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Metrics and Milestones: A Conversation With Mayor Keith James · Inside West Palm Beach

10:36:53
Welcome to the City Center podcast. I'm
10:36:55
Jerry Marcello. The past six years have
10:36:57
been a tumultuous time for
10:36:58
the city of West Palm Beach.
10:37:00
From the dark days of the pandemic to
10:37:02
overwhelming optimism about the future,
10:37:05
West Palm has
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prospered like no other city.
10:37:08
Today we'll talk with Mayor Keith James
10:37:10
about how the city got here, how 2025 is
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shaping up, and what he sees is in store
10:37:16
for the city on the move. Coming up next.
10:37:22
[Music]
10:37:26
Joining us today is Mayor Keith James.
10:37:29
Mr. Mayor, I appreciate you
10:37:30
making time with us today.
10:37:32
Thank you so much for having me.
10:37:33
One of the things I want to touch on
10:37:34
right away is one of the signatures of
10:37:38
your campaign and your administration has
10:37:40
been the concept of a community of
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opportunity for all.
10:37:46
Beautiful words. How did you develop that
10:37:48
idea and more importantly, how does that
10:37:50
really resonate now in 2025?
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I came up with the idea because I was
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actually out on a morning walk one day
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and I was just kind of thinking. I don't
10:38:01
know why I was on this line of thought.
10:38:03
Both of my children, I've got a son who
10:38:05
was now 37, a daughter who is 35. Both of
10:38:08
them were born here in West Palm Beach,
10:38:10
educated here, matriculated
10:38:13
through the public schools.
10:38:14
Each of them went off. My son went to
10:38:17
Duke undergrad and my
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daughter went to Harvard.
10:38:20
But they never once thought about coming
10:38:23
back to West Palm Beach to actually live.
10:38:27
They were pursuing their careers, they
10:38:29
were pursuing their educational
10:38:31
opportunities and their
10:38:32
professional opportunities.
10:38:33
They felt they had to leave West Palm
10:38:35
Beach to pursue those opportunities.
10:38:37
I thought to myself, why can't West Palm
10:38:41
Beach be a place where there is indeed an
10:38:45
opportunity, a community
10:38:47
of opportunity for all?
10:38:49
This was pre-COVID. This was because Iran
10:38:51
for office was elected
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in April, March of 2019.
10:38:55
This was well before COVID. But that was
10:38:57
kind of my idea. Why can't we create a
10:39:01
city where young, talented people who
10:39:05
grow up here can feel that either they
10:39:07
can live here or return here to pursue
10:39:11
their particular opportunities?
10:39:13
And that's how I really came up with it.
10:39:14
It's really kind of a personal thing with
10:39:16
me. Wow. I'd love to
10:39:17
have my kids feel like.
10:39:18
Now they may still want to go to New York
10:39:20
or California, but at least feel like
10:39:24
West Palm Beach was an option.
10:39:26
You talked about young people wanting to
10:39:28
return to West Palm Beach
10:39:29
or stay in West Palm Beach.
10:39:32
Do you feel that we've started to make
10:39:33
progress in creating an environment where
10:39:35
young people will want to stay?
10:39:37
Oh, absolutely. Because I think we're now
10:39:39
bringing the jobs here that
10:39:41
these people would like to have.
10:39:43
We're also bringing in educational
10:39:44
institutions. Would Vanderbilt
10:39:46
establishing a graduate MBA program,
10:39:50
engineering, and it would also have some
10:39:54
cybersecurity and financial
10:39:56
services, that type of thing.
10:39:58
So young people may go off to get their
10:40:01
undergraduates someplace else, but at
10:40:02
least the Vanderbilt might be an option
10:40:04
for them if they grew up here.
10:40:06
But also the jobs are here. That's one
10:40:08
reason why Vanderbilt is coming here
10:40:09
because the companies with the jobs of
10:40:12
tomorrow are being
10:40:14
attracted to West Palm Beach.
10:40:17
And I think you create a critical mass.
10:40:21
Once you get a few of these young people
10:40:24
here, whether it's in the financial
10:40:26
services industry, which we already have,
10:40:27
or what's coming down the pipeline is a
10:40:34
tech hub. More tech companies coming
10:40:36
here. Now it creates an
10:40:38
energy in and of itself.
10:40:40
And I guess one of the biggest
10:40:42
compliments, going back to my daughter, I
10:40:43
don't know why I'm making this so
10:40:44
personal, but it is personal.
10:40:46
My daughter happened to be here a few
10:40:48
weeks ago. She now resides in Cape Town,
10:40:51
South Africa. It's a whole other story.
10:40:52
But we were out having lunch at
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someplace, and she voluntarily stated.
10:41:00
She said, "Wow, Dad, West Palm Beach is
10:41:02
getting pretty cool."
10:41:03
As the mayor of this city, that's
10:41:05
probably the ultimate compliment coming
10:41:06
from my daughter. She has very
10:41:10
sophisticated tastes.
10:41:12
So for her to say that West Palm Beach is
10:41:15
cool, that's the ultimate compliment.
10:41:16
That is a great goal to have. Okay, so
10:41:19
you mentioned before that you started
10:41:21
your time as mayor in
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2019. Six years have gone by.
10:41:27
Reflect on what your successes have been
10:41:31
over the six years, and what do you think
10:41:33
about the remaining two years?
10:41:35
Well, another plank in my campaigning
10:41:39
platform was public
10:41:41
safety is job number one.
10:41:43
So when I think about what we've
10:41:44
accomplished over the six years, I go
10:41:46
back to the fundamentals.
10:41:48
And I think we've done a very good job of
10:41:52
making West Palm Beach safer, making
10:41:54
people feel safer in our city.
10:41:57
When I was running, West Palm Beach had
10:42:01
three years, three consecutive years,
10:42:03
when each of those
10:42:04
years there were 18 murders.
10:42:07
Eighteen murders. Indeed, West Palm Beach
10:42:11
was in the top 10 on a per capita basis
10:42:15
for the most violent city in the nation.
10:42:19
This is back 2017, 2018, 2019. So we have
10:42:23
come a long way since then.
10:42:26
Violent crimes have gone down
10:42:28
significantly. And so that to me is the
10:42:34
major accomplishment.
10:42:36
Now, that doesn't mean the job is done.
10:42:39
If we have one more
10:42:40
murder, that's one too many.
10:42:42
So we still have to be vigilant and
10:42:46
intentional about continuing to make West
10:42:48
Palm Beach feel safe and secure.
10:42:51
Having made significant progress there,
10:42:54
another area, and this goes back to my
10:42:56
goal of making West Palm Beach a
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community of opportunity for all,
10:42:59
what kind of housing opportunities do we
10:43:01
have? To some degree, West Palm Beach has
10:43:03
been a victim of its own success,
10:43:05
as the word has gotten out about what
10:43:08
West Palm Beach is, who we are as a city,
10:43:11
more and more people
10:43:12
looking to move down here.
10:43:14
There's simple supplies of supply and
10:43:16
demand, simple laws of supply and demand,
10:43:18
enter into the picture
10:43:19
when it comes to housing.
10:43:21
If you put more and more demand for
10:43:23
housing there, the prices will go up.
10:43:25
So I have to continue as the mayor to
10:43:29
continue to be intentional about doing
10:43:32
whatever we can as a city, whatever
10:43:34
policies we can adopt, whatever
10:43:36
ordinances we can adopt,
10:43:38
to incentivize the developers to give us
10:43:41
more affordable and workforce housing.
10:43:44
And we're making progress there.
10:43:47
I established a goal of 1,400 units in
10:43:50
eight years of having 1,400 units of
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affordable housing completed on the books
10:43:58
by the time I finish up
10:44:00
my second term in 2027.
10:44:03
I'm happy to say I think we're about 72%
10:44:06
of the way there, and I'm confident that
10:44:08
in the next two years we
10:44:09
will have exceeded that.
10:44:12
1,400 may not sound like a lot, but
10:44:15
relatively speaking, that's more than any
10:44:17
other municipality has put on the books,
10:44:20
and it's more than the
10:44:21
county has put on the books.
10:44:22
So I'm proud of our success. Could we do
10:44:26
more? Do I want to do more? Absolutely.
10:44:28
But we at least have a tangible goal that
10:44:30
I think we will far exceed.
10:44:32
You've talked a little bit about the
10:44:33
city's success now, obviously, from the
10:44:36
days of the pandemic to now we've seen
10:44:38
exponential growth and an attraction of
10:44:43
financial business to the area.
10:44:47
How did this happen?
10:44:48
How did we get there?
10:44:50
It has been a unique... The
10:44:54
stars became a line, I guess.
10:44:56
And I've told this story before. In fact,
10:45:00
I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal
10:45:01
telling this story. The first time I met
10:45:04
Stephen Ross, who was the head of related
10:45:07
Ross, he's the head of related
10:45:09
billionaire owner of the Dolphins.
10:45:14
The first time I met him was when we had
10:45:17
a groundbreaking for a major luxury
10:45:20
residential project that they were doing.
10:45:23
I had never met him. I dealt with his
10:45:25
partner Ken Himel over the years when I
10:45:27
was a commissioner. And so this must have
10:45:30
been in probably 2020.
10:45:36
Anyway, first time I met him, he comes
10:45:38
over to me, we shake hands, go through
10:45:40
the normal niceties, and he looks me in
10:45:42
the eye. He says, "Mr. Mayor, I want you
10:45:43
to know, I'm spending money in your city
10:45:46
like a drunken sailor."
10:45:48
Any time a billionaire tells you they're
10:45:50
spending that much money, that's a lot of
10:45:52
money. That's a lot of money. But what I
10:45:54
was most encouraged by, he says, "I'm
10:45:56
doing it," poke me in the chest.
10:45:58
He says, "I'm doing it because of your
10:46:00
leadership." So to answer your question
10:46:02
more directly, there is a convergence of
10:46:06
public sector and private
10:46:08
sector pursuing a common goal.
10:46:10
I've made it very clear, this goes back
10:46:12
to my vision of making West Palm Beach a
10:46:14
community of opportunity for all. In
10:46:16
other words, inclusive growth.
10:46:17
It's important to me that as we continue
10:46:19
to grow as a city, that the benefits of
10:46:22
this growth extend throughout my city.
10:46:24
That is a message that I preach whenever
10:46:26
I talk to developers or businesses that
10:46:29
are looking to come to the city.
10:46:30
And it's something I was consistent when
10:46:31
I talked to Mr. Ross about. It resonated
10:46:35
with him because I think he understood,
10:46:37
as someone who has developed projects
10:46:39
throughout the world and certainly
10:46:41
throughout this country, that
10:46:43
it's not just the buildings.
10:46:46
You've got to have a healthy community in
10:46:48
order to attract the tenants that they're
10:46:50
looking to attract. So you have a unique
10:46:53
convergence of certainly the public
10:46:56
sector of me articulating this goal,
10:46:59
inclusive growth, and private sector, a
10:47:02
significant private sector partner,
10:47:03
related Ross, Stephen Ross, who also
10:47:07
believes that inclusive
10:47:08
growth is a worthwhile goal.
10:47:10
And so those two partnerships, those two
10:47:16
forces are coming together to pursue the
10:47:21
goal of inclusive growth.
10:47:25
To Mr. Ross's benefit, and he's brought
10:47:27
other developers on, they're doing more
10:47:30
than just building buildings. And that's
10:47:32
what I tell these guys. I don't need more
10:47:34
pretty buildings in my city. I need help
10:47:37
building a community.
10:47:39
So to him, it's more than just building
10:47:40
the buildings. He has been very
10:47:43
influential in attracting the Vanderbilt
10:47:45
project to come here. He's been very
10:47:48
involved in attracting Cleveland Clinic
10:47:49
come here because he recognized there's a
10:47:51
need for quality health care.
10:47:53
And also looking at opportunities for
10:47:55
both public and private K through 12
10:47:58
educational opportunities, recognizing
10:48:01
that all of those factors have to come
10:48:04
together to have the kind of community
10:48:06
that the companies that they're looking
10:48:08
to attract, the tenants they're looking
10:48:10
to attract, will want to, where the
10:48:12
employees of those
10:48:13
companies will want to be.
10:48:16
What do you say to people who say that
10:48:18
the city has grown too far and too fast?
10:48:20
Well, you know, one thing I learned in
10:48:23
this business of being elected official
10:48:25
or politician, as some people call me, is
10:48:28
you can never please everyone. Listen,
10:48:32
some people are afraid of
10:48:36
change. Others welcome change.
10:48:40
My job as the mayor is to try to create
10:48:43
the balance. How can we grow? How can we
10:48:46
grow and to be the city of tomorrow
10:48:49
without sacrificing some of the special
10:48:52
characteristics that we have? We've got
10:48:54
to be balanced. We've got to be smart.
10:48:56
That's why it's so important to make sure
10:48:57
that the benefits of the growth are
10:48:59
spread throughout the city. If you only
10:49:02
have a certain corner of our city that is
10:49:05
prospering. And believe me, West Palm
10:49:07
Beach has seen growth spurts in the past.
10:49:08
But inevitably, there are certain
10:49:11
communities, certain neighborhoods,
10:49:12
certain zip codes that were left out and
10:49:15
left behind. I did not want that to
10:49:17
happen on my watch. You can't have Uber
10:49:21
wealthy within blocks of abject poverty.
10:49:25
That combination won't work. That is not
10:49:27
the model for a sustainable community.
10:49:29
So to me, it's very important that as we
10:49:33
do this change, as we create an
10:49:35
environment where change is welcome, that
10:49:38
we're smart about the growth. Yes, the
10:49:41
skyline is changing. There's more
10:49:44
traffic. But if we have more jobs for
10:49:49
people, if we have more opportunities,
10:49:51
whether it's in education, whether it's
10:49:53
in employment, whether it's in housing,
10:49:55
for folks who might not have otherwise
10:49:57
had those opportunities,
10:49:58
if we have more smarter mobility and
10:50:04
transportation options, where we're not
10:50:06
just moving people, but we're not just
10:50:08
moving cars, but we're moving people. If
10:50:11
we are more of a technologically savvy
10:50:14
city, okay? So we need to combine all of
10:50:17
those things as we think about growth.
10:50:19
But I'm not afraid of the naysayers who
10:50:21
say, "No, we just need to say the size
10:50:23
that we were when my grandfather came
10:50:26
here and settled down."
10:50:26
I'm very frank that West Palm Beach is no
10:50:29
longer your grandfather's West Palm
10:50:31
Beach. I'm not ashamed of that. But my
10:50:33
challenge continues to be as mayor of the
10:50:35
city to ensure that we
10:50:37
are smart about our growth.
10:50:39
Indeed, West Palm Beach is no longer our
10:50:42
grandfather's city. But a question I have
10:50:44
for you, what are the challenges that we
10:50:46
face making this city
10:50:48
our grandchildren's city?
10:50:50
Well, a couple of things. One is we have
10:50:54
to anticipate what the jobs of tomorrow
10:50:58
are going to be. We can't build based
10:51:03
upon old assumptions. We have to be wise
10:51:06
and anticipate what's coming down the
10:51:09
pike so that we can create an environment
10:51:11
in which those opportunities are being
10:51:15
created in our city.
10:51:17
We still have to stick to some of the
10:51:21
basics, though. And I go back to what I
10:51:24
was saying before. Public safety is,
10:51:26
indeed, job number one. We have to
10:51:29
continue to focus on that because if
10:51:32
people don't feel safe on the streets
10:51:35
that they walk, on the streets that they
10:51:36
live on, whether in the play--if their
10:51:38
kids don't feel safe, but they don't--as
10:51:40
a parent, they don't feel safe.
10:51:42
They don't feel that their kids are safe
10:51:44
in the playgrounds, in the schools. No
10:51:47
matter how many beautiful office
10:51:49
buildings we build, no matter how many
10:51:52
jobs we try to create, they won't be able
10:51:54
to take those jobs if we aren't smart
10:51:57
about public safety. So that's job one.
10:52:00
But the other thing is I, as the mayor of
10:52:03
the city, have to be intentional about
10:52:06
pursuing and making West Palm Beach a
10:52:08
community of opportunity for all. So when
10:52:10
I sit down with the CEOs and the CFOs of
10:52:14
companies that are looking to come here,
10:52:17
I have to be very candid and very upfront
10:52:19
about what my vision is.
10:52:21
And many times in those conversations,
10:52:24
I'll look the CEO--and the CFOs in the
10:52:27
eye, and I say, "Listen, you all are
10:52:29
going to be okay as
10:52:30
occupiers of the C-suite."
10:52:32
I say, "But I guarantee you the people
10:52:34
that you're looking to hire and retain
10:52:37
want to live in an inclusive, safe
10:52:40
community." And so that's my job to
10:52:43
continue to build that environment so
10:52:46
that companies will
10:52:47
continue to look to invest.
10:52:49
Let's take a snapshot. 2025. We're about
10:52:52
coming up on about halfway through. It's
10:52:55
been a tumultuous year.
10:52:57
Yeah.
10:53:00
Where are we? How do you feel about the
10:53:02
year? What are the positives and
10:53:04
negatives that you see for 2025?
10:53:07
I will start my answer to that question
10:53:10
by saying I'm an eternal optimist. I have
10:53:12
to be in this business. To me, the glass
10:53:16
is always half full.
10:53:17
And I'm just trying to get the glass more
10:53:19
full. So having prefaced my answer to
10:53:22
that, I am cautiously--I continue to be
10:53:27
optimistic about the future of our city.
10:53:29
And if you look at the geographical
10:53:33
location of where West Palm Beach
10:53:36
vis-a-vis the center of the universe,
10:53:39
Mar-a-Lago, I think that actually works
10:53:42
to the city's benefit.
10:53:44
Because, first of all, we, the city,
10:53:49
provide water to Mar-a-Lago, to the
10:53:52
resident of Mar-a-Lago. So it's in his
10:53:55
best interest that West Palm Beach
10:53:58
continues to be a healthy, vibrant city.
10:54:00
But I've also said publicly, and yes, I
10:54:05
do take advantage of that. And even
10:54:07
though we may be from different political
10:54:10
camps, I recognize the opportunity that
10:54:14
is being presented to us as being
10:54:16
literally right across the bridge from
10:54:19
the summer--or the winter White House.
10:54:22
I've had the opportunity to go over there
10:54:24
and address the president personally
10:54:26
about some of the initiatives that we're
10:54:27
looking to do here. And so that was an
10:54:31
opportunity to get an audience with him.
10:54:34
And I needed to do that because I am the
10:54:37
mayor of the city. So it's important that
10:54:39
he at least hopefully have a favorable
10:54:41
response to the person he knows as the
10:54:44
mayor of the city that's
10:54:46
literally right across the bridge.
10:54:47
But I've also stated publicly in another
10:54:49
form that--and this was at a board
10:54:52
meeting of the African American Mayors
10:54:54
Association. I'm a member of their board.
10:54:57
And this was in a meeting in January
10:55:00
shortly after the swearing
10:55:02
in of the new administration.
10:55:03
And I told my fellow board members, all
10:55:05
of whom are African American, I said,
10:55:07
"Listen, black mayors cannot, should not,
10:55:11
be the face of opposition
10:55:13
to this new administration."
10:55:15
I said, "It would be hazardous to your
10:55:18
personal political health and it would
10:55:21
also adversely affect your city." I mean,
10:55:23
we just have to be honest. We understand
10:55:25
the person who's
10:55:25
occupying the White House now.
10:55:27
I said, "But what is it--but we have to
10:55:28
be strategic in how we address the
10:55:31
challenges with which we are going to be
10:55:33
confronted in the upcoming
10:55:34
and under this administration."
10:55:35
And so I point out a couple things that I
10:55:40
think we as black mayors need to do. One
10:55:45
is we need to do a level set or a stress
10:55:51
test on what's going to happen if the
10:55:53
policies that we're hearing coming out of
10:55:55
Washington are indeed adopted, whether
10:55:57
there are certain grants that are going
10:55:59
to no longer be made, whether there's an
10:56:01
attack on DEI, and that might
10:56:03
affect--adversity affect the state.
10:56:05
The jobs that people might get. We need
10:56:08
to do that stress test and have that
10:56:12
data. Then we need to take that data to
10:56:15
the business people in our community, no
10:56:18
matter where you may be located. I happen
10:56:19
to be located right across the bridge.
10:56:20
Others will be in the Midwest. I don't
10:56:23
know West Coast, et cetera. But
10:56:24
inevitably, there will be members of the
10:56:27
business community who supported the new
10:56:33
president, which is fine.
10:56:34
But they're also members of your
10:56:37
community. So you need to sit down with
10:56:40
them, whether it's through a Chamber of
10:56:41
Commerce or whatever, the business
10:56:42
organization, or one-on-one, and share
10:56:46
with them the data that you as the mayor
10:56:48
and you and your team have put together
10:56:50
as to how these policies
10:56:52
will adversely affect our city.
10:56:54
This is not a national fight we're
10:56:56
fighting. This is a very localized
10:56:58
battle. And so I need you, Mr.
10:57:03
Businesswoman, A, to understand how our
10:57:07
city will be adversely affected, and then
10:57:10
B, work with me to take the message back
10:57:13
to the occupier of the White House and
10:57:16
say, "We need your help. What you're
10:57:19
doing now is going to adversely affect us
10:57:20
for the following reasons."
10:57:22
And I, the businessman talking, was a
10:57:26
supporter of yours, Mr. President. So I
10:57:29
need you to help me make my
10:57:30
community a stronger community.
10:57:32
In other words, we can't be out front in
10:57:34
this fight. We need to choose our allies
10:57:37
in this fight. But we have to do it based
10:57:40
upon data and not just
10:57:41
feelings or emotions.
10:57:42
So it's really a science that we're
10:57:45
looking at. You're looking at data and
10:57:47
making decisions, strategic decisions,
10:57:49
based on what the city really needs.
10:57:52
Absolutely. What the city needs and what
10:57:53
we anticipate the city will not get, or
10:57:57
the blowback that the city will receive
10:57:59
because of some things that are in place.
10:58:02
And it's also a messaging thing, right?
10:58:03
We have to be realistic, even though we
10:58:07
may strongly feel that DEI, diversity,
10:58:12
equality, and inclusion programs are
10:58:14
important. Let's be
10:58:17
realistic and change the name.
10:58:19
And let's not call it DEI, I call it
10:58:22
something else that is
10:58:24
more palatable to the taste.
10:58:27
Indeed. We have an opportunity here for
10:58:30
you to send a message to the residents of
10:58:33
West Palm Beach. Here we are, mid-2025.
10:58:37
What is that message?
10:58:38
The message is West Palm Beach is in very
10:58:43
good hands, and West Palm Beach is headed
10:58:45
in the right direction. We have a very
10:58:48
positive, upward trajectory.
10:58:54
And you have a leadership of the city
10:58:57
that is very focused and very intentional
10:59:00
about our growth, continuing to be
10:59:04
balanced and effective.
10:59:08
Mr. Mayor, thank you for your time today.
10:59:10
Thank you very much for having me.
10:59:12
And thank you for joining us. The City
10:59:14
Center podcast is a production of the
10:59:16
Communications Department for the City of
10:59:17
West Palm Beach. I'm Jerry Marcello.
10:59:20
We'll see you next time.