Finally it's time for the candidates in the 33rd District to face the coffee cup of OTBKB.
My breakfast with the only woman running for City Council in the 33rd (and the 39th for that matter) was at Daisy's Diner on Fifth Avenue near 9th Street.
The daughter of a stay-at-home mom and a salesman, Jo Anne Simon, one of five children, grew up in a small house in Yonkers (with one bathroom) where, as a child, she learned the necessary art of sharing and working together.
At Daisy's Simon ordered coffee, no breakfast. At first she seemed no-nonsense and serious. Over time I've learned that she is also good humored and warm. Following her lead, I too ordered coffee, no food.
For some reason we were skittish with one another at first so I nervously launched into my questions; I knew we had a lot to cover in our one hour together.
The first in her family to go to college, Simon studied speech pathology at Iona College in New Rochelle. In 1976 she received a master's degree in education of the deaf at the Gallaudet University in Washington and began working at the Perkins School of the Blind and Deaf in Fairfax County.
It was in the classroom with the deaf, where Simon developed her passionate interest in issues pertaining to the education of those with disabilities. This was in the 1980's when the disabilities rights movement was just getting off the ground.
Simon spent many years in the classroom but at a certain point decided to move on. She pursued a doctorate in clinical psychology at Long Island University but realized mid-way that sitting in an office as a counselor didn't suit her personality.
"I wanted to be more of a participant," she told me.
Clearly, Simon is not a person who is afraid of changing course. Next she tried a job on Wall Street, a valuable experience in the business sector. During that time, Simon considered pursuing an MBA but finally decided to get a law degree.
"The law is very broad. You can do anything with it. Law as a rigor is superior to a MBA because of its broader spectrum of areas," Simon told me.
I found myself simultaneously awed and exhausted by Simon's career trajectory. She strikes me as the kind of person who is constantly refining her sense of what she wants to do and what she is capable of achieving.
I felt humbled and inspired.
At one point in the conversation I said something like: "And did you get married and have kids at some point during all this?" The feminist in me felt sort of silly about that. Interestingly it was one of the first things to come up with the male candidates. Simon didn't really take the bait and said little. I think Simon has grown children (she is in her late fifties) but she didn't mention at breakfast that she is married to Bill Harris, owner of Renaissance Properties, a real estate brokerage firm.
At Fordham University Simon studied for her law degree at night while working on Wall Street by day. Yeesh. Hanging around with Simon really makes you feel like a slacker. And it's not like she even drinks that much coffee.
After law school, Jo Anne represented a plaintiff, a law student with a learning disability, in a case about modifications for the Bar Exam. Simon won this case five time but the Bar Examiners appealed the ruling 5 times; the courts continued to rule in favor of Simon's side of the arguments.
"It was an amazing experience," Simon recollected and clearly it exemplifies Simon's characteristic determination and stamina. Even at Daisy's Diner, her mutli-faceted intensity and drive was palpable.
Many disability and education cases followed and ultimately Simon established a a specialized disability civil rights law firm in Downtown Brooklyn. She is also adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at
Fordham.
So when did Simon have time to become a neighborhood activist?
That's a good question. But as a resident of Boerum Hill in the early nineties, there were plenty of quality of life issues to get hot and bothered about. My guess is that she naturally rose to a leadership position in the Boerum Hill Association (and was president of that group for a time) and worked her way up to become Democratic District
Leader and State Committeewoman for the 52nd Assembly District
It's no surprise that Jo Anne became a strong voice in her community. Never underestimate her energy level or her passionate need to fix what she sees wrong around her. Just take a look at all the groups she is currently or has been associated with in the past (from her website):
Boerum Hill Association (1993-1999), Chair: Traffic
& Transportation and Land Use Committees (1999-2005); Atlantic
Yards Committee (2004-present), Co-founder, Downtown Brooklyn Coalition, a confederation of communities ringing downtown Brooklyn; Founding
member, BrooklynSpeaks.net, Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Friends
of Douglass/Greene Park; Hoyt-Schermerhorn Task Force, Immediate past Chair, Gowanus Community Stakeholder Group and Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition, Founding
member, Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD), an
international organization of professionals serving postsecondary
students with disabilities, President, New York Branch -International Dyslexia Association, Member, Independent Neighborhood Democrats, Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brookly, Executive Committee, 504 Democrats, the country's oldest political club focusing on disability issues, New York State Office of Court Administration, Americans with Disabilities Act CommitteChair, Committee on Legal Issues Affecting People with Disabilities, Association of the Bar of the City of New York (2000-2003)
Simon's participation with all those groups at all those meetings explains why she is so committed to the art off listening. She strongly believes in putting all parties into the same room together. "Someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."
The danger of being involved with all those groups is that her opponents can say: "Why do you support a group that _____(fill in the blank). Joanne has clearly made herself a part of many conversations. A feminist with strong progressive views on education, responsible development, affordable housing, transportation and transparency in government, she strikes me as less of an ideologue and more of facilitator and pragmatist. At the candidate's forums she's been characterized (by one of her opponents) as an equivocator about Atlantic Yards and Superfund designation for the Gowanus Canal.
: Interestingly, she does NOT articulate a stand on Atlantic Yards on her website. It does say she has signed a pledge to Uphold Accountable Development Principles and she's organized numerous neighborhood groups to "bring the community to the table."
About Superfund, it sounds like she hasn't made up her mind. "If the Superfund comes with money I'm for it," she said at a recent forum.
A project that seems to excite her is the renovation of Thomas Green Park between DeGraw and Douglas Streets (where the Douglas Street Pool is located. Simon wants to see the park reclaimed, renovated, and updated (much like Washington Park/JJ Byrne Playground). In a neighborhood where there is limited green space, that one square acre of park is well worth enhancing.
Impressive. Energetic. Smart. Pragmatic. Those words descibe Simon, who seems to be refining and improving her public presentation skills. An advocate of collaboration and giving voice to all viewpoints at the table, Simon is credible as a city leader, especially with her strong passion for education and the legal rights of the learning disabled.