Lauren Byrne was still wearing pajamas with feet attached when she began to understand what community organizers did.
By the time she was 10, she knew the ins and outs of the city treasurer's sale, at which bidders can buy properties by putting up the amount owed in unpaid taxes.
When her grandmother, Aggie Brose, would work a crowd, lead a meeting, speak at a groundbreaking or urge people to get on a bus to Harrisburg or Washington or Grant Street, Ms. Byrne would tag along "just to watch everything she does and everything she says."
"When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be my grandmother."
Next Monday, Ms. Byrne, 24, will embark on her grandmother's path, one neighborhood over from the community where Ms. Brose has worked as deputy director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. for 34 years. Ms. Byrne takes over as the new director of Lawrenceville United, succeeding Tony Ceoffe, who was elected to a seat as a district judge.
Ms. Byrne, a 2006 graduate of Allegheny College, has been working in Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office of Neighborhood Initiatives, coordinating the Green-Up and Taking Care of Business projects.
"I have worked with someone in each of the 90 neighborhoods," she said, "But you only get to work on a fraction of what they need. I'm excited to be able to focus on one neighborhood and everything it needs."
One of her particular interests is to help create "healthy green spaces" in Lawrenceville -- parklets, gardens and other places where people can congregate outdoors, she said.
In her new position, she will have one staff member. Over the decades, Bloomfield-Garfield has built a staff of 17 people, established a youth development center, published a monthly newspaper and forged relationships that brought a family medical center, new businesses, art galleries and work-living space for artists to the neighborhoods.
The city is awash in neighborhood nonprofit organizations, but only a handful have paid staff members who know how to interpret legislation, talk policy, use the language of bankers and lenders, do real estate deals and pry open the right doors with force of personality.
Ms. Brose has been among the most dogged practitioners of this kind of advocacy in the city. Mr. Ceoffe, too, brought a bulldog tenacity to his work to combat crime, nuisance properties and graffiti, as an emphasis on public safety has been Lawrenceville United's forte. Ms. Brose plays a "You-know-I'm-right" version of hardball, but puts her arm around people. Mr. Ceoffe would drive through the neighborhood at any hour to amass evidence.
Both are extremely quotable and know how to catch the public eye, raising the profile of the neighborhood advocate. Both have shown up with a dozen people in tow for court hearings to show the judge that the defendant is an abuser of their neighborhoods.
Ms. Byrne said she intends to continue the work Mr. Ceoffe started with Lawrenceville United but plans to broaden the scope of the organization's work by working with Lawrenceville Corp., a community development group.
"This work is about passion and dedication and patience," said Ms. Brose. "I am thrilled that Lauren has that passion and dedication and the education that I never had."
Ms. Brose was a 40-year-old housewife when the Rev. Leo Henry, then the parish priest at St. Lawrence O'Toole, pulled her from the ranks of plain folks and into the fray of Garfield's efforts to ward off a slide into a ghetto. In a 2001 interview, Father Henry said he tapped Ms. Brose for her passion, raw leadership potential and natural intelligence.
"I grew up down the street," she said in a recent interview at her office on Penn Avenue and South Evaline Street. She also raised her children in Garfield, on Dearborn Street.
"I was born in that alley," said Ms. Byrne, pointing to indicate Gem Way.
At family dinners -- grandparents, parents and grandkids -- "the table talk was stories of Garfield," said Ms. Brose.
"Anything we did at the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., she'd go with me," said Ms. Brose. "She carried a banner down Fifth Avenue when we protested Nabisco's closing."
The summer she was 13, Ms. Byrne interned at the East End Neighborhood Employment Center, helping people who were seeking jobs or training programs to construct their resumes. When she was in high school at The Ellis School, she chose Garfield as the subject of her large research project: "The Rise and Fall and Potential of an Urban Neighborhood."
"I knew when I was young that my grandmother was helping people," said Ms. Byrne. "Now that I have been on the government side of things, I know how that works, and now I get to be on the side that holds [government] accountable."
"The best organizing is really just keeping public officials accountable," said Ms. Brose. "And we need more organizers."
Ms. Byrne, now well-educated and equipped with her BlackBerry beside her, still watches her grandmother.
"Obviously, she's a mentor to many people in the field," she said, "but I have special access to her."
And her grandmother watches her.
"Where are your boots?" she asked, as Ms. Byrne stood to leave after a recent visit to the BGC office in Garfield.
"Oh, I know," said Ms. Byrne, glancing at her patent leather pumps. "I didn't want to deal with them."
"Do you want mine?" Ms. Brose asks.
"I'll be OK."
First Published: December 28, 2009, 10:00 a.m.