Cool

There’s no reason you’d connect the woman at our coffee shop with undocumented Zimbabweans or…be aware of her reporting on the policies of South African authorities.

These are experience Andrea Hart herself hadn’t imagined.

Some years back the kid who was the first in her family to go to college and to travel overseas caught a break. Her feel for words and ideas earned her a full scholarship at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

She learned that a muscular press is vital for a democracy and that groups lacking the ability to tell their story will be exploited.

While studying abroad she reported on economic migrants for the Cape Times and later covered general news and features at South Africa’s first totally interactive newspaper.

Fast forward ten years, Andrea now heads up community engagement activities at City Bureau. She is a cofounder of the non-profit, civic journalism lab.

Paid journalists are brought together to provide access to quality, trustworthy information that helps urban communities generate their own solutions. Residents receive hands-on training while engaging in civic processes. City Bureau fills the need for tech support and working space.

In a world of hard facts and stubborn realities, of two steps forward and one step back, professional burnout is a constant possibility. As a powerful affirmation for its staff members, City Bureau (which is not funded by taxpayer dollars) recently won a $1 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

The last time we had coffee Andrea said it’s important to “avoid the hero narrative” as something that can isolate an underserved community and make its people forget their own strength.

“Heroics are a false God.” she added.

Tattoos, piercings and assorted hairstyles that have something to say.“I look for weirdoes” Katie Ujimori says, using that word as a sign of admiration.

She laughed when I suggested some of her baristas seem conventional enough. “You might be surprised.” she replied.

Recruiting is one of Katie’s many duties here at the coffee shop. She can get a new hire up to speed in a matter of hours or in a matter of days. She’s proud of her record.

Katie searches for people with evident energy, who bring a touch of theater to everything they do. But none of them comes off as hipper-than-thou.

For those of us escaping copays, two-step logins and texts from the daycare center, Katie keeps a supply of humor next to the creamers, the sweeteners and the bagel toaster.

You’ll hear her call out customers’ orders in a voice worth its weight in Kopi Luwak coffee (beans harvested from the droppings of the palm civet of Southeast Asia; $320 a pound).

The hum of machines and the crowd and the always-present music helps people concentrate — productivity hangs in the air. But the baristas are careful about using the drip-coffee grinder. Its sound sets off the children with autistic spectrum disorder.

As a rookie Katie was overwhelmed by the crush of commuters on the way to the train, and double-parkers desperate for their a.m. dose. On her first day the neighborhood was buried by the infamous ‘Snowpocalypse’ that sent the multitudes to the coffee shop instead of to work.

The Brothers K is the sweet spot of our part of town. Unlike places that sell alcohol, mood adjustment here is based on caffeine. Debates yes, but heated arguments are few and far between.

“It’s a safe space.” Katie says.

He logs onto the Wi-Fi network and immediately finds himself in the sixteenth century. Will Pierce’s commute takes less time than you might imagine. It’s just a few steps from the barista station to a stool in the window.

Will has spent almost seven years exploring the religious conflicts that swept Christian Europe. His observations are gestating in a PhD thesis he’ll soon defend.

Martin Luther challenged Roman Catholic dogma by posting his Ninety-five Theses in 1517. They gave birth to the Protestant Reformation. And thanks to the Gutenberg Bible, the faithful had started to read the Word of God for themselves.

John Calvin preached that our lives are ‘predestined.’ You’re prosperous because God rewards righteousness or you’re wretched because you’re a sinner. Will explains that Calvin’s idea that a person’s destiny is a secret unto God caused monarchs to see their Divine Rights as threatened. That meant trouble ahead.

When the Pope wouldn’t approve Henry VIII’s divorce, the king created the Church of England with himself as its head. Then ‘Bloody Mary’ took the throne and earned her nickname by persecuting Henry’s Protestant followers.

Five years later, Queen Elizabeth I flipped the state back against the Catholics. The consecutive queens martyred the faithful of both religions. You were trapped on one side or the other. There was no such thing as being an atheist.

Will’s work pays special attention to the methods ‘Good Queen Bess’ developed to root out apostates, heretics, and traitors. What do religious strife, secrecy, and state surveillance do to a society?

As a member of the civil-liberties watchdog group Lucy Parsons Labs, he’s pushing back against data collection that ensnares arrestees who haven’t been tried or convicted.

Light pours through the windows at our corner coffee shop even on overcast days. Given that Will spends his time exhuming the remains of a dark and ungodly century, he needs all the light he can get.

You’ll find the ladder truck from Fire Station Two double-parked outside our corner coffee shop some mornings.Tom Howard will run in to pick up a round for his crew.

You might think idling a hugely expensive firefighting vehicle for a coffee run is a waste of taxpayer dollars. It’s not.

Think of it as readiness training. Every minute on the street sharpens the team’s knowledge of traffic patterns, access points around town and behavior of equipment under weather conditions. Every emergency call sets off a mesh of calculations and responses.

Tom is part of an eight-member team that pulls a 24-hour shift. They stand ready at all hours to hit that pole and engage with sixty pounds of gear, tools and breathing packs.

Two meals are prepared each shift. You get your fussy eaters, restricted diets and meat-and-potatoes holdouts. It seems that leftovers don’t play well on Sundays.

There are occupational hazards. Firefighters seldom talk about fear but they worry about mistakes. A drop in adrenaline between shifts can feel like a loss of purpose and camaraderie, an isolating work cycle doesn’t help. Tom manages a hotline to deal with exactly those problems.

As an engineer he drives ladder trucks and fire engines and is certified in medical response and Hazmat. His thing is opening cars with kids locked inside. “Good enough to be a cat burglar.” he laughs

The 25-year-veteran firefighter earned a master’s degree in divinity after a deepening of his faith and has been asked to preach at various congregations. There’s that quality about him.

Physical realities catch up with even the fittest firefighters. Tom will be ready for the next chapter of life. “I believe the Lord has called me for something.” he says. And the good Lord willing a ‘98 Harley and a Yamaha Motocross will be part that something.