I think I know. It’s the boys and girls who just couldn’t sit still in class, who were suspended from school repeatedly for getting involve in high-stimulus activity like schoolyard brawls and midnight vandalism. Or it’s the boy who pores over cake design books in the privacy of his own room and the girl who builds bonfires and throws knives just for fun. The ones who end up making a living as a chef have to sacrifice the kinds of regular hours with family that most of us take for granted. While we’re playing, they’re working their tails off.

Most chefs are not on TV. They’re working anonymously, usually behind closed kitchen doors. They rarely hear how good the food is - servers usually don’t deliver the news unless it’s bad or the customer actually said, “please tell the chef this was delicious.” They get satisfaction from a job well done, from completing 180 covers in a night without any serious meltdowns, from getting the kitchen sparkling again by 1:00 in the morning instead of 2:00. In most cases, it’s not coming from the paycheck, which is pretty modest for most people cooking the food you eat. For many, cooking is the only job where they can be physically active, create works of art, work on a team in a nearly military environment, and satisfy some of the most basic needs of their customers: to eat good food.

Some chefs are teachers. Some are working in schools, some are teaching newcomers on the job. Most chefs are also constantly learning. They have to, to keep up with the demands of a rapidly changing industry. In our family, we owe a debt of gratitude to the many chefs in the Syracuse area who taught our son, kicked his butt when he needed it, put up with his cocky attitude, and let him try new techniques on real customers. Having an exciting, demanding job to go to, even when he was just a dishwasher, kept him out of the most serious kinds of trouble his friends were dabbling in. He worked under men, and a few women, who, one way or another, taught him the ways of the work world. I wish more kids could get this kind of hands-on experience in the company of working adults.

When we first moved to Eastwood four years ago, Mike Capozzi was working at Friends Diner on James St. I remember sitting at the counter, watching him cook up dozens of eggs for hungry customers. He had a particular rhythm to his movements, almost a dance, that just didn’t stop. In this day of virtual everything, it was a delight to watch someone crafting something physical, at top speed and literally for hours.

We saw Mike the other day, over at the New York Style Diner (535 E. Brighton Ave., Syracuse, 315-214-3303). Alas, he was cooking where we could barely see him. But he came out to chat. We’d seen him the night before at the Palace where he was serving the sliced roasts at Kate Clark’s wedding. He invited us to check out the diner, and I’m glad we did. They have some super breakfast offerings on a very extensive menu. I sure do wish there was a place on James Street where we could watch Mike cook again. I know, we have Steak & Sundae just outside of Eastwood, but it’s not all that easy to walk there. It’s not in the heart of Eastwood any more.

One addition to my dream Eastwood diner: superior coffee to go along with a superior breakfast. (Diner owners, take note! People will pay extra for a really good cup of coffee, but your staff has to know how to prepare it.) There are two places in town, that I know of, where you can get really fine coffee with a full breakfast: Sugar Pearl on Burnet and L’Adour on Washington. But neither is in Eastwood. At Sugar Pearl, you will pay reasonably higher prices for vegetarian/vegan breakfasts (no bacon here!) but you will get a fabulous French press pot of the outstanding “Gimme Coffee” coffee. At L’Adour you will also pay more for the breakfast itself - again, reasonably, because this is truly fine dining, and the coffee from Freedom of Espresso is quite good.

Maybe until we have a diner on James St. we can talk the folks at Steak & Sundae into carrying Eastwood-roasted Cafe Kubal coffee. What do you think?

The tragic fire suffered by our neighbors some weeks ago will affect its survivors for the rest of their lives. So that they might be assured of our care for them, we ask that you go out of your way to buy as many of these bracelets as you can in support of the Mia Sgroi Education Fund.

Bracelets are $2 (or more if you like) and can be purchased at the Palace Theatre or at Sacred Melody Bookstore in the Eastwood Plaza. Each bracelet has both children’s names on it:

Does everyone love Cafe Kubal coffee? Of course not! We’re a big diverse city with lots of people who have a diversity of taste in… well, everything! And that’s great. But if you haven’t tried coffee at Cafe Kubal, you’re missing a treat that can be different every time you go in. They continue to develop new drinks, improve on the old ones, and bring in new beans. Making the leap from the fairly dilute coffee that is typically served at an average Syracuse restaurant to Cafe Kubal’s coffee drinks can be a bit of a stretch. Some of the drinks are quite strongly flavorful while others are considerably more subtle. So when you go in, let them know it’s your first time. Tell them what you normally like to drink, and see what they suggest you try first. If you’re considering brewing their coffee at home, discuss with them the best ways to bring out the flavor of these beans. Sometimes a simple adjustment to you usual method will surprise you with a more pleasurable coffee at home.

Cafe Kubal and its Roasteria and Cupping Lab are both located at the Eastwood Plaza, 3501 James St., Syracuse, NY. The cafe’s summer hours are Mon-Fri 6:30am-6:00pm and Sat 8:00am-2:30pm. The Roasteria is open from 9-5 M-F.

Their newest beverage offering: Iced Shaken Rosemary Latte! They make their own rosemary syrup with real rosemary herb and organic cane juice and prepare it with a tail shaker.

Bean sale: buy one and get one half off. From 6/23-6/28 ONLY! This sale only comes around once in a while, so take advantage while you can.

Agenda:

• Welcome and introductions
• Syracuse Public Art Commission
• Chamber of Commerce
• Sunnycrest Parks Association
• Eastwood Neighborhood Association
• Beautification Committee
• Public Works Committee
• Neighborhood updates
• Neighborhoods of choice

The slide show is the first link in our History page, but you can also access it here.

But something has happened there that could sully its reputation if we don’t respond quickly and appropriately. A crime has been committed. A fellow enjoying a solitary round of golf was taunted and then attacked by teenagers. He was hit on the head with a golf flag and required three staples to close the wound. He said he would probably never return.

And that is our loss. One golfer from Cortland means an awful lot to us just now.

The easy - and lazy - response is fear. It takes no thought, no plan, no cognitive effort to react with fear. Goodness knows, we are taught by the media, the politicians, the drug companies, to simply react with fear. But I’d like to propose a different reaction: compassion.

Now I’m no bleeding heart! I feel that a pragmatic response is the best one, but let’s define our goals first. Most of us would like to live in harmony with our neighbors, including the young people who did something that was very, very wrong and will not be tolerated here. So how do we create that harmony? How do we show compassion in the face of violence?

Communication: to the golfer, to the kids, to the parents of those kids, and to the public in general. And what might our message be? I’ll start with some ideas, but would love to hear some more in the comments here.

1. Mr. Pendergast (the golfer), I would like you to come back to Eastwood. I would like, personally, to buy you a cup of some of the finest coffee in the Northeast, right here in Eastwood. I’d like to know more about how you’re feeling about what happened the other day. But mostly I’d like you to know that Eastwood is overwhelmingly very nice people.

2. Kids… Wow, did you mess up! You probably know that. You may be confused about how it went that far. But you must also know that when you do stuff, good or bad, the world eventually deals out logical consequences. What goes around will come around. But your story must be a lot more complicated than just one stupid act in our park. I’d like to ask you a bunch of questions. I’d like to tell you how I feel about everyone, including you, being able to walk around Eastwood in safety. I’d like your ideas on how we can all feel safe again. Including you.

3. Parents of the kids: this must be such a hard time for you. I know… I had a really difficult kid. With the help of one federal program and a bunch of strict adults in his life, he finally got his act together. But it was exhausting raising him! I bet you know what I mean, big time. I’d like to meet with you. I’d like to think up some possible solutions to whatever it was that inspired the kids to do what they did. It’s probably tough, but I don’t believe any problem is unsolvable.

4. Eastwood neighbors: to the best of my knowledge, this was an isolated event. That golfer may have had an equal chance of getting hit by lightning, this sort of thing is so infrequent here. But let me state this clearly: in my humble opinion, this sort of thing is absolutely intolerable and we must act to prevent it happening again. My question to you: Is Eastwood worth the effort?

What are you willing to do?

The following is found in The Atlantic Monthly of May 2005, from the article, In the Footsteps of Tocqueville, by Bernard-Henri Lévy.

How does America look to foreign eyes? This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of Alexis de Tocqueville, our keenest interpreter. We asked another Frenchman to travel deep into America and report on what he found.

They Shoot Cities, Don’t They?

That a city could die: for a European, that is unthinkable. And yet …Buffalo, a city that was once the glory of America, its showcase, where two presidents once lived (and where one was shot and another inaugurated), a city that on this late-July afternoon—the anniversary, by the way, of Tocqueville’s visit, in 1831—offers a landscape of desolation: long avenues without cars, stretching out to infinity; not one good restaurant to dine in; few hotels; fake gardens in place of buildings; deserted lots in place of gardens; trees that are dead or diseased; boarded-up office buildings, disintegrating or about to be torn down. Yes, a city where you can still find some of the finest specimens of urban architecture in America and some of the earliest skyscrapers, is now reduced to destroying them, because an unoccupied building is a building that is breaking apart and, one day or another, will fall on your head. The library is on the verge of financial collapse. There are streets that seem not to have any running water or mail delivery. Even the main train station, which during the era of the steelworks was a major hub, is now only a shell, an enormous abandoned sugarloaf, with rusted metal signs, wind howling, crows flying around it, and, in big letters, The New York Central RailRoad, already half effaced…

What happened here that didn’t happen in Europe?
The Home Owner’s Loan Corporation, that’s what.

In the 1930’s, the newly-established FHA discovered it couldn’t provide a 100% guarantee for ALL new mortgages, so over the course of two years, our cities’ neighborhoods were divided into categories. Maps were colored according to which neighborhoods would get federal mortgage guarantees and which would not, with slight shadings in between those extremes. If your neighborhood was shaded green, you got 100% backing. Blue got 85%, yellow got… 15%! Guess what red got. Right. Nothing. Guess who was living in the yellow and red areas. Right again - Catholics, Jews, whites of eastern or southern European descent, people of color.

And now you know where the term “redlining” came from.

The effects of this plague our cities to this day. Given the disaster suburban sprawl is for the environment, this event from the 1930’s plagues our land, water and air, too.

Eastwood residents! Find your house on this map. Was your house in a lucky zone back in 1937?

To see the rest of the city maps and read the fascinating, horrifying details of this program, go to the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation web page provided by the excellent Syracuse Then and Now website.

Now that gasoline is pricing the use of our cars nearly into the luxury zone, living here is looking smarter than ever. An article in the Opinion section of last Sunday’s Post-Standard is not only in hearty agreement with this, it elegantly explains just what we’ve been asserting here all along at Walkable Eastwood: “Discarded and ignored in the second half of the 20th century, our green, gas-saving and money-saving older cities may well be our salvation in the first half of the 21st.”