NEWBURYPORT — Although he may be relocating to Maryland, departing at-large City Councilor Bruce Vogel said Newburyport will always remain in his heart.
“For me, vote after vote after vote, I didn’t care if I got reelected or not,” Vogel said. “I was true to myself and true to how I felt. If people didn’t like what I said or how I voted and they didn’t vote for me and I wasn’t allowed to serve anymore? OK. But that’s Bruce.”
The California native served as Ward 5 city councilor from 2004 to 2008, then as at-large councilor since 2014. In July, he announced he wouldn’t bee seeking another term meaning his tenure on the council will end Jan. 2.
Vogel has spent many years watching his fellow city councilors change their positions on issues, based solely on their own feelings, which he said has always amused him.
“I prefer to come from the position of what I call the whole,” he said. “I know that sounds really out there but, sometimes, what I hear people say just doesn’t make sense and staunchness doesn’t help the community. Clearly, you can take a position that serves the whole and not just a niche. I know everyone thinks, if the world ran according to their vision then it would be a better place, right? But I don’t know that my vision is necessarily the best one. It’s just that I don’t have a taste for blind hypocrisy and I think some of that goes on.”
Vogel said he tried to answer the priorities of the whole community. He also pointed to the 80-20 rule where 80% of complaints are made by 20% of the people and said, in Newburyport, it’s more like a 95-5 rule.
“I think 95% of what you hear comes from 5% of the people,” he said. “As an elected official, what do you do with that? How do you manage that? My approach was, you do your research and you stick to your guns, based on what you know.”
Former City Councilor Charlie Tontar served alongside Vogel for many years and said his friend is not someone who holds a grudge.
“He will put his stakes down for something he believes in and that continued right on through his last term,” he said. “He did his homework and advocated for positions he thought were important. On several occasions, I believe the city owed him a debt of gratitude and I’m sorry to see him leaving town.”
Born and raised in Burbank, California, Vogel once worked as a tour guide on Alcatraz Island and eventually entered into a 20-year career as a flight attendant,. His time in the friendly skies eventually led him to Marblehead, where he met his wife, Paula Holm.
The couple moved to Newburyport in the 1990s and Vogel eventually got involved in local politics when he started a five-year stint on the Youth Commission in 1999.
“I thought being a youth commissioner was a little frustrating when dealing with the city and I thought I could do a better job,” he said. “That’s how I ain’t got involved with the City Council.”
Vogel made his first successful run for City Council in Ward 5 in 2003. He was reelected to a second two-year term in 2005 but lost his third election in 2007. During that campaign he was competing with a situation of far greater importance and weight, his wife’s ovarian cancer diagnosis. Sadly, Holm succumbed to the illness in 2009.
Within a year or two, Vogel entered the world of baristas and beans when he bought Plum Island Coffee along the waterfront in the early 2010s
He eventually had to move his coffee business to Market Square, however, after New England Development did not extend his lease in early 2021. Vogel repeatedly spoke out against the move as it lead to a protracted struggle between himself and New England Development.
The small business owner was also the owner of Pleasant Street’s Commune Cafe, which closed its doors after five years in business in late 2020. Vogel blamed the business’s demise to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. Complicating matters however was his inability to reach a lease extension agreement with the building’s owner.
Vogel returned to the council in 2014, this time as an at-large councilor.
He pointed to his successful contributions in the effort to save 103 acres of green space off of Hale Street, as well as his work as a youth commissioner to develop the city’s skatepark as two of his favorite accomplishments.
“I’ve always been a progressive voice on the council,” he said. “We have a big, huge field off of Hale Street that is now open space and the skatepark was huge. I played a big role in that and there was a lot of pushback on it. People were all complaining about how loud it was going to be but there’s always pushback with projects. We finally got people excited about it and I think it ended up in the most perfect spot, (next to the Rupert A. Nock Middle School.)”
Vogel, however, said he’s not as proud of his support for an open waterfront, nor building the Titcomb Street municipal parking garage.
“Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have aligned myself with the Committee for an Open Waterfront, “ he said. “The Newburyport waterfront was never open. It was always active, vibrant and commercial. and that’s what it should be now, along with open space.”
Adaptation, Vogel said, is an important component of being a public servant.
“(Former Mayor Donna Holaday) changed her mind on things and that’s what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “That’s a sign of good leadership.”
Tontar said Vogel always, “saw the big picture.”
“We had a divided council for many years and Bruce and I tend to vote in similar ways,” he said. “We had our disagreements at times but we never let that get in the way.”
Vogel said he will always be grateful for the amount of support, goodwill, arguments and laughs that have come his way over the years.
“It’s a pearl on the string of life, that entire service to the community,” he said. “I hope I helped people understand that there’s numerous points of view and the best point of view is the one that serves the most people. Hopefully, my meager efforts pulled that off in some way, shape or form. At the very least, I hope I made people think.”
Although he’s been spending some time in Maryland, Vogel said he’ll be back in the city early next year.
“I have to sell my business and I still have a few things to work out with my house,” he said. “I’ll head down to Maryland, once all that gets done. and my goal is to be at the point where I’m not sure what day of the week it is.”
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.
