A former neighborhood leader has become the fourth candidate to enter the West Palm Beach mayoral race.
Cory Kennedy, a former software engineer and one-time vice president of the Northwood Hills Neighborhood Association, filed paperwork in June to run for mayor. He formally announced his candidacy Sept. 30.
Kennedy, 32, said he was inspired to run after being laid off last year from his job in the technology sector, an experience that gave him an up-close look at West Palm Beach’s growing affordability challenges.
As he searched for another full-time job, he started working as a Lyft driver. Doing so led him to meet dozens of city residents struggling, like him, to afford to live in an increasingly expensive city.
“It’s constant,” he said. “Every
other person I pick up daily just talks about how they can’t afford anything anymore.”
“There’s people I pick up and take to their first job, then pick them up and take them to their second job,” he said.
Kennedy said he shares the concerns of many of his passengers that the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable. He said the voices of lower- and middle-class residents deserve to be heard and represented by someone who has lived the same experience.
“I think people just want someone who is more in touch with reality right now, who has to deal with the affordability crisis head on,” he said.
Kennedy faces long odds in a four-person field dominated by two experienced, well-funded politicians — former City Commissioner Christina Lambert and County Commissioner Gregg Weiss. Also running is construction superintendent Aaron Moreno.
As the campaign for the March 9 election gets going, Lambert recently announced four days of roundtable discussions about city policy matters, while Weiss hosted a campaign kickoff event last month.
Underscoring his funding disadvantage, Kennedy said he would struggle to pay the more than $10,000 in filing fees to run for the seat. Instead, he is seeking to gather 1,800 petition signatures to get on the ballot without the fee.
If elected mayor, Kennedy said he would seek to pause high-density construction in the downtown, a proposal that has been echoed by a group of activist downtown residents.
“We’re just seeing luxury condo after luxury condo after luxury condo being built around us," he said.
He applauds the city’s workforce housing program but said the city should shift to encourage more affordable housing, which aids people with lower incomes.
A homeowner in the Northwood Legacy neighborhood on the city’s northern tip, he lived for four years in the Northwood Hills neighborhood, where his time as vice president of the neighborhood association gave him a seat on the Northend Coalition of Neighborhoods.
He acknowledges his significant campaign financing disadvantage but says he intends to focus on door-to-door campaigning, as well as talking up the passengers he transports for Lyft during his day job.
“Money doesn’t vote,” he said. “My plan is just talking to actual people. If I spend all my days face to face talking to people, that’s more than the millions of dollars.”
Kennedy said registered voters who live in the city and are willing to sign his petition to get on the ballot without the filing fee may reach out to his campaign at kennedyformayorwpb@gmail.com.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lyft job showed him West Palm’s woes. So he runs for mayor | Exclusive
