It's 5:45 pm at the K& M Bar at the corner of North 8th Street and Roebling on the Northside of Williamsburg. I have traveled to north Brooklyn to attend the candidates debate (33rd district) at the Harry Van Arlberg school just one block away.

In a little more than an hour that school's auditorium will be partially filled with City Council candidates, members of the New Kings Democrats, citizens and new and old media alike.

The bar is completely empty except for a blonde bartender in a vintage dress with black framed glasses. She asks me what I want to drink.

Stella, I say.

I am waiting to meet my old friend Dewey Thompson, who lives in Greenpoint. We met back when we were both producers at  Zacks and Perrier (ZAP), a corporate media firm that is no longer in business.

Thanks to Facebook we're back in touch. He's involved in many civic organizations in Williamsburg and is commissioner of the area's children's soccer league. He is also a member of GWAPP (Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning), a group modeled on the Prospect Park Conservancy.

Dewey is boyish and tall. His face, surrounded by still blonde curls, lights with humor almost constantly and his mind is quick and interesting. When we worked together he produced the award-winning The Boy From Mars, the first science fiction film ever commissioned by NASA. It was an ambitious project and one that consumed him for quite a while.

We talked little about the old days at ZAP on Morton Street in the West Village. Instead we talked about the neighborhood we were sitting in. I'd lived on North Sixth Street back in the 1980's before the hipsters, the trendy restaurants and art galleries. The area has changed enormously since it was re-zoned and residential construction is rampant. Dewey told me that the community is fighting mad because a promised waterfront park is still a dream. Part of the proposed park area is owned by the MTA and the city didn't have the right to give it away in the first place.

In 2006 when Williamsburg was up-zoned, the City promised to create green, open space for the enjoyment of the neighborhood and the influx of new residents 

It's a prickly situation and one that got my friend agitated just talking about it. "Ask them at the debate if they're going to get that land back from the MTA. Ask them," he told me at the bar.

My friend and I both have 17-year-old boys in bands. We talked about that. And about high school and all the fun of having a teenager in the house.

Finally we did laugh a bit about our old company and some of the interesting people we knew there. I was delighted to hear that my talented friend is still in the film business and runs a company in Long Island City called Pickerel Pie Entertainment.

It was close to 6 pm when we left the bar. I had to run over to the debate and Dewey was strapping his helmet on for a bicycle ride back to his company in Long Island City.

"Our families should get together for dinner sometime," he said and waved good bye.