Image maps in Marinelli sidebars are funky

Hi, I've added an image map to a custom block with the following code:

<img class="center" src="/system/files/admin/qlinks_hm.jpg" width="155" height="184" border="0" alt="home quicklinks" usemap="#qlinks_hm_Map">
<map name="qlinks_hm_Map">
<area shape="rect" alt="" coords="0,154,154,183" href="/node/445">
<area shape="rect" alt="" coords="0,121,154,154" href="/node/511">
<area shape="rect" alt="" coords="0,58,154,87" href="/node/444">
<area shape="rect" alt="" coords="0,28,154,58" href="/node/443">
<area shape="rect" alt="" coords="0,0,155,28" href="/node/442">
</map>

This is the code from Firebug:

<div class="blockcontent block-block-19">
<p>
<img class="center" width="155" height="184" border="0" usemap="#qlinks_hm_Map" alt="home quicklinks" src="/system/files/admin/qlinks_hm.jpg"/>
<br/>
<map name="qlinks_hm_Map">
<br/>
<area href="/node/445" coords="0,154,154,183" alt="" shape="rect"/>
<br/>
<area href="/node/511" coords="0,121,154,154" alt="" shape="rect"/>
<br/>
<area href="/node/444" coords="0,58,154,87" alt="" shape="rect"/>
<br/>
<area href="/node/443" coords="0,28,154,58" alt="" shape="rect"/>
<br/>
<area href="/node/442" coords="0,0,155,28" alt="" shape="rect"/>
<br/>
</map>
</p>
</div>

and the css that firebug says is styling this:

.defaultblock .blockcontent p {style.css (line 954)
font-size:11px;
}
p {style.css (line 1109)
margin-bottom:0.9em;
margin-top:0.5em;
}
* {style.css (line 4)
margin:0pt;
padding:0pt;
}
Inherited fromdiv.blockcontent
.defaultblock .blockcontent {style.css (line 957)
font-size:11px;
line-height:13px;
}
Inherited fromdiv.lsidebar
.lsidebar, .rsidebar {style.css (line 1122)
font-size:105%;
}
Inherited fromdiv#page
#page {style.css (line 898)
text-align:left;
}
Inherited frombody.unclass
body {style.css (line 8)
color:#333333;
font-family:"Lucida Grande","Lucida Sans Unicode",helvetica,verdana,arial,sans-serif;
font-size:78%;
font-size-adjust:none;
letter-spacing:normal;
line-height:1.6em;
text-align:center;
}

What's weird is that a < p > shows up for block content and I think this is why there's extra space between this custom block and the next. I'm attaching a pic of the extra space.

Is there any way to get rid of this space? I tried giving the p in that block a bottom margin of 0 but it didn't do anything.