Our finances have reached a crisis point. This situation has been brewing for many months as our cash flow slowly dried up. To be blunt: we are unable to make our mortgage payment on time and we’ve bounced checks to some of our vendors and staff. A couple of days ago at our collective meeting we contemplated shutting our doors for good.
Part of the cash problem is that someone recently threw a pair of jogging weights wrapped with a note through the cafe's window. The note was a rant that reads, in part, "Go back to FRISCO where you belong with the rest of the fagots [sic] Before you ride back in a hemp built coffin that I am designing especially for you LSD shooting hippies."
Replacing the window will cost the cafe from $500-$1,500, says co-owner John Langley, though so far money to fix the window has been eaten up by operating expenses.
The Red and Black celebrated its 10th anniversay in 2010, mere months after garnering national headlines for asking a police office to leave the cafe.
Since then, the Red and Black fundraised to buy their building on SE 12th and Oak and turn the upstairs into affordable housing. Many of the money problems stem from that building purchase, says Langley, since they never raised quite enough money to fully cover the purchase and private loans they received to buy the place are now coming due. People can donate through the cafe's website.
"Our cash flow is really hurting. It's tight, though it has always been tight," says Langley. "Our doors are open, but that's because we're not paying ourselves."
