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Page 7, May 17, 19*3, PHOENIXMj g j:S v\\ v !PHOENIX PROFILE: Bob WittichCommunityInvolvementMarks LifeBY CORRINE COLEMANRobert Wittich%u2019s campaign, trail during his current attempt to capture Brooklyn%u2019s 29 C. D. City Council seat, differs little rom the paths he%u2019s taken all his life. The roads the reform candidate rides to talk to a tenant%u2019s group in Williamsburg, an 84th Precinct Council meeting in Brooklyn Heights, a session on the schools in Boerum Hill, are the same streets he walked when he grew up in the Farragut Housing Project near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, when he was a student at St. James ProCathedral and Brooklyn Prep., and later, when he became community organizer in Fort Greene and a Law student at St. Johns University in Downtown Brooklyn.And the basic neighborhood scenario has changed little through the years, Wittich feels. Brooklyn Heights tenants still have problems with landlords, prostitution continues in Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Clinton Hill and Gowanus, and, worst of all, the poor in all the areas are still ignored, are still without a line of communication with the officials of the city, he says.However, the reform Democratic candidate who is vying with incumbent Fred Richmond for the recently reapportioned seat feels he is in a unique position to change the long dormant scene. He cites his own low-income Catholic background out of which he is able to identify with much of the district%u2019s people. He remembers, he says, how it feels not to know where the next month%u2019s rent is coming from. He recalls the fear of walking through the unattended maze of a low-income housing project. He share as well, the street experience of the poor, and the vlue collar experience of holding taxi driver and bartender jobs.In addition, along with this gut knowledge, Wittich believes that he can bring to this area his organizing know-how, his background in leading grass root battles for better housing, job opportunities, and community health care, which he gained as a young college student in a peace corp. like program in the mountains of Mexico, and afterwards as Community Organizer for the Fort Greene Community Corporation and later, in the more specifically political efforts in the Eikenberry, Pesce, Bellamy and Lowenstein reform Democratic campaigns.%u201cPolitics is an extension of community service %u2014 the act of encouraging others to get things done,%u201d says Attorney Wittich, who began to combine the idea of service with his feeling of empathy as a student at Syracuse%u2019s LeMoyne College under the influence of poet, pacifist Father Daniel Berrigan. During this time of deepening awareness of his own background, Wittich became conscious of the circumstances of people throughout the world, and at the end of his freshman year he began the first of his two summers in Michoacan Mils Cumbres (1000 peaks) Mexico. By the end of his Sophomore year he led a group of 30, in building needed facilities from latrines to bridges, and in setting up health centers in the midst of the Mexican mountains.Back in Brooklyn during his Junior and Senior summers, Wittich, convinced of the need to transfer his leadership abilities to the problems in his own backyard, set up a youth program that brought art dramatics and modern dance to the children in Farragut. Later, dropping out of Law School, he began his term as Community Organizer in Fort Greene, leading voter education drives, organizing food clubs and pushing for police protection in addition to hisBob W ittich (C) on the Promenade w ith Assem blym an M ik e Pesce (L) a n d State Senator Carol B ellam y.welfare, health and employment efforts in behalf of the community.However, with the realization that %u201cscreaming in the streets,%u201d achieves few long-terrj results, that Congressman Rooney and other politicians respond only to a direct political challenge, Wittich decided to complete Law School and develop the skill of dealing with power at its source.Now, after serving as assistant campaign manager in Peter Eikenberry%u2019s almost-successful 1970 campaign to unseat Rooney; as campaign manager during the early part of the Lowenstein 1972 race against the same opponent, as organizer of State Senator Carol Bellamy%u2019s successful primary day operation; and as a successful defender of Senator Bellamy and Assemblyman Pesce against the Democratic regulars%u2019 attempt to overturn their primary victories, Wittich is ready to take on Councilman Richmond who he feels is not doing the job, but merely hiding behind a public relations front. %u201cRichmond doesn%u2019t walk the streets, doesn%u2019t shop in the area, doesn%u2019t worry about being ripped off,%u201d Wittich says, adding that the Councilman is beholden not to the people but to the Meade Espositomachine, which rewarded him for %u201chis cynical turnaround in behalf of Rooney in 1972%u201d (Richmond opposed the 14 C. D. Congressman during the 1968 Democratic Primary race).'though he is the reform candidate, the fact that over one-half of his petition signatures come out of %u201cnot particularly reform clubs,%u201d convinces Wittich that his strength transcends the usual lines and includes neighborhoods and people concerned with %u201cproblems of basic survival.%u201dBelieving that all the neighborhoods in the district-low , middle and upper income%u2014are united in their cynicism about the possibility of city government assistance, and on the other hand convinced that these communities basically share the same problems, Wittich plans to develop inter-neighborhood alliances and then to work according to priorities. %u201cThe Heights people must understand that crime in their area is connected with crime in other parts %u2014 that the assignment of drug centers to one area%u2014 Fort Greene for instance%u2014 promotes a crime increase in all the nearby neighborhoods. Housing and health care problemsPacker Camp W ill Hold Two Sessions This Year6 3 8 -2 0 1 0 125 Seventh Ave.I n d iv id u a liz e d a c t iv it y programs, tailored to the interests of each camper, will be part of the program at the second annual Packer Summer Day Camp to be held at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights. This summer%u2019s camp will be held in two sessions, one from June 11 to 29 and the other from July 2 to 27.Arts and crafts, drama, dance and music, swimming and other sports will be available to campers from 4 to 11 years of age under the direction of David Loyd, camp director and director of athletics at Packer Institute. He will be assisted by Erich Cluxton, the camp's director of aquatics and director of Packer%u2019s Middle School, and a staff of highly experienced instructors and counselors.Camp hours will be from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and a limousine service will be available to transport campers.Information concerning the day camp can be obtained by writing to Mr. David Loyd, Director, Packer Summer Day Camp, Packer Collegiate Institute, 170 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201, or by calling theDay Camp Office at 875-6644.Heart EquipmentNew for HospitalA device that can save The lives of high-risk babies by monitoring the infant%u2019s heartbeat while the mother is in labor has been purchased by The Long Island College Hospital as a result of a gift from the hospital%u2019s Guild.The $7000 piece of equipment brings to a total of $23,126 the Guild's gift to the hospital during the past year. Mrs. John N. Edson~ c %u201e l . l ----- T T ^ ;w L t .%u201e\\j i j j i v u i v i j j i i i \\ - i f y u opresident.Complete Home Modernization Centergraphic KITCHENS, inc.GeneralContractors%u2022 S tained G lass W ork%u2022 O rn am e nta l PlasteringCRANLYN MEATSp r i m e M e a t s 8c p o u l t r yF is h - S . 8c W . C a n G o o d sB a r -B -Q C h i c k e n8 8 * p%u00aer tit- 10%SPECIAL SALEDiscontinued StockRed Devil PaintWe DeliverP h o n e M A 4 - 1 0 7 01 0 2 H i c k s S t r e e t%u00a7 - _ _ JLL S IS C U U I1 Ton La m p s &Lam p S h a d e s136 Montague St.in Farragut, he adds, increase the same problems in nearby parts.Upon his election, ombudsman techniques will be developed in low-income neighborhoods where people in need of jobs and power can learn to push the fight in their own behalf, Wittich promises. In Williamsburg and Greenpoint, residents, fooled by politicians and seeing their housing being replaced by manufacturing units, will be informed about using their representatives so that the deteriorating process is stopped. Landlords in the areas where prostitution thrives will be checked with the power of the courts, he says and residents will be encouraged to form patrols to rid the area of the cruising %u201cjohns.%u201d And in the upper and middle income sections leaders will be encouraged to see that services %u2014 housing %u2014 education%u2014sanitationare delivered.Promising to work with the Police in convincing them that the forces protecting downtown stores should be used instead in thernntinued Page 16Conveniently locatedin Park Slope, LumenKraft has the largest,most excitingcollection of contemporary designerlighting in New YorkCity! 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