Raleigh man who helped rescue woman during 9/11 attacks, running for City Council
A man who helped rescue a woman from the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks is running for Raleigh City Council.
John Cerqueira, 44, announced his candidacy for the council’s District E seat Wednesday.
“Where I think I can be most valuable is leveraging my experience helping understand complex issues with multiple, different viewpoints,” he said, “to find a path forward where we’re listening to each other and collaborating with each other, versus in our own corners fighting about it.”
After graduating with a degree in management from N.C. State University in May 2001, Cerqueira’s first job was working with a telecommunications company on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. He was there when the planes hit the Twin Towers.
“On the way down my boss and I happened upon a woman who’s a wheelchair user on the 68th floor,” he said. “And we ... picked her up and headed down the rest of the stairs. And we all got out of the building, about five minutes before it collapsed.”
Their actions made national news with Cerqueira and his boss, Mike Benfante, appearing in news articles and television programs in the months after.
“I think my experience on 9/11 gave me an exposure to how precious life is and how we use our time and the value of service and respecting first responders, police, firefighters, EMTs. And so that was my first exposure to real public service,” said Cerqueira, who lives with his wife and 11-year-old daughter in the Five Points neighborhood.
Cerqueira co-founded Skate Raleigh, a public-private partnership with the city of Raleigh, to bring a skatepark to the Smoky Hollow Park on Capital Boulevard.
About Raleigh’s District E
District E covers northwest Raleigh, an area that has seen four different representatives during the last four elections: Bonner Gaylord, Stef Mendell, David Knight and, now, Christina Jones, who is running for re-election.
There’s a public perception that District E’s representatives have swung between pro-build and no-build, Cerqueira said.
“I think the pendulums have swung too far in each cycle and there’s merit in having us be more centrist and be more thoughtful about circumstance by circumstance, versus just having a blanket opinion about one policy or another,” he said.
District E residents, in particular homeowners in the Hayes Barton neighborhood, have been critical of the city’s “Missing Middle” changes that make it easier to build denser housing like townhomes without a rezoning. Some Hayes Barton residents sued the city after planned $2 million townhomes no longer had to go through a rezoning.
The idea of increasing housing supply to meet demand has value, Cerqueira said, but there is an “impression of lack of engagement and participation with areas that were going to be most impacted.”
“That feels to me like the controversy was a function of just not getting all parties to the table to have a deep discussion,” he said. “And I think people just didn’t feel heard and part of that decision. And so that felt like that was fueling the backlash.”
The City Council has grown divisive, he said, with arguments among council members and the mayor making news.
“That feels like it’s driving an unnecessarily combative tone that prevents collaboration and people being able to see all sides clearly and to thoughtfully explore the best option forward,” Cerqueira said.
His early backers include former Raleigh mayors Charles Meeker and Smedes York, he said.
Filing for the 2024 elections runs from July 5 to July 19. The election is Nov. 5.
This story was originally published March 20, 2024 at 8:14 AM.
