Meet our Newest Candidate, Laura Wood Habr
Blue Uprising is thrilled to endorse Laura Wood Habr, Virginia Beach candidate for City Treasurer. Laura is a lifelong resident of the area restaurant entrepreneur, founding member of the Business Alliance to Protect the Atlantic Coast (BAPAC) and this is her first time running for elected office.
Laura has always taken inordinate pride that ‘Beach’ was part of her city’s name. Her favorite playground was the North End beach where family and friends gathered on summer weekends. She remembers being horrified as a ten-year-old when the threat of offshore drilling was close to home. The city had recently installed a stormwater outfall that created a smelly brown river across the sand several times a day. It was for a legitimate public benefit– to eliminate flooding on Atlantic Avenue - but she saw firsthand how the sediments and pollutants affected the water. White ocean foam became dirty brown while trash and dead animals frequently clogged the outfall. It took twenty years for the city to modify their approach and for the health of the ocean rebound.
Laura and her husband run a local restaurant. When she started helping her husband with the restaurant, she quickly realized that green solutions were not just a nice thing to do, they actually helped reduce overhead. After researching and implementing sustainable options at her own restaurant, she shared them with members of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association and many tourism partners. Her restaurant, Croc’s 19th Street Bistro, became the first in Virginia to be certified as ‘green.’ Eventually, she sought to get the entire resort area certified. As part of those efforts, she encouraged legislators to ban smoking in restaurants. In 2009, then-Governor Tim Kaine came to her restaurant to sign the new law.
Laura is also a founding member of the Business Alliance to Protect the Atlantic Coast (BAPAC), working to boost opposition to offshore oil drilling in Washington D.C., the Virginia General Assembly and Virginia Beach City Council. She serves on Virginia Beach’s Green Ribbon Committee and chairs the G.R.E.E.N. subcommittee of the Resort Advisory Commission to help maintain the city as a Virginia Green Destination. Her daughters volunteer with Wave Riding Vehicles, a local surf shop to help out at their surf camp.
Laura says, “My entire family whole-heartily embrace the mission of “I SURF I VOTE” and the potential of Blue Uprising to support candidates like me who share a passion for our clean water and beaches.”
Blue Uprising hopes the citizens of Virginia Beach elect Laura to City Treasurer on November 5. Laura has great plans to use the power of that office to push for a greener Virginia Beach. Given her clear track record of success in advocacy, we have no doubt she will succeed in her mission. Blue Uprising is excited to endorse Laura for Virginia Beach City Treasurer, and even more excited to see what she does once she is in office! Learn more about Laura Wood Habr on her website and don’t forget to follow her on facebook, instagram and twitter.