YOUNG

PROVIDENCE — Perennial candidate Christopher F. Young is the first challenger to declare his intention to run for mayor in 2010 against incumbent Democrat David N. Cicilline.

Young, 40, a Democrat, would face Cicilline in a primary. He currently resides at 4 Angell Rd. in Narragansett and is a registered voter there, but Young says he intends to change his voting and residency status in time to meet the requirements for running in the city election.

He says he wants to put an end to corruption in City Hall and is critical of what he views as the mayor’s failure to address rising unemployment, crime, foreclosures and a failing public school system.

“The mayor clearly has no ability in improving the city. Otherwise Forbes magazine would not have named Providence the most unlivable city in America. City councilors, some of whom may be my opponents in this race, have not done their jobs, either,” Young said.

He called for Cicilline to resign immediately. “There’s obviously a high level of corruption in the city and that’s why people are moving out,” said Young.

Cicilline, 47, declined to comment on Young’s remarks or his bid for mayor, saying in a statement that he is “looking forward to the 2010 campaign.”

Cicilline announced in March that he would seek a third term, ending speculation that he would run for governor or Congress.

An activist who founded the National Civil Rights Coalition, a group that advocates for student loan-related issues, Young has run unsuccessfully for several offices –– sometimes simultaneously –– in the past.

In 2000, Young ran against Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat. In 2002, he took on Cicilline in the mayoral race. In 2004, he ran against incumbent state Rep. Paul E. Moura, a Democrat.

In 2006, he ran against Reed again, and in the Democratic primary against Cicilline, where he got more than 25 percent of the vote. (Technically, Young says, he announced his intention to run for mayor in 2010 shortly after his losses in those Democratic primaries, but that announcement did not garner any media coverage.)

“I have no plans at this moment to run for any other office,” said Young, who graduated from Boston University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1993 and graduated from Classical High School in Providence in 1986.

Young says he wants to shut down public schools that were built on contaminated land. He wants to bury the section of Route 95 that passes through the center of the city –– similar to Boston’s Big Dig –– to create jobs and stem unemployment.

And he wants to address the foreclosure crisis by bringing business into the city. “The real solution is employment,” he said.

Young has not raised any campaign funds so far, and says that he does not intend to raise any money for the campaign. According to the most recent campaign finance reports filed with the state Board of Elections, Cicilline’s campaign has raised $723,702.

pmarcelo@projo.com