Brian K. Rice felt at ease as he sat at a sidewalk table of Rojo, a Latin and American food restaurant on Highland Avenue.

He acknowledged that some don’t feel as comfortable in the area he calls home.

“The name Ensley has a very negative connotation in Birmingham,” said Rice, who’s running to unseat incumbent Randall Woodfin as mayor of Birmingham. “Just yesterday, I was standing in front of the building, and I see and hear multiple gunshots. But I choose to live there when many never come back.

“I make over six figures. I can live in a lot of other places but I choose to live there,” the 45-year-old mechanical engineer said. “But here I just feel safe and at peace right now because of the trees, the environment. I don’t feel like I’m looking over my shoulders in the same way.”

Rice said he knows the dangers of his community. He said he’s committed to figuring out how to get resources to under-resourced communities so people living in those areas can know the peace he felt in Highland Park.

“When I come over here and I feel peace, I feel safe,” he said. “It’s frustrating because I know we can make sure there’s a strong Highland, make sure there’s a strong Avondale, make sure there’s a strong Crestwood. But then we also can make sure there’s a strong Ensley, North Birmingham, a Pratt City and a West End.

“One of my messages is, if we can have a strong Lakeview and Avondale and Highland, we can have a strong Ensley, Central Park and West End and Wylam,” the candidate said. “We can do it. It’s not going to be easy because it’s been so many years where these communities have been neglected and intentionally neglected.”

Rice said it’s always easy to invest where investors have gone for years. It’s not easy, he said, to go where the incentives haven’t yet appeared.

“We can change it, but we have to get resources,” Rice said. “We can create safe spaces, but we have to get resources. That’s the No. 1 reason why I’m choosing to run.”

Rice is originally from North Smithfield Manor and a product of Ramsay High School. His mother grew up in Roosevelt City and taught at Parker High School for more than 30 years. His father grew up in Woodlawn.

Rice said many know him as the property owner who received a zero-value appraisal of the buildings he owns in downtown Ensley, which include the one in which he lives. But, he said, it’s not just about Ensley.

“We’ve got to make sure that we get resources to a downtown North Birmingham,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to properly support people in a Harriman Park and a Collegeville. That look may be different because of the environmental concerns. We’ve gotta make sure we’re thinking about a Powderly and a West End. We have to think about that, and we have to think about the corridor of Third Avenue in Central Park.”

Rice compared Wylam to a desolate movie set with buildings that are not in use.

“We want to make sure we get life in these buildings,” he said. “My focus is: How do we restore buildings, not tear them down? How do we develop properties? How do we create more businesses, which create more jobs, which support more families, which also gives to the kids and also gets to a better community?

“That’s the focus,” Rice continued. “Now that the focus is broader, I’ve been studying it for awhile but Ensley was a proving ground, or a testing ground. (That’s) probably the largest underserved business district in the city. But it’s not just about Ensley.”

There are seven announced candidates for mayor. Three of those candidates – Woodfin, state Rep. Juandalynn Givan and Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales – are already in elected office. But Rice refuses to see himself as an underdog to the political veterans.

“I would never look at them as heavyweights,” Rice said. “I would never put them on a pedestal like that. That’s what they did in the Bible. The children of Isreal (upon their arrival to the promised land of Canaan) looked at themselves as grasshoppers and the inhabitants as giants. I would never give anybody that much power over my mind.”

Rice said the incumbent has the wrong kind of experience.

“Woodfin has eight years in City Hall and so much in (other areas of public service),” he said. “It is the experience of our public officials that I’m concerned about. There’s experience of turning a blind eye to the hurting. There’s experience of turning a blind eye to documents that show that this is wrong and it’s hurting our communities, but they will not speak up.”

Other candidates in the race for mayor are Kamau Afrika, Jerimy Littlepage and Frank Woodson. The deadline to file to run in the municipal elections is July 11. The election is Aug. 26.

Rice places the economy and ethics on the top rung of his platform.

“I want to limit the potential of public servants or public officials putting themselves above the people,” the candidate said. “I do not want there to be corruption (because) that removes public trust. Economy and ethics protect public trust.”

On “Day One” of his administration, Rice said he would give the City Council permission to put together a study on the best way to change the Mayor-Council Act. He cited the inability of council members to answer citizen questions about the budget, which is generated by the mayor’s office.

“The executive branch should not silence the legislative branch,” he said. “We have to get to a separation of powers.”

Similarly, Rice proposes that the City Council have its own legal representation.

“The City Council, who is the legislative branch, must have their own independent attorney,” he said. “The executive branch attorney, who is hand selected, can’t be the attorney for the legislative branch with a budget of $591 million. For a small city, it makes sense because you’re trying to save money. You’ve got a separation of power issue.”

The final plank in Rice’s platform addresses crime prevention. He said it’s not enough to call for more gun laws, as some have done.

“We have to come up with crime prevention so we can alter the mind and alter destructive paths,” Rice said. “We have to alter destructive paths, give them a chance to have more jobs, to have workforce development, to have entrepreneurship development (and) give the community a chance.”

Visit Rice’s campaign website for more information.