If that headline grabbed you, you might not want to miss this interesting stoop sale in Prospect Park. Info is here.

The Center fro the Urban Environment, a respected 30-year-old organization dedicated to green education, closed very suddenly this week. It comes less than a year after a move into an expensive LEED-approved building and many in Brooklyn are wondering why? Was it mismanagement of funds or overspending on the new building? Perhaps their closing is just a casualty of dire economic times? Were any efforts made to save the organization by local politicians or philanthropists. The Center for the Urban Environment sent out this press release earlier today, which provides few specific answers. 

After
30 years, the Center for the Urban
Environment (CUE; formerly the Brooklyn
Center for the Urban Environment, or BCUE), closed its
doors this week due to funding delays and shortfalls, and began the process of
dissolving the organization.

“We
are very proud of CUE’s 30-year history of leadership, accomplishments and
service to schools and the broader community. CUE has been at the forefront of
public education about environmental responsibility, sustainability and
greenbuilding.  We are deeply saddened
that sustaining CUE as an independent organization is no longer viable.  Funding has declined sharply from public and
private sources.  And we have just
completed a complex capital project,” explained Charlotte Gemmel, Chairperson
of CUE’s Board of Directors.  “While we
had hoped to be able to restructure and maintain CUE at a smaller scale, the
enormity of the challenge before us led to this very difficult decision.”

 “Our
best assets have always been the talented, committed and energetic professional
staff of educators, planners and activists who pioneered such dynamic programs
and taught hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and families about the
urban and natural environments around us, and it is with special regret that we
have lost CUE as the home from which they could operate,” Gemmel added.  “CUE’s board will work diligently to ensure
that its signature programs, curricula and activities find new homes, perhaps
with some of the many wonderful organizations with which we have collaborated
in the environmental education field.”

 CUE
was founded by John Muir as the Prospect
Park Environmental
Center, and for most of its years
operated out of the Tennis House in the park; it recently completed renovation
of a LEED-Gold eligible home in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

 Through
the years, CUE’s core programs sent specially-trained teachers into thousands
of classrooms all over Brooklyn and in all other boroughs to provide a wide
range of programs about environmental sciences and the urban and natural
environments for children ranging from pre-K to high school.  It partnered with a number of organizations
on charter high schools and special programs promoting environmental education issues
and practices.  For adults, it operated
weekend tours of neighborhoods and historic sites, organized public events like
GreenBrooklyn, incubated the Sustainable Business Alliance – a growing network
of businesses – and broadened its public programming in its new home. 

Brooklyn Prospect just announced their location for next year. The Sunset Park HS building.
www.mysidewalkchalk.blogspot.com

Today and every Friday in April and May from 4-6 p.m. Hugh Crawford will be in the gallery at the Old Stone House to talk about his show of photographs, Essence and Accident. There will be wine and cheese.

All the photographs are for sale.

Hugh Crawford's photographs of urban landscape, rural ground, trees and water are passionately formal evocations of the serindipitous and accidental in rural California and Brooklyn, NY. His close studies of airplanes and trees have the intricate and expressionistic quality of a Jackson Pollack. In Crawford's pictures of Coney Island in the snow, the faded amusement park is transformed into a moonscape of fake palm trees and the scrappy relics of a bygone era. His extreme close-ups of water reveal an abstract world of mood and motion that are meditative and supremely seductive.

The Where and When

Essence and Accident: Photographs by Hugh Crawford
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope.
April 1 – June 30, 2009.

Saturday April 4th at 4 p.m. Lagnado reads from her memoir The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A
Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. After the rise
of the Nasser dictatorship, her family lost its life of luxury and
became impoverished refugees. WNYC's Leonard Lopate hosts.

Stevan Dweck Center is located in the basement of the Central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

If you missed the public scoping meeting that was held on the proposed Gowanus Rezoning on March 10, 2009, at the Brooklyn Borough
Hall, you can read about the planned rezoning at the Park Slope Civic Council website.

Today Breakfast of Candidates takes a breather while I catch up on the writing. I scheduled breakfast with Josh Skaller and am waiting to hear from John Heyer. And I'm ready to make plans with  the candidates in the 33rd District although I've already met with Jo Anne Simon.

Next up:  read all about Green Candidate David Pechefsky, who worked for 10 years as central staff for  the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and experience advising local governments in Africa, David 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.

And in case you missed these:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the candidates (John Heyer beats
him on that score) but he's 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, Bob is currently
executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development
Corporation and  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, The intellectual of the group, Brad has two master's degrees and
a BA from the University of Chicago. He's 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: Craig Hammerman. As District Manager of Community Board 6, Craig is the nuts and bolts guy. He's the candidate, who understands infrastructure and really knows what its like to serve the public day in and day out for 19 years.

If  you're looking for a new Haggadah, the story, prayer and song book used during the Passover seder meal, Community Bookstore has quite a few at the front counter.  I found this article on how to choose a Haggadah at Jewcy.com

Here's the latest news from Deborah Fisher, who is organizing Bed Stuy Meadow, a seed sowing day on April 11th. If you are interested in volunteering, you can get in touch with Deborah (see below). 

Yeah. I wrote a story for the Associated Press and it was picked up by the Baltimore Sun. By line and everything.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-incentives0330,0,3213593.story

I just heard from a knowledgeable friend that the Center for the Urban Environment has closed its doors for good. Their website is down and the staff has been let go.

I know nothing more than that at this time.

The closing of this 30-year-old organization is a real loss to Brooklyn. Since 2001, Sandi Franklin ran the CUE and expanded its
programming, and cultivated new partnerships to allow CUE to become a 
leading educational guide to a greener New York City. Under her leadership, the Center relocated its headquarters from Prospect Park to 7th
Street between 3rd and 2nd Avenues in the Gowanus Canal area, where they occupied one of the first green buildings of its
kind in the borough.

Recently they launched the Sustainable Business Network NYC, worked in nearly
every school in Park Slope, established three environmentally-themed
high schools, and spearheaded Brooklyn's first and largest green
conference, Green Brooklyn…Green City.

.

Brooklyn Blogfest 2009 from Blue Barn Pictures, Inc. on Vimeo.

Milton is the name of both the band and its leader (far right), a long time performer at both Williamburg's Pete’s Candy Store and the Lower East Side's The Living Room. The latter is where the band plays Thursday at 10. Milton is a new resident of Park Slope previously having lived all over the place including Westchester, Chicago, Buenos Aires and Manhattan. Tonight the band is reunited with former Park Sloper Frank Campbell, it's former pianist, who is back visiting from London.

If you've never heard Milton, you really owe it to yourself to do so (you can listen to a few Milton songs here). Milton's music has been described as a combination of folk-rock, country, blues and pop. But do yourself a favor and see Milton for yourself. The Living Room, Ludlow off of Stanton Sts., Lower East Side (F Train to Second Ave.)

— Eliot Wagner

Essence and Accident: Photographs by Hugh Crawford at the Gallery at the Old Stone House. April 1 – June 30, 2009.

SIGN UP NOW! Workshops and Classes for the Curious, Creative Adult is a cool new workshop series at BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange on 421 Fifth Avenue and 8th Street).

Hey, I'm in it. I'm doing a blogging workshop. It's called How To Blog.

Learn how to blog with blogger Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, a hands-on workshop for anyone interested in becoming a blogger and those who already blog but need to know more. Learn from a pro the do's and don'ts of blogging.

Session 1: Introduction to Blogging. This session will cover the basics and history of blogging.
Session 2: A hands-on, make-your-own blog session. 
Session 3: Next Steps. To include a gentle critique of the blogs created and a discussion of next steps.

Three sessions: Wednesdays: 7 – 8:30 p.m. April 29, May 6, 13. And it costs $45 for the whole workshop. Sign up at BAX.

There are other great workshops, too. Playwright Rosemary Moore is teaching Process and Playwriting;  Marian Fontana is doing a memoir workshop called, Your Stories; poet Michele Madigan Somerville is teaching Conceiving a Collection; Victoria Libetrore is teaching burlesque and there's Acting with Michael Wiggins and Yoga for the Non-Profit Community with  Ani Weinstein.

That's 7500 8th graders who have no public high school to attend next year.

Right now on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Insideschools  director
Pamela Wheaton is answering questions about the high school admissions
process, and will be talking about what parents can do now to secure a seat for
their child.

Author David McCullough will join elected officials and civic activists for a rally today at 11:15 at the corner of Water Street and Dock Street in DUMBO to protest to proposed construction of an 18-story tower that will block views of the Brooklyn Bridge. McCullough, who wrote The Great Bridge, the Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge writes, "The Brooklyn Bridge is our bridge, all of us. It is a national treasure and we must do our part  as custodians. Please, let us take that responsibility to heart."

The Brooklyn Bridge, which McCullough calls a majestic and emblematic work, was designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1964. There are fewer than 2,500 buildings, structures or
sites nationwide meriting this designation. In 2007, Brooklyn's Historic
Industrial Waterfront – which includes DUMBO and Fulton Ferry Landing
– was named One of America's 11 Most Endangered Places by the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. This designation cites the risk of out-of-scale
development, saying that it would "permanently eras[e] what
makes Brooklyn special to the growing number of residents who call this
place home."

The 39th district travels its gerimandered route from Carroll Gardens to the Gowanus area, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and Boro Park. Click on this map from Gotham Gazette for a better view.

 As a twist on the Breakfast-of-Candidates concept, Craig Hammerman (pictured with architect Gilly Youner, left, and artist Sheilia White, right)  invited me to have breakfast at his apartment. "I make a pretty mean omelet if you want me to cook," he wrote in an email.

So on the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day I arrived at Craig's small apartment on the ground floor of a brownstone, where he was already at work on a rather elaborate breakfast in his cramped kitchen. As Craig chopped mushrooms and Hungarian salami I asked him where he does his grocery shopping. "Sahadi's," he told me. "On Atlantic right across from my office."

Nicely dressed in a Ralph Lauren shirt without a tie, Craig has a Fu Manchu mustache/beard and a calm, easy going style. A third-generation Brooklynite, Craig was born in1965, attended Midwood High School and studied
chemical engineering and history at Rutgers University. After college
he taught high school science in Brooklyn even though he hadn't studied biology
since high school. Fortunately, his father, a professor of life science
at Long Island University, was able to help keep Craig a  week or two
ahead of the students. He cites his mother, who in addition to being a political science professor at Long Island
University for the past 30 years, worked for former Borough President
Howard Golden (1977-2000). Craig worked at a small manufacturing firm in Queen's before going to work at Community Board 6, where he's been for 19 years. In 1993, he was appointed district manager.

Of all the candidates, Craig is the the nuts and bolts guy; the one who most knows what it's like to serve the public day in and day out. "My job is 24/7. I have visibility and accessibility. When there's an emergency in the district, whether its fire or police, I know about it. I hate politics but I love being a public servant." In that capacity he is particularly proud of overseeing the
rebuilding of  infrastructure including the reconstruction of Smith Street; his focus on recycling and sustainability efforts; and the creation of Brooklyn's first dog run in DiMattina Park.

I watch as Craig expertly pours the egg mixture into the omelet pan. When its done, he carries our plates into the dining room, where he has set the table for two with nice plates, napkins and cups for coffee. There is fresh fruit in a bowl and a pitcher of orange juice.All in all, a lovely breakfast.

When we sit down to eat, Craig puts on music, a nice selection of soft rock, including Simon and Garfunkel. His son and his fiancee are in the bedroom staying out of the way of the interview.

Over breakfast, Craig tells me that this isn't his first run for City Council in the 39th district. He ran in 2001 (against Bill deBlasio, who won the race) because he saw the job as "a natural extension of what he was already doing," he tells me. "But I was a horrible campaigner and I tried to do too much myself." 

It didn't help that primary day 2001 was on 9/11.  By the time the
rescheduled primary came around two weeks later Craig says,  "I lost my
stomach for the campaign. There  was so much to do and people needed
consistency in leadership due to the tragedy."

In the ensuing years, he never lost his desire to be a member of the City Council. In fact, he says, "I'm more impassioned than ever." But this time he's hired a professional campaign staff to help him and he's made a list of things he wants to do differently.

"Always wear comfortable shoes, take care of myself. Last time I stopped exercising and that was a big mistake," he now says. A member of the Prospect park Track Club, Craig has run 6 marathons and plans to continue running during the campaign. 

Consistency is a theme with Craig. "The only constant in the city is the community. It's the most stable element," he tells me. "The people who make up the neighborhood. They grow up here, place roots here and want a voice in government."

Topping his list of important issues is the economy and support of local businesses (or mom and pop shops as he calls them). He thinks the city made a mistake putting "all its eggs in the real estate basket." According to Craig, "a more diverse local economy insulates you from volatility."

Craig is also interested in culture as an economic engine and has proposed that an arts center go into the vacant St. Thomas Aquinas Church on 4th Avenue and 8th Street. A plan likely to excite the Park Slope Community Hammerman says: "The future prosperity of our neighborhoods depends in large part upon
supporting the cultural soul of our community. This area needs a
non-profit contemporary community arts center that pulls together and
showcases the finest our neighborhoods have to offer."

The personal is political for Craig and he speaks openly about his own personal development since the last time he ran. He's not  afraid to admit that he's been in therapy, which enabled him to "scramble my own molecules." He even underwent training as a personal coach (with the Coaches Training Institute) because he found himself mediating so many battles in the community. That training has helped him, he says, "to show people that they  have more in common than not."

As for what qualifies him to be a City Council member, Craig believes that he's the candidate, who understands government, has a passion for policy and the necessary years of practical experience on the street as district manager.

Speaking of the street, Craig practically lives on the street in his ground floor apartment. From his front window, we watch the feet of the marchers in the Park Slope St. Patrick's Day Parade, as they walk up 9th Street toward Prospect Park West and hear the pounding of the drums and the tinkling of the xylophones.

When we finish breakfast, Craig tells me that he plans to join the revelers at the grandstand.  "You can choose to live insulated or to live in a connected way." Obviously Craig has chosen to connect with his community and  the citizens that make it tick. But it's his day-to-day experience on the community government level  that speaks volumes. "Anyone who goes to work for the City Council in 2010 better know how government works," he says. Clearly, Craig knows how it works from the ground floor up. And he's ready to move on from Community Board 6 to serve the public as a member of the City Council.

I heard it on WNYC this morning:

Mayor Bloomberg and New York's senators are announcing the six infrastructure projects that will get the $261 million dollars.

The
list includes new traffic ramps for the Staten Island ferry terminal,
and a new protective coating for two Bruckner Expressway bridges over
the Bronx River. Also the boardwalk at Rockaway, I hear.

Featured on OTBKB, Park Slope's Studio Bento got a nice plug from Daily Candy, which could translate into a lot of nice sales for their cute buttons. Hope so. They also make those cute PS I Love You t-shirts, as well as the shirts that say: One FunNY Kid. The following is the blurb from Daily Candy.

"Choose from the Peace collection (peace
symbols, smiley faces, and antiwar messages) or the FunNY Kid
collections (smiley faces and NY-focused sayings). There’s also an
assortment of message tees that nail your little guy’s funky attitude
and playful sense of style."

Today on Breakfast-of-Candidates OTBKB's interview/profile
series about the city council candidates in the 39th and the 33rd
districts in Brooklyn: Bob Zuckerman.

A long-time politico, Bob is currently
executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development
Corporation and  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.

Tomorrow: It's Brad Lander's turn. He's the intellectual of the group with two master's degrees and a BA from the University of Chicago. He's made his mark running community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainability.

And in case you missed it, take a look at Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the candidates (John Heyer beats
him on that score) but he's plenty wet behind the ears and full of
enthusiasm for what he's set out to do.

Helen Levitt was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1913 and grew up to be one of the great street photographers of the 20th century. She was known for her lyrical and effusive photographs of children on the streets of Manhattan in the 1930's and 40's.  Today's obituary in the Times tells her story. Stay tuned for an appreciation from Hugh Crawford.

Nice coverage and GREAT photos by James Estrin (including the one on the right) by the New York Times of the bar raising and move/parade of tini wine bar from their old location at 414 Van Brunt Street to their new space, also on Van Brunt near the waterfront. They are now in Home/Made, the owner's home design shop.

On Saturday I decided it was time I went out to Vox Pop, the popular cafe and performance space in the Ditmas/Flatbush section of Brooklyn to see for myself what was going on. I was intrigued by the email press releases I was getting about "Save Vox Pop" town hall meetings and benefit shows  but I didn't really understand what had gone wrong at Vox Pop and why it was in need of an urgent economic bailout.

I was also fascinated that the cafe was being turned into a "for-profit collective" and that members of the community were buying shares in the place. At the heart of all this activity was a woman named Debi Ryan who had taken over for Sander  Hicks as CEO of the Cafe but had never set foot in Vox Pop before December 2008 (just four months ago).

It sounded like a story

When I got to Vox Pop, Debi was in the upstairs loft. With long brown frizzy hair, hip eyeglasses and a strong, smart face, Debi has a direct and friendly persona; she waved me up the creaky spiral staircase. Down below in the cafe, a young woman was standing on a tall ladder erasing the huge blackboard behind the counter and a tween-age boy was washing the windows. The tables had been moved outdoors to make room for the crowd expected at Saturday night's benefit show with the local band, Loom.

It didn't seem like the best time for an interview with a show just two hours away, but Debi seemed game and I started firing questions.

I asked her to walk me through how she came to be involved at Vox Pop and she obliged. As a business consultant to small and mid-sized businesses, Debi was asked by a mutual friend to come and talk to Sander Hicks, the founder of Vox Pop, about a business plan for the cafe, which was in serious financial trouble in December due to an under-capitalized new branch of the cafe at the Bowery Poetry Club.

Sander, who founded Vox Pop as a politically progressive cafe (with the hopes of franchising the idea), was reluctant to close the Lower East Side branch. Debi told Sander that she would take over the Brooklyn branch for 60 days  if he would attempt a last ditch effort to make the Vox Pop at the Bowery Poetry Club profitable. It had already become a serious financial drain on the Brooklyn cafe.

Soon after it became apparent that the Bowery Vox Pop would have to close and that the Brooklyn cafe would need new leadership to get it through its economic  travails. Sander resigned as did the original board of directors. A new board was formed and Debit took over as CEO. Soon after, Debi, who was trying to untangle Vox Pop's financial mess discovered that there was an unpaid fine to the Health Department for $30,000. Not only that: due to this the Health Department had the right to close Vox Pop down and they did just that. 

When she got to this part of the story Debi noticed that a man with a rolling suitcase had just walked into the cafe. To her horror, it was an inspector from the Health Department.

"This is the second time in 24 hours someone has been here," Debi screamed from the loft.

"I was told by my supervisor to come here," the inspector said holding a piece of paper.

"We're not selling food. We're open as a community center and a wifi space. This is the second time since yesterday that someone has come by."

Debi went downstairs and asked  the inspector his name (Lionel) and asked him for the name of the person in his office who was repeatedly sending inspectors to Vox Pop. The inspector asked to go downstairs despite repeated assurances that he would find no food down there. 

Debi wondered out  loud why Vox Pop was being "harassed" by the Health Department.

"Every 12 hours someone shows up," she said. Finally, as the inspector prepared to leave, Debi assured him that she knew it had nothing to do with him.

"Have a good day, Lionel," she told the inspector. But she was clearly vexed by these constant incursions from the Health Department.

After that,  Debi and I sat downstairs on a banquette and continued our talk. I  was curious about what happened to Sander Hicks, the charismatic visionary behind the cafe. She provided me with some history. In 2004, Sander and his then wife Holley Anderson started the cafe with seed money from the sale of Holley's family farm. In fact, the children's loft section (which looks a little like a barn) is actually from that farm. The original conception was a cafe/bookstore/performance space/community center and self-publishing mecca (called Publish Yourself) that would morph into a national franchise of political cafes.

Vox Pop was the first cafe of its kind on Corteylou Avenue and it quickly became a community destination with its decidedly progressive politics, its free trade coffee and its vegan menu. Since opening, other restaurants like The Farm on Adderly, Sycamore and other neighborhood spots have opened and Corteylou Avenue now has a growing mix of ethnic businesses, basic service shops run by longtime shopkeepers and new shops catering to the gentrifying neighborhood.

It can't have been easy for Sander to walk away from his unique creation. Ultimately it may have been the best thing for him and for the cafe. And in Debi he may have found a perfect successor to keep his vision alive. All in all, it seems a peaceful transition of power  with a  board made up of long-time Vox Poppers including Sander's ex-wife, Holley.

As for Sander, Debi told me that he has  a couple of book deals in the works and is set to go on tour as part of his Inaugurate Yourself campaign. Seems to me he personally has a strong brand as a charismatic visionary. There's even an indie film based on his life. For a guy who thinks big, that might be a better route than operating a local cafe.

So who is this Debi Ryan, the angel behind Vox Pop's resurrection? Indeed, she wears many hats. Prior to 9/11 she worked as a paramedic and a health care educator. Since 9/11, she has devoted herself to running small companies and helping non-profits prosper. She is also actively involved in the movement to save Coney Island and helps with fundraising for the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Museum and Coney Island USA.

But since walking into Vox Pop and meeting Sander Hicks on that fateful December day she's done little else but strategize about the future of Vox Pop. 

She (with her board) also came up with the plan to turn Vox Pop into a for-profit collective. That means that people can buy shares in Vox Pop; more than 175 people have already done so. Employees also have shares but they will also be paid for their labor. I assume that if the cafe makes money, the shareholders will, eventually, receive dividends.

In the last weeks, this plan has raised close to $65,000 to help Vox Pop pay off its $30,000 debt to the Health Department, 4 months of back rent to the landlord and whatever else will get them out of the red. 

On Saturday night there was a benefit concert and there have been two town hall-style meetings attended by many in the community.

Spending an hour with Debi, I could tell that she's a passionate organizer with strong skills in business. I wondered if she'll be able to make a living wage doing this when she could be off making the big bucks running a profit or non-profit company.

"I'm not going to get rich having money," she told me. I liked the sound of that and wrote it down as she continued.

"I like to make a difference. That's what we're all here to do. They don't have to be big changes, but changes that help people."

So how will Debi's Vox Pop differ from Sander's? Clearly, she wants there to be more consistency in the programming.She gives me a rundown of what she has in store:  Monday will be jazz night. Tuesday is for blues
and blue grass. Wednesday night is movie night with a special emphasis on young filmmakers from Brooklyn College and the Kings County Film Society. Thursday is all about Wellness, which will include workshops with practitioners of yoga, acupressure, nutrition, pediatric medicine. Friday and Saturday is devoted to a strong line up of music and Sunday night, Debi preserves the great tradition of the Vox Pop Open Mic, "which is considered one of the best open mics in the city," she said.

Debi also hope that the politics at Vox Pop will be more inclusive and a little more broad. "Vox Pop means voice of the people, all of the people." She also hopes to broaden the selection of books and ideas. "But I still only want to carry self-published books. That's important and  they need a place."

In addition to making the politics more inclusive, Debi wants to inspire people to make Vox Pop an open forum for ideas. and a place where local artists can exhibit their work with one caveat. "They must be willing to run one workshop for the community as part of the show."

At this point in our conversation, a woman walked in carrying a  baby in a Bjorn. She told Debi she wouldn't make it to that night's benefit but she wanted to make a small contribution and gave her a crumpled up $5 billl. Debi thanked her: "That's what it's all about," she said. Other people walked in who had no clue that the cafe had been closed down for weeks and wasn't serving coffee or food.

"Too bad," they said. "I  always like to stop in here when I'm in the neighborhood.

"We should be opening up again soon," Debi told them as they went on their way.

In the middle of the night this email from Debi Ryan, CEO of Vox Pop, arrived with this great news.

I love to hear about the trajectory of people's  lives and how they
came to do what they are doing. That's why it's been so interesting to
talk one-on-one with the democratic candidates for City
Council in the 39th district for OTBKB's Breakfast-of-Candidates
series. I also wanted to learn more about these people who are
asking for our votes. What are they all about? What are they like to
have breakfast with (for that matter what do they eat for breakfast)?
Most importantly, should they get my vote for the City Council?

 Bob Zuckerman, the only gay democratic candidate for the City Council in the 39th District, was 11-years-old, when he went door to door for democratic presidential candidate Senator George McGovern in East Orange, New Jersey. When he tried to slip some leaflets under the door of a spooky looking house, a fierce dog went ballistic.  "I hid underneath a parked car as this German Shepherd came after me; at that moment I wondered if this is worth it," he laughs.

Well, it certainly didn't keep him out of politics for long.

Born in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey, Bob was raised by a dad who was a small businessman and a mom who was a homemaker and later an insurance broker. Bob is quick to point on that his mother was born and raised in Brooklyn.

 As a kid, Bob worked the cash register in his father's sportswear shop and unloaded merchandise at the warehouse. He attended Newark's Weequahic High School, as did his dad, whose fellow classmates included Philip Roth and Allen Klein, first manager of the Beatles. 

But the big influence in Bob's life was his grandfather, who was active in democratic politics. "I was indoctrinated at a young age,"  he says. Bob remembers election night 1968 when Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey. "It was a bad day and I stayed up late."

In college he studied business administration and minored in political science. He went to law school straight after graduation  because an adviser told him "it's a good degree to have whether you practice or not."

Engaged to be married to his college sweetheart, he clerked for a Superior Court judge and a Civil Court judge. Later he worked for a firm that specialized in securities law and realized that it wasn't his cup of tea.

This created a crisis in Bob's life. He was 28-years-old and for the first time he wasn't sure what he wanted to do or "who I was as a person." That's when he realized that he was gay.  It wasn't that he was in closet, he explains, "just didn't know."

After that everything changed. And in his professional life he knew he wanted to "sink his teeth into the things that have an impact on community, the state, the nation and the world," he said. He also remembered "how much I loved being involved in public issues that affect people's lives."

Cut to Bob almost 20 years later sitting in Sweet Melissa's in Park Slope talking enthusiastically about his hopes for Bill deBlasio's City Council seat. He orders quiche and salad and tells me about his current role as executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community
Development Corporation and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, with their focus on smart development, affordable
housing, strategies for cleaning the Gowanus,
and creating new parks along the waterfront. Until recently he served as President of the Independent Neighborhood
Democrats, a progressive Democratic club. .

Prior to that, Bob was  Executive Director of the Greenwich
Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. He has also been Executive Director of the New York
Nightlife Association, a trade association representing the hospitality
industry, and served as Assistant Director of Development for the LGBT
Community Center in New York. He also spent years working as a campaign manager for various political campaigns in New York and New Jersey.

Clearly Bob has leadership qualities and is a menchy guy. But politics is in Bob's bones and he has some "big ideas" he wants to present to the citizens of the 39th district.

Bob believes that small business is the life blood of Brooklyn's economy. During these tough economic times, he wants to see the city invest in non-profits that will funnel cash flow loans  to keep small businesses afloat.

Another idea: There should be tax incentives for landlords to sell their retail space to shopkeepers as condos. Reason: it's much easier to survive as a local business if you own your own place of business.

The environment is another priority for Bob and he wants to use stimulus money to bring green industry to Brooklyn, specifically the Gowanus Corridor.

He's also a proponent of residential parking permits. His idea: car owners would have to pony up $10-$20 a month to have a car. "Cars are a luxury," he tells me. And the money from the permits would go to fund a community jitney, to make it easier for citizens to get around without cars.

As for education, Bob has an unusual idea. He'd like to see a charter school modeled on the operating methods of t he Park Slope Food Coop. "Encouraging parents to work 3 hours a month – in the office, in after school programs, coaching."

I told Bob to be careful about that idea. "People are touchy about the Food Coop," I think I told him. 

Bob also believes that the City Council should be a full time position. "A salary of $112,000 is a full-time salary. It's enough money not to need a second job." Currently, the City Council is considered a part-time job. 

Bob didn't skip a beat when I asked him about his heroes: "Harvey Milk because he was encouraging and courageous before it was popular to be out. He had tenacity, he was inspirational, Jewish and from the New York area." Then he mentioned Barbara Boxer, "who speaks truth to power and is a Brooklynite." And then his partner of 11 years, Grant Neumann, a playwright and publishing executive. "He's kind, supportive and I couldn't do this without him."

I thought that was sweet. And in general, I appreciated Bob's enthusiastic and unguarded personality. By the end of brunch, I felt a bond with Bob and was excited about  his candidacy. He's been in politics all his life and he strikes me as a creative leader with interesting ideas, who is eager to serve the people of the 39th District.

Deborah Fisher had an idea. If you could get a bunch of people together to "throw seeds" in Bed-Stuy one spring morning you could bring wildflowers to the vacant lots, the tree pods and the streets of that neighborhood.

Well, she actually took this out of the realm of an idea and made it into a reality. The project is called Bed-Stuy Meadow and there's information about it on the website 21st Century Plowshare. Planting is just two weeks away on April 11th and there are 90 confirmed flower planters.

She even has a few sponsors, including Lab 24/7, where there will be an after-party with lunch on the 11th! If you are interested in volunteering in Bed-Stuy do the following according to Deborah:

Vox Pop, the coffee house/bookstore/art gallery/music venue located on Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park/Flatbush, has been having big financial problems for some time now. It seems that the old leadership has resigned and Debi Ryan, a new CEO, has taken over. Ryan is trying to pay off the cafe's old debts, reorganize the cafe as a collective, and find a way for this beloved local institution to stay afloat financially.

Last Sunday, there was a town-hall style meeting at Vox Pop about its future survival (there will be another one tomorrow). Started four years ago and spearheaded by a visionary entrepreneur by the name of Sander Hicks, Vox Pop provided a space for the community to meet in a neighborhood that was fast gentrifying. There was nothing like it in that neighborhood at the time. However, since Vox Pop, opened,
several independently owned restaurants and bars have opened up along Cortylou Avenue more are moving in every day.

The founders of Vox Pop had a vision of a politically progressive coffee shop franchise and they wanted to expand rapidly. Last spring,
in an effort to expand, the board at that time decided to open a second
Vox Pop at the Bowery Poetry Club. That is now seen as a strategic mistake. The second store did not have the long term capital to keep going and their financial problems dragged the Cortelyou Road Vox Pop deep into the
red over the past year. A wise decision was made to close the Bowery Poetry Club location.

Mired in debt, the Brooklyn Vox Pop tried to get out from under their unpaid bills. One of the debts that was left unpaid was to the Department of Health, which
refused to renew their permit and closed them down in February. Since then, the old Board of Directors and the Officers of the
Corporation have all resigned. I suppose that means that Sander Hicks is no longer involved and his vision of a political cafe franchise.

But there is energy in the ashes. Debi Ryan has taken over and has been furiously trying to raising money to keep Vox Pop open. With tremendous help from the community, Vox Pop has raised well over half of the debt that they owe. .

But there is still an urgent need to raise the rest of the money before the end of the month; Vox
Pop has exactly two days left to do it.  Today I got word that there will be a benefit tonight (Saturday March 298th) to raise money for Vox Pop in its dire time of need.

TONIGHT,
March 28 at 8 pm THE LOOM will be headlining a benefit show at Vox
Pop. The Loom is a folk and Americana-influenced indie rock sextet from
Brooklyn. You can get a feel for them here http://www.myspace.com/theloommusic

Tomorrow, Sunday,
March 29nd at 4:00 pm at the Vox Pop Café, there will be aother Save Vox Pop  Town Hall meeting.