great but it was always more than the pod people in their headphoned laptopped invisible cube. I hope they can rally. And I say that as someone who routinely fell asleep to the thumpage from their live shows. Debi is good people.