by Lynette Hazelton and Video Jenna Miller and Lauren Schneiderman
Published May 8, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

It takes a neighborhood to raise a mayor

A candidate’s political platform is not built in a vacuum but shaped by life experience. Neighborhoods do more than just form candidates — they are critical in "raising" the candidate up and into the public office they seek. This video series — part of the Every Voice, Every Vote project — takes each of the Democratic candidates running to be the city’s 100th Mayor back to their first neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods that, if they are lucky, will help them secure a victory.

 

Watch other candidate videos:

• James DeLeon
• Amen Brown
• Warren Bloom
• Allan Domb
• Rebecca Rhynhart
• Helen Gym
• Cherelle Parker

Jeff Brown knew from the time he was a young child that he wanted to be part of the fourth generation of family grocers. By the age of eight, he was already working in his father’s store in Parkside on the weekends.

“That was the highlight for me,” Brown said.

It has also influenced Brown’s belief that youth should be exposed to career development in middle school. “I think we need to invest more in helping young people think about their future,” he told The Inquirer.

But his own early professional development plan didn’t include running for mayor. Instead that slowly evolved as the supermarkets Brown operated started leading him deeper into Philadelphia’s social issues. “I have always been interested in difficult challenges,”he said. “When I did my work in food deserts, everyone told me it was impossible.

“That was part of what interested me, let’s solve a tough problem that really hurts people, and let’s figure out a way to make it possible.”

» READ MORE: Watch all candidate videos from the series here.