Camp Friendship Food Pantry celebrated its one-year anniversary with what they usually do – helping those in need. The Pantry gave out at least 300 bags filled with fresh groceries to their neighbors and delivered about 100 bags to seniors on Saturday, June 5th.

Last year, on June 2, residents came together in Park Slope and planned how to help make sure their neighbors were not going hungry as the pandemic dragged on. It all started when Chris Johnson, 65, board member of Camp Friendship, a nonprofit summer program for youth, made a Facebook post asking for volunteers to help distribute and deliver food.

Good things happen — and children flourish — when school activities expand out of doors, a City Council candidate argues.

My three elementary-school daughters now have two recesses a day — and often eat lunch outdoors. This spring, all kids in their school began having a weekly gardening class. At drop-off and pick-up, a barrier blocks cars from coming down the road adjacent to the school so that parents and caregivers can spill into the street.

These innovations — some coming just in the past month — have happened because of the pandemic. The kids eat outside because there isn’t enough space inside. They have gardening because the rooms inside used for special subjects were turned into classrooms. In short, the demands for distancing have pushed P.S. 39 and schools across the city to think creatively about using outdoor space for school activities, including turning streets into extensions of the schools — even if it means prioritizing schooling over parking.

When schools meet streets, children flourish.

By Justin Krebs

From confronting our climate crisis to imagining how to reinvent our streets to be safe for my kids and all New Yorkers, the challenges can feel overwhelming. But what if we slice up this apple?

Greening our city — from livable streets to a sustainable future — can and must begin immediately. Big ideas that I strongly support such as the Green New Deal for New York City, require big, citywide policy changes, including state approvals; and areas of work close to my heart like investing in our parks and playgrounds, require citywide efforts. Yet there are plenty of actions we can start now at the neighborhood level.

By Justin Krebs

New Yorkers want — and need — to make noise, to be heard, to feel a connection to each other… And all of that is what the arts — both in a pandemic and in “normal” times — offers our society and our city. During a year of social distancing, the loss of most live performance is a true tragedy — and the resurrection of it spontaneously and haphazardly in the public spaces we can seize for it has been a welcome blessing.

By Justin Krebs & Tiffany Rea-Fisher

So what can the city and/or state do? From grants and loans to small theaters to negotiating with and supporting landlords with non-profit tenants to programs that keep paid staff in their jobs, rather than sending them onto unemployment, to initiatives that care for freelancers and independent contractors who make up so much of our cultural ecosystem, there is no shortage of policy possibilities.

By Liena Zagare

Justin Krebs, 42, is a community organizer running to represent District 39 in the city council in next year’s elections. He is the Director of Campaigns at MoveOn and co-founder of arts space The Tank. He is also the Secretary of the School District 15 Presidents Council. We spoke about why he’s running and how he hopes to serve his community and the city at large. Krebs lives in Park Slope near 4th Avenue with his wife and three elementary school-age children who attend their local public school. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.