By Philip Marcelo

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Angel Taveras, a former congressional candidate and city Housing Court judge, announced his candidacy for mayor Thursday morning in the parking lot of an abandoned supermarket in Olneyville.

Taveras said the former Price-Rite Supermarket, where he had worked as a teenager, once represented jobs and a source of food for the impoverished neighborhood, but now stood as a symbol of a city "hungry for jobs and opportunity."

Telling his story of attending the city's public schools, being raised by his mother after his parents divorced, and making it to Harvard University, Taveras said he is running for mayor to ensure that every child has the same opportunities he had to find a better life.

The other declared candidates are Councilman John J. Lombardi and state Rep. Steven M. Costantino, both Democrats; Republican Dr. Daniel Harrop and Christopher Young, currently a Narragansett resident.

"I went from head Start to Harvard, but I never forgot my roots," he said. "This city has given me everything. That's why I want to give back."

More than 100 supporters crowded under a white tent to hear Taveras, a 39-year-old private attorney who lives in Mount Pleasant, as light rain fell.

He said he is the city's first Latino mayoral candidate.

Taveras was appointed by Mayor David N. Cicilline to serve as a part-time Housing Court judge in 2007 and was reappointed to a three-year term by the City Council earlier this month. He resigned from the court Feb. 19.

He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Second District in 2000 against incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. James Langevin.