Mayor Manny Díaz
State of the City Address, 2005
THE NEW DESTINY
Fellow Miamians, Chairman Sanchez, Vice–Chairman Gonzalez, members of the City Commission, City employees, elected officials, members of the Miami Consular Corps, and distinguished guests and friends. I welcome you and thank you for being here.
Estimados ciudadanos de la ciudad de Miami, les quiero dar la bienvenida.
Bonswa Mesdam et Messieurs, moin ta rémen salué citoyen Miami yo.
A little over 3 years ago, I stood before you to deliver my first state of the city address.
At that time, Miami was at a crossroads in its history.
Years of neglect – of financial instability and of political crises had fractured our city – and Miami faced the prospect of continued decay.
As we hit rock bottom – the world had lost faith in the Magic City – and worse of all... we seemed to have lost faith in ourselves.
On that day, I stood before you to issue a challenge – to end the days when differences divided us – to think of ourselves as one city, and to work together toward one future.
For I believed then that we were not doomed to the inevitable decline that so many had come to expect – because we are too great a City – too great a people – to limit ourselves to that fate.
I offered this challenge with a great sense of optimism because I never lost faith in the people of Miami.
I knew that the spirit which at the turn of the last century built a Magic City from a swamp – could one hundred years later rebuild that same City.
To take on this challenge, I first turned to our City Commissioners.
There was a time not too long ago when the Commission engaged in turf wars, fighting over parochial issues in meetings that would usually last past midnight. City Hall came to be known as Silly Hall, a circus famous for entertaining the many, but serving the very few.
Today, I am proud to say that our Commissioners help each other; they work together, and act in concert to promote the best interests of the entire City.
They have raised the public discourse, not driven by personality or demagoguery, but by good, sound public policy. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the way it is supposed to be.
I am honored to be a part of this team; I am pleased that each of you will have the opportunity to chair the Commission; and I am especially proud of a four year record that is devoid of a Mayoral veto.
We could not be here today without your hard work, your commitment and your love for our City. Commissioners, you deserve enormous credit for restoring political stability and decorum to our city. I thank you for your support, for answering my call to greatness, for your loyalty to this cause, but, more importantly, I thank you for your friendship.
Please join me in recognizing their efforts in taking your City to previously unimaginable heights. Joe Sanchez, Angel Gonzalez, Johnny Winton, Tomas Regalado and Jeff Allen.
I want to thank our great City employees. Led by a new managerial team, headed by City Manager, Joe Arriola..... We changed the culture, we fixed City Hall, and we made it work.
By changing the way business had always been done, we have managed our costs, improved our productivity, and enhanced the delivery of service to our residents.
And in so doing, we embarked upon the most complete overhaul of local government in our City’s history.
In the past, politics and self–preservation were the order of the day. Today, a sense of public service and pride has been restored among our employees. Today, our employees feel a sense of ownership in our City’s future.
I know that change is at times challenging – especially in government.
But I also know that in change, there is opportunity.
Joe, I want to thank you and all of our city employees for accepting this challenge, and embracing this opportunity.
And finally, I want to thank the people of Miami. During the last decade, our City took your money to bail itself out of bankruptcy.
Higher taxes, higher fees, the highest millage rate in history – Making an already poor city the poorest city in the nation. This ingenious approach by our predecessors contributed to a 43 percent increase in our poverty rate during the end of the last century.
During my first budget address, I made a pledge to you... that during this decade, we would give your money back.
My pledge was a ½ mill reduction over 5 years that would result in savings to our residents of $21 million.
Instead, as a result of our unprecedented economic revitalization and greater operational efficiencies, we will reduce our millage rate by 3/4 of a mill over four years, a greater reduction in less time than I pledged.
As a result, we will return to our residents $42 million, double the amount pledged.
And this too I pledge, that we will continue to lower the millage rate in the years to come, and that the fire fee, as we know it today, will no longer be a permanent fixture in future budgets.
Cuando la cuidad se vio en bancarrota, lo mas facil fue pasarle la cuenta a los contribuyentes – más impuestos y más tarifas.
Yo, por lo contrario, prometí que en esta década, les iba a devolver su dinero – Hemos bajado sus impuestos, bajado las tarifas, y les hemos ahorrado 42 millones de dólares.
It is a privilege to serve the people of Miami... as public office is a bond of trust given to us by those we are honored to serve. You trusted me with your future. You trusted me with the future of our City.
You trusted me to create a New Destiny...
One in which we do not fear identifying our problems; one in which we do not fear talking about our difficulties; one in which we stop making excuses, stop finger pointing and stop glossing over the maladies that befall our City and hiding them behind pretty pictures and shimmering skyscrapers.
On the contrary – we identified our problems and we took them head on.
Sometimes the answers were obvious, other times they were creative, but they all had a common thread, a sense that it was up to us to control the destiny of our city.
Poverty was the most important challenge facing us.
Job creation became a top priority – because having a job is the best way for someone to control their own destiny.
Our economic development plan set out to remedy this condition by creating a climate where the opportunity for prosperity would spread to each and every neighborhood.
What was once the poorest city in the nation is now among its top 10 generators of new jobs.
In the last two years, we have cut our unemployment rate by over 50%.
Make no mistake, this prosperity is a result of an economic plan that fosters a never before seen climate of expansion and growth.
And, for the first time ever, the city targeted funds for poverty reduction
Because many factors contribute to poverty, we fought it on several fronts.
Over eighty percent of our eligible residents now claim Earned Income Tax Credits totaling over 125 million dollars.
Our small business and micro lending programs fortified the backbone of the small business economy.
We created job training and financial literacy programs.
We helped the most vulnerable among us – increasing access to Kid Care and protecting the meals of our senior citizens.
Today, we are no longer the poorest city in America.
I pledge to continue the fight against poverty so that we will never again have that shameful distinction.
Jose Marti dijo, “Con los pobres de la tierra quiero yo mi suerte echar.” Como alcalde, implemente varias medidas para eliminar la triste distinción de ser la ciudad mas pobre de la nación. Hoy, somos líderes nacionales en la creación de empleos, hemos protegido a nuestros niños y ciudadanos mayores, y hoy ya no somos la ciudad más pobre, y seguiré luchando para que nunca lo sea de nuevo.
We set out to make it possible for our people to achieve the dream of homeownership. During the last decade, homeownership rates in Miami were among the lowest in the nation.
By investing in our neighborhoods, we have attracted private development – nearly 17,000 affordable housing units targeted at the working middle class.
We have also quadrupled the investment and production of subsidized housing – creating 3,000 new units for low income families.
And our efforts will continue.
I am directing the Miami 21 effort to incorporate inclusionary zoning. Our new code should include incentives for developers to build and finance affordable housing.
Our goal to create affordable home ownership opportunities will also include our own employees. In the next few months, I will present a plan to the Commission that will provide financial incentives so that our employees can live where they work.
Recognizing that a failing public school system short changes our children and our future, we have taken control of an area where past Mayors adopted an “It’s not my job” attitude.
When we saw that our schools were among the lowest performing in the state, we did not sit back and accept this fate. Instead, we jumped in and agreed to share the responsibility for our children’s future.
Our parks are now centers of learning and offer year–round after school programs and tutoring in reading, math and science. Our E–Parks program will build computer labs in all of our major parks.
Because children benefit from positive role models, my Mentoring Initiative has now spread to eleven city of Miami elementary schools.
Today we have with us Rakisha Perry a student in our after school program at Holmes Elementary. After being held back in third grade last year, Rakisha improved her FCAT scores dramatically, over 350 points in reading, and 240 points in math.
Please join me in congratulating fourth grader Rakisha Perry.
The last decade allowed our neighborhoods to be stripped of their hope and robbed of potential investment.
Here too, we set out to create a new destiny.
We initiated an ambitious neighborhood agenda focusing our resources to bring back all of our neighborhoods.
We have lowered crime in every neighborhood and in every category to record lows. And more importantly our police have earned the confidence and trust of our citizens, as well as the respect of the world. This Miami Model has become the benchmark for the international law enforcement community.
We have committed one billion dollars through the end of this decade to our infrastructure – without raising any additional taxes. Our streets are cleaner. Our environment is being protected.
Our parks budget has increased by 38%. And by the end of this decade, one will find vibrant parks all throughout our city.
Our quality of life task force has attacked the offenses and chronic ills characteristic of a government that is indifferent and uncaring…
Prostitution, gambling, abandoned cars, illegal dumping, illegal cafeterias, illegal units and unsafe structures are all down.
Our homeless population has decreased by 35%.
Today our neighborhoods are livable – the economic, cultural, and civic generators of our city.
Hemos re–establecido la importancia de nuestros vecindarios, aumentando nuestra inversion por mil millones de dólares para fortalecer nuestra infraestructura, sin aumentar ni un centavo en los impuestos.
Hoy, tenemos menos crimen, menos desamparados, mejores parques – nuestros vecindarios son los centros comerciales, culturales, y cívicos de nuestra ciudad.
Hemos logrado que los ojos del mundo estén sobre nosotros… hemos honrado el trabajo y sacrificio de las previas generaciones… hemos logrado nuestro potencial futuro… siguiendo nuestro camino al Nuevo Destino.
Having accomplished all of this, it would now be easy for us to rest on our laurels – to sit back – content to know that we have certainly exceeded expectations.
Our efforts have attracted the attention of others — we are now in an enviable position where the eyes of the world are upon us.
Sir Winston Churchill once said: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
We have launched the definitive effort to control our own destiny, Miami 21.
This is the most ambitious urban plan of the 21st Century, giving our citizens a voice in what the future of our city will look like – restoring beauty and pride to our public realm.
Few generations are given this opportunity – to take a city from good to great.
It was such in 1811, when the Commissioners’ Plan for New York developed the plan for Manhattan – an event that defined that city’s prominence for two centuries and beyond.
It was such in 1853, when Baron Haussmann transformed Paris from an overgrown medieval city into one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
And it was such in 1906, when Daniel Burnham produced a plan for Chicago – turning that city into an architectural marvel.
Today, it is our turn.
It has been said of destiny that it is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice.
It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
Now is the time we stop talking about potential.
Now is the time to end the years when our city was resigned to failure, when getting by was good enough; when we dreamt small because we lacked confidence – or when we failed to dream at all.
Now is the time to take our rightful place as one of the world’s greatest cities.
Now is our time – this is the state of our city – a rare and defining moment to honor our debt to the past, and fulfill our duty to the future.
Now is our New Destiny.
Thank you and God Bless.