Rodgers, Do have different plans to alleviate traffic woes

Boca Raton voters will choose between incumbent Jeremy Rodgers and political newcomer Kim Do for Seat C in the March 13 election.

Registered voters in the city limits can cast ballots in elections for two seats on the council: Seat C and Seat D.

Boca is is going through a major transition, with large apartment buildings already up in the newly named Midtown and in downtown Boca. The new buildings are expected to bring more residents and traffic to city streets.

Developers are asking the city to consider adding 2,500 new apartments or condos over 10 years in Midtown, an area on Military Trail between Camino Real and 19th Street.

“The investment in the area is badly needed … but it needs to be done right,” Rodgers said, adding that many apartments “is probably too much.”

Do said she’s waiting for a master plan to set height restrictions. “Demographics are changing — millennials want micro apartments, different sizes for changing needs,” she said.

Both candidates want to alleviate traffic and add parking in the downtown. Do supports free shuttles run by private companies. Rodgers is for circulators to the beaches and a proposed parking garage downtown.

Do supports the proposed second Tri-Rail station on the old King’s Market site in Midtown. The city’s new planned mobility districts with offices and close-by living space is designed to take traffic off the roads, Rodgers said.

Rodgers voted against the city’s sale of its municipal golf course to a residential developer to preserve green space. The city has since chosen GL Homes to buy the course.

“I voted against fire fees and twice against pensions that are going to result in increased taxes,” he said. “My Mizner 200 vote forced the developer to put small publicly accessible parks in front.”

A computer security team leader with IBM for 18 years with a master’s degree in computer engineering, Rodgers has championed tech start-ups, a continuation of the jobs creation and technology platform he ran on in 2015.

Rodgers is also a cryptological warfare officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He grew up in an Army family, mostly in New York and St. Louis, Mo. He moved to Boca Raton in 1997.

Do has tax law and accounting degrees and a background in international business in Vietnam. She worked there after a stint in Washington, where she’s still a member of the bar. She came to the U.S. as a teenager with her family from Vietnam in 1983 and moved to Boca Raton in 2017.

Both candidates are parents. Rodgers and his wife Mandy have four children from ages 1 to 9. His oldest two are home schooled and one also attends a program at Calusa Elementary School. Two are too young for school.

Do is a single mother with two children who attend Boca Raton Middle School. She wants to “push for additional solutions for a new high school” in the city and says school overcrowding was her impetus for running.

Rodgers supports the Palm Beach County School District’s approval to build a new elementary school on the same campus as Don Estridge High Tech Middle School on Military Trail and Spanish River Boulevard.

“We want Boca kids to stay in Boca schools,” he said.

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