Today starting at 10 am: The Brooklyn Book Festival is
a huge, free public event presenting an array of literary stars and
emerging authors.

The
festival, which is this Sunday in and around Brooklyn Borough Hall, is
organized around themed readings and devoted to timely and
lively panel discussions. The inclusion of top national and
international authors and new partners has expanded the festival’s
reach while continuing to celebrate and enhance Brooklyn’s contemporary
and historic literary reputation.

There's much to do at the fest: panels, speakers, readings, tables full of books. And this, which I thought sounded interesting:

I spoke to Gary Reilly, who's running for City Council in the 39th district, on the phone Friday night.

So what are the lessons learned?

What I've learned in the past year and a half could fill a book. I guess I learned that certain relationships take years to cultivate. With unions, for instance. All of your policies could be in line with their objectives but if someone has a pre-existing relationship with them that has to be weighed in as well. I guess I was naive. I'd say: I care about the same things you care about; our ideals line up precisely. Be that as it may: that's not the deciding factor. It's often the pre-existing relationships.

The highpoints?

The same week we met the matching funds deadline I got my name on to the ballot. That was very exciting. Up to then I was running a scrappy campaign with little recognition outside of Carroll Gardens.

I'm relatively new to the area having been here for five years. But I was able to build a real base of support.

What's your biggest regret:

I wished I'd hired a professional fund raising person early on. This was my first time running for office and I'm not a political person by nature. I tried to take on too much myself. It really makes such a difference to delegate.

Another regret: I had to keep working as a lawyer, making money while I was running campaign.

There were things about campaigning that were hard for me. I am uncomfortable sending pictures of myself to people. I am more comfortable saying who I am and what I stand for. But I loved going out and talking to people. Each time you can have a conversation about things I care about and the voters care about is valuable.

What do you now know about the 39th district that you didn't know before:

There are different parts of the district, the demographics, the scale of buildings, the use of transit. In different parts of the district there are distinct differences. Each area has a vibe. There are even rivalries between one neighborhood and another. I know Carroll Gardens very well and had spent a decent amount of time in Park Slope but limited time in Kensington and Borough Park .

Are you glad you did it?

 I am more proud of the work I put into this campaign than anything I've ever done in my life. I got to know good people and I am involved with the community in ways I wasn't before.

If you lose what next?

On Wednesday win or lose, I am going back to being an active neighborhood organizer working on the things that I care about. I will support the winner of the primary. I made a real point of trying to make the campaign about the issues. I never wanted to make it personal. Whoever wins has a lot of work to do for this district.

Your takeaway?

This experience will make me a stronger activist and advocate. This campaign has been an amazing collection of learning experiences and relationships. I hope to be more effective as an advocate. I hope that more people will pick up the phone now. They won't say "Who is Gary Reilly?" They'll know this is a person who is serious about what he's doing.

I was going to speak to Josh Skaller on the telephone but he decided to come by instead.

"I didn't think I could handle one more cell phone conversation," he said as we walked up the stairs to my third floor apartment. 

I cleared space at my dining room table, pushed away the laundry and the breakfast dishes, and asked Skaller what were the highlights of his campaign for City Council in the 39th district.

"The volunteers keep showing up. They believed enough in what we were doing to work very hard. That was inspiring. I made many great new friends.

What did you learn?

The realization that you don't control the story. There's the stuff you want to talk about and the stuff the media wants to talk about. Sometime it becomes about their concerns.

Were you able to communicate your message?

I worked really hard to get my reform message out. It can be difficult to make reform matter to the voters. It's not emotional. It's a little removed. People have lives. They don't spend their time following Clarence Norman around.

I think we were loud and clear about development. We really shifted the dialogue to the need for real change in the way that developers do their planning in our communities. There has to be community participation. The community needs a strong, loud role.

What is the difference between you and Brad Lander?

I have a lot of respect for Brad. But we are different. I come from an activist mold. I am capable of standing up directly for issues and articulating them in a forthright way. I did that with the Superfund issue and the DiBrienza slush fund at the beginning of the campaign.

I was outspoken about the Atlantic Yards early on. And so were many
people. But good luck finding a politician back then who was.

I think it's important to represent the community in the way that  most accurately represents the views of the community. And there's wide spread consensus about things like Superfund, Atlantic yards.

Regrets?

I regret that there were those cribbed sentences
in that press release It was very embarrassing. And I abhor that sort of
thing on so many levels. Intellectual property and all that.

What about your so-called lack of experience?

I don't buy the lack of experience argument. I have a lot of experience running democratic races, political clubs. I have different experience in the private sector, delivering projects on time.

I gave myself  a lot structures going into this. This race was not delivered to me. There were no large donors. I don't owe any political favors to anyone. I have a lot of independence.

That said, I am very proud of those who support me: Chris Owens, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, a great reformer, the reform clubs, CORD, Park Slope Neighbors, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

I did not solicit support from places I was not comfortable. Not from developers and I didn't solicit support from Dov Hiskind in Borough Park. He can deliver votes but we don't see eye to eye.

Your takeaway?

I have a lot more respect for people who do this.

Polticians?

Yes. It can be easy as an activist to villify politicians. But it's hard to do this. When you speak your piece, people try to drag you down. It takes guts to stand up and say it. I want to continue to stand up for the things that I believe in.

I asked Bob Zuckerman, who is running for City Council in the 39th district, some questions in an email about what he considered highlights and low points of the campaign. I asked him about lessons learned. This was his free flowing response.

I'm the only candidate in this race focusing on
how to bring jobs back to Brooklyn and how to re-open our closing storefronts. 
I’m running to help the mom and pop shops on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, not
the big corporations on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  I have a plan to help small business owners
purchase their storefronts so they aren’t subject to escalating rents. 

 In the next few years, we have the chance to
improve our environment and our economy at the same time.  I want to create New York’s first Green
District around the Gowanus canal – bringing in thousands of new green jobs in
alternative energies, and serving as a model for sustainable development and
design.

Speaking of the environment, I will fix the
parking mess and the congestion that’s choking our streets by creating a
borough-wide residential parking permit plan that will allow residents to find
parking near their homes.  The money from
the permits would be reinvested into new transportation alternatives, including
free shuttle buses for our neighborhoods. 

 You hear a lot of talk about reform these days,
but I'm the only candidate in this race with the ideas, passion, and know-how for
bringing real reform to City Hall.  I was the first candidate in the race
to organize against the extension of term limits – calling a press conference
for all City Council candidates at City Hall — the first candidate in the race to call
for making City Council a full-time position, and the only candidate with who
will bring the City Council to you with a mobile office that will visit a
different neighborhood one night a week. 

I asked Brad Lander, who
is running for City Council in the 39th district, some questions in an
email about what he considered highlights and low points of the
campaign. I asked him about lessons learned. I also asked Lander: For many readers who are trying to decide between you and Josh: can you articulate the true difference between the two of you?

Not yet. This one is hard for me. I know I have to make a decision. But like many voters I like all the candidates for one reason or another…

I always get tongue-tied when people ask me who I am supporting for City Council in the 33rd district. I have been following that race closely since May and I even interviewed all the candidates (except Issac Abraham) in my Breakfast-of-Candidates series. 

So far three of the five busy candidates for city council in the 39th have taken time out of their busy campaigning schedules to weigh in on some final questions from OTBKB.

Josh Skaller sat at my messy dining room table and waxed reflective and thoughtful. Hugh even got pictures.

Gary Reilly and I spoke via cell phone while he was resting at home for the first time in days. It's been a long campaign and Reilly has learned a lot in his uphill fight to win the seat.

Brad Lander responded insightfully to my questions via email.

I  am still waiting to hear from Zuckerman and Heyer.

All this and more later today on OTBKB.

Who knew that national poltical figures would be weighing in on our local city council races? First we had Howard Dean endorsing both Josh Skaller and Brad Lander in the 39th.

Yup,  both of them.

Then Senator Chuck Schumer endorsed candidate Stephen Levin in the 33rd. That was on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Even Carly Simon decided to put in her two cents and endorsed the very likable Bob Zuckerman in the 39th!

Now, a former Presidential candidate and U.S. representative, Dennis Kucinich, will be endorsing Doug Biviano in the highly contested race
for the 33rd City Council district.

The Congressman and his wife will be arriving for a
formal endorsement that will take place at 11:00 AM on the steps of
Biviano’s campaign office at 89 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Biviano worked for Kucinich's campaign in 2008. He had this to say:

Read my  Breakfast-of-Candidates with Biviano where he talks about the influence of Denis Kucinich. Here's an excerpt:

"I learned from Kucinich to put a human
face on politics. Iranians are beautiful people. They love their
children. If you start from there, put a human face on it, it's
different."

1) Get an emergency supply kit.

2) Make a family emergency plan.

3) Be information about the different types of emergencies
that could occur and the best responses to them.

It is important to engage your readers and all New Yorkers
in becoming better prepared for emergencies in their homes, business and
schools. Toward that end, we encourage you to write about Ready New York on
your site and share the following easy-to-use social media tools in your post:

* Ready New York City campaign website: www.readynyc.org /
www.listonyc.org

* Ready New York City widget that you can embed on your site
and share: http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/8gBY8e6WFwrKex14

The widget includes video messages from Commissioner Joseph
Bruno of the New York City Office of Emergency Management and American Red
Cross in Greater New York CEO Terry Bischoff as well as links to news and
information about the campaign.

The Names 

  The Ratner Arena

And subsidies.

From the Home section of the New York Times:

"Ms. Sohn was referring to the
stereotype of the overprotective, militantly organic, so-called
helicopter mom. Looking around the playground, there appeared to be a
few in attendance.

“If you went to Pierrepont Playground in the
’70s, when I was there,” Ms. Sohn, 35, said, referring to the Brooklyn
Heights neighborhood where she grew up, “the mothers sat on the
benches, and let kids work things out. If you come here, you see
parents on the structures. There’s a quickness to intervene. Shouldn’t
we allow some degree of ‘Lord of the Flies’?”"

Need I say more? And how come I just heard about this production at BAM.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Ratner has scrapped the airplane hangar design and has opted instead for the clamshell pictured to the left.

Gatemouth of Room 8 in a comment to OTBKB complains that I am  extremely naive—even delusional—about the Lander Der Blatt ad.

He suggests that it was actually a member of Lander's campaign, who placed the ad in Der Blatt as part of the effort to win votes in Borough Park, a community of conservative Hasidic Jews of the Satmar sect.

Okay, I am taking my rose colored glasses off, Gatemouth. You and others are saying that Lander tacitly allowed the ad by looking the other way when a campaign member by the name of Fleisher (with strong ties in Borough Park) placed the anti-gay ad in Der Blatt???

Omigod!

Sure, Lander is running hard for the votes in conservative Borough Park, as is John Heyer, who is against same sex marriage and abortion. Clearly, Heyer's conservative social views are more in line with Borough Park's Jewish community.

But Brad Lander is a liberal who openly supports gay marriage and abortion. His views on Israel are progressive. He is a member of Kolot Chayenu, a Jewish congregation in Park Slope, with openly progressive views about Israeli politics. Here's what it says on their website:

Ellen Lippmann, the rabbi at Kolot Chayenu, is a lesbian for Chrissakes.  

So why would Brad Lander look the other way? Is he that desperate for votes? I guess that's possible.

 Is it that he has learned to play the game required to win votes in Borough Park? Also possible.

According to Gatemouth, the answer is yes:

So, can you ever trust politicians?

I was hoping so. Back in the spring of the City Council race, I was impressed with this intelligent—and principled—group of individuals, who had decided to run for Bill di Blasio's seat. I now understand that what it takes to win a political race in NYC (and probably everywhere) requires a lot of "playing the game."

Indeed, functioning in the NYC City Council also requires playing the game. Sadly, from what I've learned, life in the City Council is largely about slush funds, pandering to the council speaker, and scratching the backs of the powerful.

I suspect that what it takes to win a race is similar to what it takes to succeed in the City Council. That's why it's important to vote for someone who at least works hard to stay above the toxic and sometimes corrupt frey of NYC politics.

Okay. Rose colored glasses off, I am mulling over what this all means. Here's my question. If you are a politician: How do you run for office without playing the game? Is this sort of thing endemic to being a politician? As citizens, are we, too, supposed to look the other way as our candidates—and politicians—look the other way.

I hope not.

While Gatemouth says that it is unlikely that  Lander personally authorized or had knowledge of of the contents of the ad, he does say this:

If any of this is true, I agree with Gatemouth that  Lander must publicly dismiss Fleisher from his campaign ASAP, "using the strongest possible terms, or be held accountable for what appeared."

If none of this is true, that Lander has no idea who placed the ad in Der Blatt, I rescind my charge that even a smart, right-thinking candidate looked the other way when a member of his campaign "played the game."

Which of the candidates running for City Council in the 39th is least likely to play the game? It might not be considered smart politics but it is the higher road to take in a city rife with compromising political thoroughfares. 

City Council Candidate Bob Zuckerman, who is running in the 39th district of Brooklyn to replace Council Member Bill De Blasio, released the first animated advertisement ever used in a New York City Council race.

That's an interesting milestone.

The ad, which has a funny opening with animated characters based on Brad Lander and Josh Skaller (I'm sure they can take a joke) arguing and flinging attacks at one another. The animated ad was a joint project created by Zuckerman and Andrew Arnold, a political animator based in Washington, DC, takes a humorous, lighthearted look at this competitive City Council race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FenENwlM4aw

Everyone says that the one year anniversary of a parent's death is tough. And they're right. More than anything I feel a dull ache; a sad recognition that I'll never be with my father again.

Looking at the picture of him I posted yesterday that I took at the New Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September 2007  makes me sad. There is so much of my father in that shot: the  way he looked at art; the fun we had at the museum after those chemo sessions on the Upper East Side; all the good times we had visiting museums and galleries together.

He was a great appreciator  of art and culture; he was ever so fun and funny to be around.

NYC just isn't the same without him. Browsing the New Yorker and the Arts and Leisure section's art and music listings I feel a dull ache. No one to say: Hey look who's in town; look what's at the opera; how's that show at MOMA? 

Even watching TV, I can't run to the phone and say: did you see that on The Jim Lehrer Show? Or How'd you like that performer on American Idol? Yes, he enjoyed American Idol and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. 

What can I say. My Dad was cool, fun, and great to be around. And now he's not around.

At the cemetery yesterday we sat on the steps of the family masoleum. I read aloud Emily Dickinson's poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death (my dad liked Emily Dickinson).

My sister read the last page and a half of The House at Pooh Corner. And then we all recited the Kaddish together in English. You're supposed to have a minyon (ten people, sometimes men in that Jewish sexist way) but we're not religious anyway.

All of us said said a few words and we had a few moments of silence.

Driving home from the cemetery, past the Unisphere and the old World's Fair grounds I remembered what Hugh had said standing next to a tree on the tiny lawn of the masoleum.

"I have a long list of things I want to talk to Monte about." 

Here are Scott Turner's endorsements for Mayor, City Council and Public Advocate. These are strictly Scott Turner's  views and not the views of OTBKB. Keep that in mind, folks. I haven't decided whether I am endorsing. though I probably will. Good to hear Turner's thoughts, of course.

Greetings, Pub Quiz Voter's Guide Perusers…

Because New York is so unlike anywhere else — doing all it can to ignore the vast majority of New York that's exactly like everywhere else.  The big election day is a week from today, September 15th.  The Primaries.  With republicans numbering in the very tiny numbers, it's the Dems' primaries that are often the final say.

With that in mind, we present the Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz 2009 Voter's Guide.

It's different from most Voter's Guides:

1. It's the opposite of "comprehensive."
2. There's little spelling out of our reasons for endorsing a certain candidate — though, our myopic one-track-mind view of Brooklyn (rhymes with Fat Tantric Bards) would have something very large to do with it.
3. Sometimes more than one candidate get the nod, as in "one of these would rock."
4. Only races we have the vaguest idea about are included — i.e., it's a short list
5. This is only about the Dems.  There are fabulous Green Party
   candidates gearing up for the general election in the fall.  Keep an
   eye on them, since, really, a two-party-only system isn't that much
   more democratic than a one-party system.

Brooklyn's 33rd City Council District: Ken Diamondstone, Ken Baer, or anyone else named Ken.  Diamondstone and Baer are straightshooters, excellent AY stance, and environmentally sound

Ken Diamondstone, Ken Baer

Brooklyn's 35th City Council District: Letitia James. 
The bravest politician in NYC these past five years, speaking the truth
to power.  Her chief opponent is bankrolled by Forest City Ratner.

Letitia James

Brooklyn's 39th City Council District: Josh Skaller.  Hands down.  When you say "why can't we ever get somebody good
into office?", it's Josh that you're wishing for.  Smart, brash,
compassionate and uncompromisingly principled, Josh is it.  Also, an
elected official whose name sounds like a scrubbing pad is nothing to
sneeze at.

Josh Skaller

Public Advocate: Norman Siegel.  Also hands down. 
Siegel is a fighter, and won't let the office atrophy like Betsy
Gotbaum, the current PA.  Bill de Blasio is a leaning tower of
Bloombergian accommodation and Mark Green bundles the worst aspects of
"liberalism." Eric Gioia ripped Con Ed a new one for the Queens
blackout a few years ago.

Norman Siegel

Comptroller: who knows?  Here's the one not to
vote for: David Yassky.  Brooklyn has gotten soaked from Yassky's
Schumeresque fence-sitting.  All of the candidates in this race are
part and parcel careerists, blandishments, exaggerators,
moustache-wearers, maybe-child-sweatshop workers and
money-from-real-estate-developers takers.

Mayor:  Tony Avella.  Tony Avella.  Tony Avella.  Tony Avella.  Tony Avella. 
How many times can we say it?  Avella's the one.  You hear all the
candidates say "I'll stand up to special interests."  Avella has, with
no regard for his political career.  Avella surfs on The Right Thing To
Do wave, constantly coming to Brooklyn from Queens to support Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's
fight against the Atlantic Yards projects.  There a politicians blocks
away who won't do that.  Forget about "electability."  Choose the one
you believe in.  If you love New York City and wanna stop it's
out-of-control careen down the Bloomberg Road to Ruin, vote Avella.

Tony Avella

Of course, in the general election, a
three-way tilt between Avella, the Rev. Billy Talen and Bloomberg would
be a death-cage match for the ages.  In that race, we'll go with the
Two out of Three Ain't Bad option, with the Moneyed Mayor no longer
mayor

Sadly, it seems pretty clear that someone associated with one of the
other campaigns or some kind of political entity is
working pretty hard to attack Brad Lander (candidate for City Council inthe 39th district) with a wild and crazy fake ad
in a Yiddish newspaper and weird emails (with plenty of mispellings)
about his appearance on the Dov Hikind Radio show. Hikind is a assemblyman in the 48th district which includes Borough Park (part of the 39th).

Even Gatemoth, who doesn't much like Brad Lander, has decided that the "Media Watch" attack email was false. I could have told him that and I never even listened to the radio show. But Gatemouth listened to the radio show in question online and came to his own conclusions.

Today Gatemouth eats crow and writes on Room 8: 

My dad died last September 7th at 4:15 p.m. I was with him when it happened. He
was in hospice in the sunny living room of his 27th floor Brooklyn Heights
apartment with its view of the Manhattan skyline he adored.

For most of the day he moaned softly. At 3:45 or so, my sister
played one of his favorite records, scratches and all, on the
phonograph: Kinderszenen or Scenes from Childhood by Robert Schumann.

I know he loved that piece because just three weeks before we listened intently to this LP in his bedroom.

Just before he died he took three labored breaths. But there was no fear, no panic in his eyes.

Monte Ghertler, legendary advertising
copywriter and creative director, author, songwriter, connoisseur of
art, literature, music, philosophy, birdwatching, opera, and
thoroughbred horse racing, died peacefully in his Brooklyn Heights home
on September 7, 2008 surrounded by loving family members.  Devoted
husband of Hillary, father of Louise and Caroline, father-in-law of
Hugh Crawford and Jeffrey Jacobson, grandfather of Henry and Alice
Crawford and Sonya Jacobson, Cousin of Joan Fisher and former husband
of Edna Ghertler, Monte leaves behind many family, friends, and
admirers who will never forget his way with words, his intellect and
many interests, his love of books and music, his great sense of humor
and his irresistible personality.

Photo of my dad taken by me at the New Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September 2007.

I got this note from Tricia Vita, administrative director of the Coney Island History Project about all the excitement surrounding the Coney Island Bell, which was raised from the ocean floor by diver Gene Ritter on September 3, 2009.

She writes: "Yesterday was just wonderful.  It was my favorite day of the entire
season. Everyone felt so happy and optimistic. After each person rang
the bell, everyone would spontaneously cheer.  I hope the bell brings
Coney Island good luck!  We're going to need it."

Oy. The City Council race in the 33rd district. From my very first candidates forum/debate at St. Francis College, I could tell that this was a seasoned group with a lot of political baggage and history with one another.

Indeed, it was an interesting, contentious and even ugly race for David Yassky's seat in a district that spans parts of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Navy Yard, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Indeed, most of the candidates were progressives who agreed on most of the issues. But their  "issues" with each other were personal, historic and much about who was controlling whom in the big picture.

—Evan Thies was portrayed as "Yassky's guy" because he worked closely with David Yassky for years. Yassky however decided not to endorse in this race. A politically motivated—and not very nice—move on Yassky's part. Thies is an independent thinker and clearly someone who is not beholden to machine politics or former mentors.

—Stephen Levin was portrayed as "Vito Lopez's guy" because he was Lopez's assistant for many years and Lopez is an important mentor as is Levin's cousin Michigan Senator Carl Levin (and Congressman Sander Levin).  Levin's ties to Lopez are deep and murky, but he does strike me as a smart guy who will grow as an independent politician over time. For an informative—and plenty opinionated—article about Vito Lopez's powerbroker politics, see this piece by Tom Robbins in the Village Voice.

—Jo Anne Simon has a long history in Brooklyn community politics and is seen as having ties to the Democratic machine. A well-respected disabilities lawyer, she is a tough campaigner who can be very divisive though she paints herself as someone who works well with everyone at the table. She managed to grab many key endorsements from Democratic clubs and even the New York Times. 

—Ken Diamondstone has major issues with Jo Anne Simon, who used to be a friend, because of her ties to "the Democratic machine." He can get plenty angry on the subject of Simon and Levin but mostly he carried himself as a genuine progressive with a very ethical core. He seems to be in politics for the right reasons — the desire to help others and make change.

–-Issac Abraham, a community leader and organizer in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg,  is at odds with Bloomberg, Yassky and many leaders in NYC politics for the way they ignore the needs of the Williamsburg community.

—Ken Baer, a leader in the Sierra Club, was also active in the fight against the Atlantic Yards and less of a political name caller.

And Doug Biviano. Ah, Doug Biviano. He was the true outsider candidate who used his campaign to formulate and articulate many important ideas about reform in city government and even national issues like war spending and healthcare. A very smart, energetic guy with interesting views, he ran a good campaign and was willing to speak truth to power and say plenty of unexpected things. I have a lot of respect for the guy.

The 33s (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.

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.