Baker Bill Pritz can look at a dry-erase board on a wall at his small bakery in Over-the-Rhine and see right away how a boycott of downtown Cincinnati restaurants could cost him some dough.

        The bleak possibility for Shadeaux Bread, founded 7 1/2 years ago at 1336 Main St. in Over-the-Rhine, goes like this:

        Because about 25 percent of his 30 or so clients are based in Cincinnati's Central Business District, a sustained boycott could lead to fewer people coming to Cincinnati for conventions and fewer meals served in downtown restaurants.

        The restaurants, in turn, will need less bread. Before long, Mr. Pritz figures, he would feel it. But he bristles at the unfairness of it all: “I have no patience at all for the boycott. It could potentially hurt.”

        A boycott or economic sanctions requested by protesters calling themselves the Black United Front and Coalition for a Just Cincinnati picked up momentum last week when entertainer Bill Cosby canceled two performances at the Aronoff Center.

        On Sunday, City Councilman Paul Booth said he has asked former President Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King III and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman to mediate talks between city officials and boycott leaders.

        Mr. Booth wrote the three late last month, asking them to come to Cincinnati to help “bring dialogue and solutions to our city.”

        “I'm trying to bring the city and the various proponents of the boycott together because right now, we're not really talking to each other,” Mr. Booth said. “We're either talking through the media, or talking at each other.”

        So far, Mr. Booth said only Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has agreed to participate in the mediation process.

        “If individuals such as President Carter can mediate differences between nations and people, then certainly he can bring that same humanitarian interest and effort to Cincinnati,” said Mr. Booth, who did not tell other council members about his efforts.

        Mr. Cosby, who indicated through a publicist that he would not be comfortable performing comedy here, stopped short of endorsing the boycott, but the impact of his cancellations might have the same effect.

        The boycott already has hurt Tony Marshall, the African-American founder and owner of AAA Unison Computers at 723 Vine St. In seven years of business at the location, 2001 was clearly his worst year for sales.

        “It has a lot to do with the boycott,” Mr. Marshall said. “There are not as many people coming downtown. This is by far the worst year in my 15 years in business. It is a dramatic decline.”

        Michael E. Comisar, managing partner of the Maisonette and La Normadie, two restaurants downtown, said the Cosby cancellation will hurt the restaurants.

        ""It would definitely have an impact on those two nights that Mr. Cosby would have been here,” he said. “When there is an event at the Aronoff, we do quite a bit of business.”

        Mr. Cosby is the first entertainer, group or convention to honor the boycott.

        The coalition has contacted at least two other well-known performers — Grammy-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and R&B star Smokey Robinson — and has pledged to send letters to dozens more.

        Omar Farag, promoter of Smokey Robinson's Feb. 13 concert at the Taft Theatre, said he had been contacted by the boycott organizers and passed their appeal along to the entertainer's personal staff. As of lat last week, he said: “There is no cancellation planned. This show is going on.”

        Mr. Marsalis is scheduled to appear at the Aronoff the night after Mr. Cosby had been scheduled, but the artist's agents have given no indication that he has considered canceling, according to the Cincinnati Arts Association. Mr. Marsalis' spokesman did not return calls for comment.

        The boycott is in place until a list of demands is met, the two protesting groups say:

        • Amnesty for all people arrested in the April riots, which the groups call a “rebellion.”

        • $2 million be spent on Cincinnati Citizens on Youth.

        • A multicultural tourism proposal be approved.

        • Reform of the police division and an end to racial profiling by police.

        While Mr. Cosby canceled, leaders of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, which has about 8,000 delegates, last week said they still plan to attend a convention here this summer.

        Leaders of the group said the convention will stay as long as the mayor and city leaders meet certain conditions: provide black-owned vendors greater access to service contracts at the convention center, relax the city's youth curfew and restart “unconditional negotiations” with African-American leaders about such issues as police relations and economic inclusion.

        Boycott organizers were not surprised by the Progressive Baptists' decision, but expressed some disappointment with the strength of most of the group's requests.

        Jim Clingman, a member of the Cincinnati Black United Front, said, speaking personally, he appreciated the Baptists “spirit and concern.” However, he questioned whether the group will ultimately have any impact.

        Jeff Ruby, chief executive and president of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, said his business is likely to be cut in half on the night that Mr. Cosby has canceled. That means fewer employees will be working on those nights at Jeff Ruby's Steak House near the Aronoff, he said.

        “Instead of serving 400 people, we'll serve 200 people and since 60 percent of my kitchen staff is African-American, that means black cooks will be out of work that night,” he said. “It's going to cost them money because we won't be busy.”

        John D. Fairfield, a professor of U.S. history at Xavier University, said downtown merchants should fear a boycott.

        “It is absolutely a powerful threat,” he said. “If I was a businessman downtown, I'd be worried and concerned.”

        He said the power of a boycott like this one can be effective because nobody has to set out any emotional stakes.

        “People don't have to make a great commitment to join the crusade,” Mr. Fairfield said.

        “They don't have to make a tremendous amount of sacrifice. It doesn't require civil disobedience, an arrest. You don't have to pay dues, write manifestos, go to meetings. People just have to spend their money elsewhere.”

        Mr. Pritz, the baker, said he is already paying a price for rioting last spring as revenues have fallen. In response, Mr. Pritz has increased product offerings such as sandwich buns in an effort to prop up those receipts.

        What really grates him, he says, is that business owners just like him have done nothing wrong — nothing to deserve any consumer's wrath.

        “Who is the Black United Front? A significant percentage of my customers are black, and I've never had the feeling that I'm not part of this neighborhood,” he said.

        Mr. Pritz has a strategy to sell wholesale throughout the region, which he hopes will counteract any impact of the boycott, but if the downward trend continues, he looks at an uncertain future that might include moving his bakery.

        “If I didn't have wholesale, I would pick up and go — take my business someplace else,” he said. “I don't like anybody getting in the way of my business, and I can go someplace else.”

        Two antiques shoppers who eat lunch and prowl the Main Street business strip for antiques about three times a year, were outraged that Mr. Cosby canceled and said they might do a little boycotting of their own.

        “I'm not going to be buying any Jell-O Pudding Pops anytime soon,” said Rosalyn Evans, a 68-year-old Springfield Township resident. Mr. Cosby is a spokesperson for that product.

        She said she and her husband, Richard, plan to come downtown soon for a dinner as a way to compensate for other diners who might be boycotting.

        “We need more people downtown, not fewer,” said her companion Mary Ann Abernathy, a Bridgetown resident.
       Enquirer reporters Kevin Aldridge, Margaret McGurk and Randy Tucker contributed.

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