HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Hollywood is the third largest city in Broward County, known for its iconic beach Broadwalk and revitalized downtown area.
For the past eight years, Mayor Josh Levy has led the city.
He grew up in Hollywood, says he’s a neighborhood guy at heart, and is proud of the work he’s done in these last two terms as mayor.
“We really have delivered so much for Hollywood, both reinvesting in record levels for our neighborhoods to ensure their sustainability, investing in flood control and things of that nature,” Levy said.
He’s running again because he says more needs to be done, especially when it comes to flooding.
“I do want to stay onboard and finish the job of putting the city in the best position it could be,” he said.
During the last mayoral race, Levy went unchallenged.
This time around, there are three candidates looking to unseat him: Catherine “Cat” Uden, Eduardo Flores and Peter Hanna.
They have criticized Levy for what they say is overdevelopment in the city.
“There’s no overdevelopment,” Levy said. “Overdevelopment occurs when development exceeds planning, and in Hollywood, we have a great plan, a sustainable plan and we are moving along very slowly, less than 1% a year through that plan.”
Uden has lived in Hollywood for two decades with her family. She’s a former Broward County public school teacher and now works on environmental legislation for an international nonprofit. She believes Hollywood needs new leadership.
“I’ve been very active and involved in the city of Hollywood and some of the decisions I see made, especially in the past couple of years in terms of development and especially coast development has caused some alarm,” Uden said.
She’s passionate about the environment and she believes the barrier islands are being overloaded. If elected, she says she’ll quit her job to devote herself to the city full-time.
“I’m for the people, I’m for the community and that’s what you want from your elected official,” said Uden.
Hanna also is a Hollywood native.
“I’ve watched Hollywood develop into what it is today, I kind of see where it’s going and some things don’t make sense and think I can do better,” he said.
Hanna works as a consultant and believes that there’s a disconnect in communication between the city and its residents.
“Resources have to be allocated more properly,” said Hanna. “I think too much is going in one area another parts of the community are being neglected.”
Eduardo Flores is a 29-year-old Chicago native who works in IT and is an app developer.
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out things aren’t going right because what we’ve had is a two-term incumbent that’s had plenty of opportunity to show us the kind of changes he’s trying to do,” said Flores.
He’s been living in Hollywood for five years and wants to see a change in his city.
Flores has been out canvassing, speaking with residents to gain more exposure and tell them what issues he wants to tackle should he get elected.
“We’ve got flooding issues with the sanitation service, especially during and after a hurricane, there’s a lot of areas that have a loss of power, those are some of the things in my administration I’d like to tackle head-on,” he said.