Help Phoenix Web

Hey folxs,

Phoenix Web needs your help. We are really struggling financially, so here I am writing you the transparent history of this business, with it’s ups and downs. In turn, I’m hoping for some help.

#SmallBusinessRelief

Phoenix Web is a free, sustainable, donation based market; as well as an art collective which supplies a safe-space, performance venue, art supplies, and necessary food, home, sanitary, and clothing items to any and all in the Catskills mountains. We officially opened on May 1st of 2019, and have been working since to keep the space, and all it offers, open and thriving for our community. We recognize this is a hard moment for all, especially those suffering at the hands of systemic racism, failing health institutions, and unsustainable employment. We ask you, community, friends, or kind-hearted strangers, to learn about our story, and help us out in any way you can, whether it be a donation, a share, or committing to volunteer hours.

Folxs, this is a tale with it all; death, disease, betrayal, classism, good, evil, love, and raw perseverance! All money that you donate to us at the shop literally goes to paying the shop’s rent and bills. We are a benefit corp, not a non-profit, even though we’d like to be the latter, we can’t seem to get a group of people together who are consistent, driven, and have the time to form a board plus find a grant writer, so we must rely on $ donations until we are fortuitous enough to find those people.

This tale begins with a young lady, myself, dreaming of aiding their own community with a really really free mart. I spent several years off and on traveling around the US, and witnessed my first really really free mart in New Orleans, which is where I fell in love with the idea. I have been a life-long dumpster diver, and as a result it’s frustrated and angered me so much that so many perfectly good things end up in land fills. However, there in New Orleans I witnessed a plausible solution, however small, so I decided to bring it to my community. I began spreading word about my goal and stored donations I received or dumpstered in the loft of my old apartment, until I could find a spot to host the mart at, all the while letting friends go through the lot whenever. I ended up getting connected with the Prattsville Art Center, and for several months had a wonderful community of friends helping set up and breakdown a freemart there all in a day, every once a month, with all proceeds made during that time going to the Art Center, which was gracious enough to allow us storage. The freemarts were a hit, they often became one part of two part events, such as dance parties and space maker’s place workshops. It was inspiring, I even drew a custom flyer every month, which was a fun challenge. As it got warmer our storage was a conflict of interest with the center’s upcoming plans so we went into a brief hiatus, during which some lovely people let us store freemart bins in their spot. During this time I also began making new connections with people, who shared similar thoughts, and we began broadening the horizons of what freemart could lead to and become.

We now had formed a sort of core day dreamers crew. We would hold meetings in our homes and at local eateries, and discuss our common goals and how we could benefit the Catskills and mountain community. One of those amazing people, Kate, gave our group’s internet chat the name “Phoenix Web” and it stuck. We became Phoenix Web. We began attending local meetings, putting our energy into community efforts like revitalizing the Prattsville fire house, and contacting various establishments in hopes of finding a home to host our ideas and passions: We dreamed of a community performance space, art space, lending library, and free mart. We jumped at the offer of starting a small weekly farmers market, alongside Mossy Stone Farms on the Prattsville town green. The neighboring church let us share their garage, located on the green itself, to store free mart things, and we used both the gazebo and a crew members epic-ly large tent (temporarily) to host our freemart in. Every Sunday morning, and night, several friends would come out to help set up and tear down the freemart, (we actually got pretty buff), and we began saving donation $ for larger plans. In addition to the freemart we bought vendors insurance so other folks could come vend on the green with us. Alas people didn’t super jump on the opportunity, however, we successfully hosted two skill shares during the market, which had an attendance! During this time, and as a result of filing for vendors insurance, we became more official, with our name “Phoenix Web” officially registered. As a result we got word that we may be eligible for a hearty grant, so as the weather got colder, and with some money saved up, we made the call to look for an actual store front or building to grow a business in.

Before continuing my story I think it is important to take note that most of us people who started or aided Phoenix Web need to work regular jobs to get by, I personally work 3 different jobs, so free time isn’t something we had the privilege of having much of. Following the rest of the story you may find yourself wondering “why didn’t they do this?”, and the answer is because the business often became a one man show, and it just wasn’t possible, we needed to keep roofs over our heads, feed ourselves, or even battle cancer.

Moving forward, in 2019 we came across the most beautiful storefront in downtown Hunter, but did not receive the grant we were banking on, we didn’t look ‘official’ enough, despite our obvious passion and commitment, and despite providing free and intense community service labor. However, we were fortuitous enough to be linked up with an incredible, full hearted, creative, healer of a person who really dug our mission, and chose to donate $6000 to us to achieve our goal of creating a space. The space now offers a free store, live performances, skill shares, vending opportunities for artists, and a makers space for creating. The initial plan for the money was to pay for our start-up fees including: rent, insurance, registering as a b corp, vending fees etc, with the remaining funds serving as back up rent until we were comfortable enough to start re-granting money to artists, for things like murals, which would benefit the business by affiliation. Thus, we proudly opened our doors May 1st 2019.

Unfortunately, we anticipated we would be making more money than we had been able to, from donations, selling art, events, and membership signups. We probably would have been able to, with greater capacity, numbers, and energy. So, we became a skeleton crew, volunteers failed to show, and we didn’t have enough time or energy to remind them of the commitment they made to staffing the store for three hours, with all we were already working on to maintain the business. That’s not to say we didn’t host wildly successful events and skill shares such as: intimate musical performances, a comedy show, fire cider workshop, mask making workshop, and collage nights, amongst others. Those events and donations were keeping us out of the red, but we still weren’t generating enough to be doing and giving more. Then some of the other co-founders could no longer manage helping, so they made their announcements in November and left. It was down to Kate and I on managerial duties, a new savior of a friend stepped up to staff on Sundays, Helena, and my partner, Sword, stepped in even more to help save and mend the business. We worked hard transferring the paperwork, (we had otherwise thought was in our names), getting wifi and a landline, starting a website, staffing, paying our taxes, and managing social media. Kate helped doing all of this while battling really aggressive cancer.

A large financial hassle during this time was having to switch insurance companies, because we are not allowed to use the space without it. It became a six month battle with our landlord, the previous nameholder on the rear apartment, and our previous insurance company. We were requesting that our insurance remove the rear apartment/ the additionally insured person off of our contract, (who lived there for two months and left), and make myself the primary contact. Until that nameholder decided to leave, I had no idea that the rear apartment was listed on our insurance as part of our space. Additionally we were requesting, from the landlord, proof that the lease was transferred to my name, and proof that Phoenix Web held no affiliation with the rear apartment. In the end, all I was able to get was notarized documents of the previous contract owner, my old coworker, appointing me as the new chairperson and leaseholder, and the bank account transferred to my name. Regardless, that did not suffice for the insurance company, and that brought us to paying over $400 for new insurance to a new company for this year.

Then, on January 14th I lost Kate to cancer, well the world did really, because she was one fine fucking specimen, and god, or whoever caused it, really fucked up. Following that grand descent, my dog became very ill and was diagnosed with cancer herself in February. I lost her to that battle in early March. But wait, then, a global pandemic hits, resulting in a massive quarantine for months. We were able to stay open, because we carry a lot of the same items as essential businesses such as: food pantry, hygiene items, clean clothes, access to internet/ computer/ printer, ( and all for free!!!), but that didn’t make much of a difference, as people had to social distance and quarentine, and thus we really began to suffer financially. I applied early on for a disaster relief loan for $3800, and after several months without word, I was rejected for not looking official enough. I then to contested their rejection and sent them pretty much every paper in my possession in an effort to prove the validity of this business. I was number three million and something in line to hear back initially, so after contesting, I still have no idea when or if I’ll hear back from them. But, you know what? This business is still standing, and trying to put forth some goodness and mutual aid into this crazy world for those who need it. I’m not going to back out of this battle.

During this same winter Central Hudson switched our plan to the “on demand plan”, without nour knowledge, which was charging us an average of $300.00 a month for electric, as a result of using over 10 kw of energy in a month. (Fyi this happens to anyone who goes over 10kw, so be cautious! I am attaching a picture below the ludicrous amounts we were charged for our electric, and how much energy we were using Prior to December.) Prior to December our bill was in one of the name of a member who had left, and were going to their P.O. box instead of the Web’s. This person failed to mail the permission for me to get the info by phone or to sign for the bills, and had left the area, so after not receiving electric bills for a few months I had to sign us up again, and give central hudson another $270 security retainer. Furthermore, our heat is incredibly expensive, as we have electric heat, without an insulated basement, and a lease requirement that the heat must stay above 55 degrees all winter. As soon as the weather became tolerable we stopped using the heat and we continued to receive $300 dollar bills, which prompted another call, informing me of the ‘on demand’ status, which requires a manual switch every time the shop uses over 10kw. We are now off of the on demand plan, but if we go over 10kw again we’re stuck back on it, so ideally I’d like to move the shop somewhere else on the mountain for the winter to avoid this, but that is another conversation. Despite these challenges, we stayed open 3 days a week and were hosting collage night every Wednesday.

At the moment we owe 3 months rent ($1500), which we have, but will leave our bank account pretty bare, with about $200 in it as I’m writing this. I wish we could host programs and events with a recommended donation, or an auction, dance party, or SOMETHING right now to try and catch up, but we can’t. At the moment there is no longer any membership required to come and use our art supplies to create, and our doors are open Thurs-Sunday, with mounds of free stuff.

So I’m here doing what I do best, can you spare any change? Seriously though, if you can help us recover in any way I would appreciate it so much. This business deserves more history, don’t you think? Help us write some more. This one is for our youths.

Lastly, Black Lives Matter. Black trans lives matter. End systemic racism. Seek justice. Please consider donating to a BLM campaign in addition to mine. Thanks everyone. Be well. Respect one another.

Love Mars and the crew at Phoenix Web