Turning neighbors into investors

Vox Pop, a café and bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., now has 144 new investors — and they all live in the neighborhood.

In January, Vox Pop’s CEO, Debi Ryan, received notice that the Department of Health would pull the store’s license to serve food and beverages unless it paid fines tallying $33,000 — an amount that would force the shop to fold. The fines, which resulted from such infractions as baristas drinking coffee behind the counter and not having a manager on duty at certain times, originated in 2007 but soon escalated when the store failed to pay them, says Ryan, who took over the shop just two weeks before the Health Department issued its notice.

Instead of giving up, Ryan turned to the local community for help. Two town hall meetings and almost three months later, Vox Pop raised $64,000 from local investors. “It’s great,” says Ryan who celebrated the store’s grand re-opening in May. “Now they can say 'That’s my coffee shop’ and mean it.”

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