John Cerqueira, candidate for Raleigh City Council, District E, answers our questions

Raleigh voters will pick a new mayor and City Council members this November.

All eight council seats, including the mayor’s, are up for grabs, with all the incumbents except for current Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin seeking another two-year term.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting runs from Thursday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Nov. 2.

To help inform voters across the state, this candidate questionnaire is available to be republished by local publications in North Carolina without any cost. Please consider subscribing to The News & Observer to help make this coverage possible.

Name: John Cerqueira

District/seat: Raleigh City Council, District E

Political party: Democrat

Age as of Nov. 5, 2024: 45

Campaign website: john4raleigh.com

Current occupation: Organizational change consultant

Education: NC State, B.S. Management and French Minor. UNC-Chapel Hill, MBA with coursework in Urban Planning

Offices Sought/Held: None

Please list any notable government or civic involvement.

In 2001 I was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor, by Governor Mike Easley for heroism during the September 11 Terrorist attacks in which I helped a woman who was a wheelchair user escape from the 68th floor of Tower One escaping our building 5 minutes before its collapse.

Since then I have been honored to speak at First Responder’s organizations at both the Durham and Raleigh First Responders Appreciation Breakfasts as well as running training sessions on self-regulation to ward off risks of PTSD at ISAAC, the Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a cross functional first responders organization put in place to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts.

More recently I helped co-found Skate Raleigh, a public-private partnership that brought a skate park to the site of Smokey Hollow Park off of Capital Boulevard. Working with the city of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department, our nonprofit organization raised private funds to turn a blighted piece of property along downtown Raleigh’s northern gateway into a place where citizens of all ages and backgrounds connect over their love of action sports.

Finally, over the years, I have volunteered with Communities in Schools leveraging my French minor tutoring French-speaking students from Haiti and Africa on all subjects in their native language.

Which Raleigh City Council district do you live in? E

What is the top issue facing Raleigh now and how would you address it?

Our population growth. Wake County is growing by 50 people/day which means a focus on the following are needed:

Housing and Infrastructure: We must ensure that our housing supply meets this demand and our infrastructure (sewer, roads, public transportation) accommodates the housing supply and additional population.

Public safety: We currently have 100 vacancies on our police force with a fully staffed goal that some suggest is already low on a per capita basis.. Without a fully staffed police force we risk the public safety of our growing population.

Parks and greenways: As we grow it is important to maintain and invest in green space where all of our citizens can connect and thrive.

What is your strategy for increasing affordable housing in Raleigh?

If our goal is affordability we must address both income-restricted housing and market-rate housing supply.

Income restricted housing focuses on citizens making less than our area median income (AMI). However, for many citizens earning our area median income or slightly above, our housing market is still out of reach.

To improve affordability for those making at or above AMI, the only path is to increase our housing supply. To do this in a thoughtful way that does not create any further unnecessary sprawl we must increase density in existing dense areas, for example, specifically in downtown.

Income-restricted units typically require some subsidies which defray the cost of land cost, construction and financing. For income-restricted housing I would like to see more partnerships with developers who are experienced in and comfortable building affordable housing, using preferred and/or tax increment financing (TIF), targeting city-owned land to control our land cost.

Beyond that, often hidden costs associated with delays with permitting and approvals unnecessarily increase the cost of projects ultimately passed on to the renter/buyer that I would like to see eliminated with more efficient processing.

Should the city be more aggressive about requiring affording units from developers or partner with nonprofits?

Our current state law prohibits requiring developers to limit the pricing of units. However, the opportunity absolutely exists to offer incentives to developers in which, for example, permitting a certain increase in units over what is allowed comes with a percentage dedicated to income-restricted lower cost units.

I would also partner with nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, that provide down payment support, mortgage relief, and rental assistance through private funding.

Do you think Raleigh can support concert venues both downtown and in Dix Park?

Yes. This question specifically relates to Red Hat Amphitheater and the amphitheater in Dix Park’s master plan. While music at Dix Park is in the master plan for the future, Red Hat is currently funded and ready to break ground within months whereas plans for a Dix Park music venue are in earlier stages of development, not yet funded, and likely a decade or more out from completion.

Furthermore, Red Hat is in closer proximity and ease of pedestrian access to downtown businesses who are heavily reliant on its presence, which also enhances the concert-going experience for pre- and post-show activities.

Even with a future Dix Park music venue, Red Hat is likely to attract a different set of acts appealing to a slightly different audience in a different setting with different levels of capacity than the types of performances that may be present at Dix.

All in all, I see the two options complementing rather than competing with one another.

Specific to the vote on this issue, I am relieved that after the City Council session on September 17, Red Hat Amphitheater will be able to stay downtown. I am, however, disappointed that my district’s council member was not at the table to represent District E in this critical vote for our city.

Would you describe Raleigh’s growth as too fast, too slow or just right?

In more objective terms, our population growth is certainly outpacing the supply of housing, driving our affordability challenges.

Beyond that, our investments in public transportation and associated infrastructure that mitigate traffic congestion are struggling to keep pace.

By these measures, I would say that our population growth is too fast for our current housing supply and related infrastructure needs, while our growth in supply of available housing and infrastructure support is too slow relative to population growth and has opportunities to be better accommodated and managed.

Do you think Raleigh is losing too many historic properties? If so, how should this be addressed?

The Masonic Temple at the corner of Glenwood and Wade Avenue is a good example of a historic property that was lost. Ultimately, like many historic properties, it was in disrepair and had been neglected. Numerous developers sought to re-develop in a way that protected the property, but were not successful. The Temple went from being listed as historic to being removed to eventually clear the way for development. It is now being turned into multiple high-end homes that ultimately are better than the last state of the building but far less impactful than having preserved the building and providing a more dense use.

My whole candidacy is based on an appreciation of the nuances of these developments. I want to bring developers and the community together to meet the challenges of our city in a thoughtful and sustainable way. Rather then the characterization of good vs evil, I generally believe that Raleigh can be greater and solve problems like the potential loss of historic properties by engaging current owners and incentivizing maintenance through tax breaks or other programs, while ensuring that those that want to develop their property to realize expected economic value can do so in a way that preserves its character and ensure it fits into the greater landscape of the area.

Lastly, we have to realize that it is not just historic properties but historic businesses that people often bemoan and feel a true sense of loss. This can be seen in developments along Hillsborough that lost beloved music venues, sandwich shops and other small businesses like Capital Club 16 and Garland that could not sustain themselves as downtown struggled coming out of COVID-19. It is important that as a city we develop systems that preserve the buildings and businesses that provide the character and sense of place that is desired by all and economically sustainable for the community.