Archive for the 'State of the City Address' Category

Miami’s First Green Mayor

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on April 26, 2007
in Manny Diaz, Mayor Diaz, Miami, Miami 21, Sprawl, State of the City Address, Streetcar and Sustainability
. 12 Comments

The Mayor delivered an historic, encouraging speech today at the State of the City Address yesterday. Among the major items mentioned by the Mayor, there was a heavy emphasis on becoming a greener, more sustainable city. In support, he mentioned that Miami 21, the Streetcar, higher densities, green buildings, and an improved parks system are crucial to accomplishing these goals. The Mayor even went so far as to challenge everyone in the City to change their traditional light bulbs to compact fluorescent ones, which save loads of energy and subsequently cut down significantly on CO2 emissions. As you can see from these statements, as well as quotes below, the Mayor was very critical of sprawl and clearly understands the dynamics of sustainability:

  • “We will move away from government policies that invest in sprawl”.
  • “Cities (incl. Miami) have been planned around cars and not people - well, not anymore. We need to move away from government policies that invest in sprawl”.
  • “Make no mistake, the low density suburban sprawl the characterizes growth in South Florida is the true enemy to sustainability…the cure for sprawl is a return to the core, bringing people together so they can live, work, shop and play close to where they live”.
  • “The message will be clear, you either build green (in Miami), or don’t built at all”.
  • “We need to invest in a streetcar system today, like the one we used to have. And, we must do it while we can still afford it. Rather than wait years and Miamians (wonder) why we failed to act, a streetcar system is an inevitable solution - Miami can either pay for it now, or pay for it later - leaving future generations to pay a much, much higher bill to ensure sustainability”.
When he made the last statement above about the streetcar, I shook my head. Both publicly and privately, I’ve been using almost that identical line for at least a year now to help explain the value of going through with the streetcar project. Miamians should be excited that they finally have a Mayor that gets it. People need to start looking at what has/likely will be accomplished under his terms:

Considering that Miami was a nearly bankrupt, sprawling, quasi-urban mess with a junk bond rating just 10 years ago, it puts into perspective the historic legacy of Mayor Diaz and you’ve really got to give props to what he has done for the City, at least from an urban planning and livability perspective.