Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Baer.  He majored in psychology and sociology at Kent State University during the turbulent 1960's and was actually attending the school when four students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. At the time, he lived with "a
bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a
conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became
aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO
form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals…so I became a vegetarian," he told me. A longtime member of the Park Slope Food Coop, Baer is also a member of the Sierra Club and has held various key positions at the city and state level. He was an early opponent of the Atlantic Yards Project and is a strong believer in community based development.

And in case you missed these from the 33rd (they're all here except for Issac Abraham):

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Stephen Levin.  A classics major at Brown University,  Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming
manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and
Congressman Sander Levin and he currently works as Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez,
who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics
taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as
many people as possible, the
importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for
the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes "that for for
every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Doug Biviano. Expect the
unexpected from Biviano, who is a civil engineer with BS and MS degrees from Cornell
University. Biviano works as a superintendent in a Brooklyn Heights
apartment building and in 2008 was a New York State Coordinator for
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich , whose politics of peace are a
strong influence. Biviano has lived the skier's life in Colorado and
sailed the Inter-Coastal Highway with his wife installing solar panels
on a boat he barely knew how to sail.

Breakfast of Candidates: Jo Anne Simon.  Her career trajectory from teacher of the deaf to disability rights attorney can make you feel like a slacker  and
wonder how she had time to become such a strong voice in community politics, the female Democratic District Leader and State Committeewoman for
the 52nd Assembly District. A proponent of the art of listening, she
believes that there's a place for all viewpoints at the table and that
"someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."

Breakfast-of Candidates; Evan Thies.
A former aide to City Council Member David Yassky, Thies also worked in
Hillary Clinton's upstate senate office and for Andrew Cuomo. Raised in
New Hampshire, public service was the family business and his
grandmother was appointed by NH governor John
Sununu to be the state's Commissioner of Health and Human
Services. Struck as a child with Fibromatosis, a chronic disease, he
was
home-schooled during the worst of his illness. When he was 11, he and
his mother wrote and passed a bill about his disease.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Diamondstone: A lover of diner food, Diamondstone runs an affordable
housing business with an emphasis on "nice spaces for low prices." He
could have made a killing in the real estate biz but instead stuck to
his principles. Affordable housing is clearly Diamondstone's passion
and through his
business he has been able to translate ideals into action. He is
also a member of three local Democratic clubs and was an early opponent of
Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. For Diamondstone, who is
openly gay and lives with his longtime partner, Joe, the rights of the
LGBT community is high on his list of
priorities. But so is the environment. As chair of the Brooklyn Solid
Waste Council he was involved with the Zero Waste Coalition and passage
of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better, Bottle Bill.

And here are the 39ers:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the 39th candidates (John Heyer beats
him on that score) but this intelligent and likable man is plenty wet behind the ears and full of
enthusiasm about public transportation and other issues that affect voters.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bob Zuckerman. A long-time politico, Zuckerman is currently
executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development
Corporation and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.  He remembers the night
Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 (he was 7-years-old) and one of his
heroes is Harvey Milk.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, Lander has two master's degrees and
a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running
community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt
Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Josh  Skaller. A former computer music composer at
Harvard, it was Howard Dean's presidential campaign that jumpstarted
his interest in electoral politics. As president of the Central
Brooklyn Independent Democrats, he learned to facilitiate dialogue  and
manage strong personalities. Running on a community empowerment
platform with a strong interest in the environment and smart
development, Josh is proud to be refusing donations from  real estate
developers.

Breakfast of Candidates: John Heyer: An assistant to Borough President Marty Markowitz, Heyer is the only candidate for City Council born in the 39th district. A
fifth-generation Carroll Gardener, his twin passions are politics and
theology. He works as a funeral director at Scotto's Funeral Home and
his knowledge of the history of the neighborhood runs deep though he is
only 27-years-old.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of
the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and
experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the
City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could
better serve the people of New York City.

Note: according to Baer, there are some small mistakes in my retelling of his bio. As I find them out I will change them.

It was like pulling teeth trying to get Ken Baer, candidate for the City Council in the Brooklyn's 33rd district, to talk about his childhood. Not because he has any secrets, it's just that Baer is awfully private for a politician.

Baer faced OTBKB's coffee cup in Cousin John's, a bakery/restaurant in Park Slope, where he ordered a three-egg breakfast and talked sparingly about his mother, who was a German Jewish refugee, his dad, who was a Harvard educated lawyer and almost nothing about growing up in Levittown, Long Island and later Huntington.

He did get a bit more verbal when I asked about his college years at Kent State during the height of the 1960s campus rebellions. In fact, Baer was attending Kent State, when four students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. 

At Kent State, Baer majored in psychology and sociology, lived with "a bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals… I didn't want to kill animals and became a vegetarian," he told me. He is still a vegetarian.

Baer got a second bachelors degree at Kent state in accounting and economics and later returned to New York to work at the Dime Savings Bank on DeKalb and Flatbush Avenue. I asked where he lived and quickly got the feeling he thought I was being nosy.

"That's what I do. I ask questions," I told Baer.

"I'm not big about talking about myself. I'm a doer," he said.

In 1972, Baer volunteered for George McGovern's presidential campaign. He also got a job as a budget analyst at the City's Agency for Child Development. Sometime later he received a mayor's scholarship available to city employees and went to Baruch College to study computer methodology.

During this time, he joined the Park Slope Food Coop, an organization that he is still a proud member of. "I became a Sunday coordinator; I deal with various strong personalities well," he told me.

In the 1980's Baer went to night school to earn an MBA and worked as an accountant at various firms. In the 1980's he also joined the Sierra Club and ran for a seat on the Executive Committee of the New York City group. He won by one vote in a fractious campaign. "I steer a center path between factions. I don't make enemies," he told me.

His volunteer involvement with the Sierra Club is, I think, the foundation of Baer's political activism. Clearly, Baer is genuinely dedicated to the core values of the largest, and most influential
grassroots environmental group in the United States, and has had various roles within the organization.

At this point in our conversation Baer had to walk over to the Food Coop to meet one of his petitioners and I decided to tag along. Once there, we sat in the busy orientation room and spoke more about Baer's work with the Sierra Club.

He told me that he is proud of his work helping the New York State state and city chapters of the Sierra Club through a very difficult and fractious period in 1999 as the result of a misguided fund-raising effort by the NYC group. Due to this mistake, the NYC group's existence was in question. Mediation, a retreat and careful resolution techniques were required to help the parties heal and realize that they needed to stop fighting and start working together again.  "To bring together a national organization when they're having problems is significant," he said.

Our conversation zig and zagged but Baer did tell me that in 1996 he decided to throw his hat into the 52nd district  Assembly race against Eileen Dugin, who wanted to introduce a bill "to allow more smoking in restaurants." Dugan died before the Democratic primary and Baer ran, unsuccessfully against Joan Millman, who replaced Dugin in that race.

"I am not a typical politico but I love meeting people, I'm out on the sidewalks, I love people and seeing so many infants and toddlers. These young people deserve a quality education."

Baer was an early opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. In 2004, he attended one of the very first meetings organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn at a local school and instantly had a bad feeling about the over sized project, which left the community out of the development process.

He continues to be an outspoken opponent of the project and has been endorsed by the highly respected Eric McClure, who runs the group Park Slope Neighbors. For Baer the overarching issue for Brooklyn and NYC are development. He believes that community-based planning must be the basis for all new development in NYC.

Baer and I walked downstairs to wait for one of his petitioners; we sat on the bench out front and I asked him to name his heroes. He thought for a long time and finally said softly, "Ted Williams. He was a great hitter. Because he was a World War II and Korean War pilot he lost five or six seasons in his prime," Baer told me emotionally. "He did it out of patriotism."

When I got home, Baer called me and told me to add Eleanor Roosevelt, JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. to his list of heroes. But I told him I was going to lead with the Red Sox hitter.

"A very domineering man, he wouldn't let anyone pick up a check. But he was a very skilled player and I admire that. A great ballplayer, a very humble, down to earth and approachable person," Baer told me.