our careers in the private sector. And both of us entered government with a philosophy based on pragmatism, not ideology.
Unlike members of Congress, mayors don’t have the luxury of spending their days holding ideological debates. We are elected to solve problems that affect people’s everyday lives—from fighting crime to fixing potholes. Neither of us believes that, when it comes to governing and public policy, one party has a monopoly on good ideas or truth. As New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said in the 1930s, “There is no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the trash.” That is still true today. The problem is that now, both parties spend more time maneuvering around problems—in order to position themselves to win the next election—than they do fixing them.
Mayor Diaz and I both became Independents because we saw how, all too often, partisanship stands in the way of progress. The fact is, members of the two parties agree on far more than they admit. But for self-serving political reasons, they would rather engage in combat than collaboration. By and large, mayors put aside partisan differences to find common ground on the most important issues—and few have done it as effectively as Manny Diaz. This book is not only a great American success story—Manny is the son of immigrants who worked his way to the top—but it is also a valuable lesson in the art of pragmatic politics.
Many of the issues I’ve worked on with Manny have been ones that produce mostly gridlock in Washington—including the most urgent, illegal guns. In 2006, we launched a bi-partisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which today has over 600 members around the country. As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Manny was instrumental in helping the coalition grow—and helping us recruit Democratic, Republican, and Independent mayors. When it comes to illegal guns, both parties in Washington are beholden to special interests—and paralyzed by the fear that talking about the issue will hurt their reelection chances. But mayors see the deadly consequences of illegal guns every day—and we have an obligation to act.
The first responsibility of any mayor is to protect public safety. And mayors owe our police officers—and their families—our commitment to do everything possible to keep illegal guns off the streets. The vast majority of crimes committed with guns are committed by people—felons or the mentally ill—who are not legally allowed to possess a gun. The message that our mayors’ coalition has brought to Washington is simple: enforce the laws preventing criminals and the mentally ill from getting guns. It’s a message that more than 80 percent of gun owners agree with. Washington, however, remains more interested in ideological debates than pragmatic steps to enforce the law that would save lives.
Although illegal guns are a national problem, mayors understand that we cannot wait for Washington to act. And in Miami, Mayor Diaz refused to allow key public safety matters to be driven by local politics. Despite local opposition, he conducted a national search for a police chief, and ended up hiring one of New York’s Finest: John Timoney. During Mayor Diaz’s tenure, crime fell dramatically in Miami, with the homicide rate dropping 76 percent from its highest point (similar to what we saw happen in New York). Only a few U.S. cities experienced a greater decrease in crime during the last decade.
Driving down crime is just one area where the mayor refused to allow the gridlock in Washington to prevent local action. For example, while very little is happening to address climate change in our nation’s capital, cities are leading the way. Under Mayor Diaz, Miami became a leader in the green buildings movement. And when I was in Miami a few years ago, I got a first-hand look at some of the public transit solutions Mayor Diaz had championed. They not only helped improved people’s commuting time, but helped reduce pollution too.
On issue after issue, Mayor Diaz brought an entrepreneurial spirit to Miami’s City Hall—and in New York City we were glad to be his partner on many initiatives. Together, we convinced the federal government to create an Urban Innovation Fund to support forward-thinking, hard-hitting antipoverty programs like New York’s Center for Economic Opportunity and ACCESS Miami. As members of the Cities for Financial Empowerment coalition, we’ve worked to find new ways to help low-income families stabilize their finances and savings. When Mayor Diaz started the Mayors’ Alliance for Green Schools with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, New York signed on as a member. And when Mayor Diaz helped led the charge for nonpartisan redistricting—so that legislative districts are not carved up to protect incumbents—I gladly lent my support.
This openness to collaboration also led Mayor Diaz to form partnerships with the private sector on many critical local issues. Government cannot accomplish everything by itself, but that is no excuse for inaction. Through public-private partnerships, mayors can invest in neighborhoods, tackle difficult social problems, and spur economic growth. In New York, these partnerships have been critical to our success in a wide variety of areas—from revitalizing parks to launching incubators for small businesses to fighting poverty. In Miami, Manny leveraged public-private partnerships to improve the quality of life for residents—and attract billions of dollars in new investment. By making Miami an even more powerful magnet for residents and visitors, he made it an even more powerful magnet for businesses looking to expand and grow.
Manny Diaz was a great mayor, and he will go down in history as one of our country’s most innovative urban leaders because he put progress before partisanship—and because he never stopped asking, “Why not?” His legacy will be defined not only by a soaring skyline, but also by cutting-edge policies that made Miami a national leader on urban issues. That work will not only benefit Miami for generations to come: it will influence cities around the country and the world. Now more than ever, not only are cities competing with each other in a global marketplace; we are learning from one another. And as you will read in these pages, there is a great deal to learn from Manny Diaz’s experience in Miami.
Miami
Transformed
Introduction
I WROTE THIS BOOK because the focus of politics in America has to change.
Many politicians write memoirs and biographies, filled with anecdotes and personal recollections from their term in office. There is a lot of that in these pages. It is also my hope that you will find something much more important. My premise is that we need to restore pragmatism in politics through a renewed investment in our cities. Unless we do so, we will continue to head down a very perilous road.
I understand I am not the first to say this. Yet, it is a painful realization. This is especially true given my background: born in another country, a political exile in the United States, the country that took me in, where I grew up and came to deeply appreciate and love the liberty and boundless opportunity this nation provides. My personal and professional experience—from immigrant, to businessman, to mayor of a major American city—have brought me to this conclusion: to rebuild America, we must rebuild our cities, making investments in the people and places that make us great, and make us who we are.
I HAVE SPENT my life as an observer and student of politics, from high school class president to serving as mayor of Miami for eight years, but I’ve never seen the political landscape as bad as it is now. What we need is a return to basics, a return to cities, to the political unit closest to the people. Life has taught me that history is always about choices, those moments and defining times when one can take a path that leads to a conclusion. A true leader can help you understand and make those choices. What path are we on now?
We’ve all heard the dire statistics. But in America, no matter how bad things have been, there has always been hope for the future, that the next generation would be better off. Our national forebears forged a revolution, survived a Civil War, fought two World Wars, defeated fascism and communism, and brought the advent of gender and racial equality, always believing the hope and promise of this nation—that tomorrow
