Come Wednesday, we won't have Manny Diaz to push around anymore.

Not that Miami's outgoing mayor ever allowed himself to be pushed anywhere he didn't want to go.

But he got a good share of grief. From neighborhood activists who saw his sweeping vision for a 21st century downtown literally overshadow their neighborhoods, even along Coral Way. From fiscal conservatives concerned about piling more debt on future generations for the new Marlins stadium, Museum Park and the Port of Miami tunnel. From cops and firefighters who fought any attempt to have their pensions and salaries trimmed for the new economic reality.

Grief, grief and more grief. And don't get us started on the debacle of the fire fee.

Still, he turned around Miami's national reputation as a dysfunctional and poor city -- particularly after Miami's bankruptcy in the 1990s -- a town more concerned about Fidel than finances.

History, I predict, will be kind to Manny. The downtown high-rises will be filled, and his Miami 21 blueprint for future growth already is a national model that just needs time to show it can work.

``Money'' Diaz, as his critics disdainfully call him, also followed through on the potholes, helping the homeless, code enforcement and fighting crime. People forget just what a mess the city was in when the state had to install an oversight committee to clean up the books. They forget the police-involved shootings, one after the other, the lawsuits, the tourists' fears about crime.

By the time Diaz became mayor, the economy worked in his favor and his vision mattered -- not just to downtown but poor and working-class neighborhoods that saw 4,000 new affordable homes and apartments built in eight years, thanks to ``Money.'' It was a transformation not seen since the Brickell renaissance that another former mayor, Maurice Ferre, helped create.

With every indicator you look at, you'll find improvements in new sewers, sidewalks, Coral Gables-like landscaped street circles in Miami's blue-collar neighborhoods, ``green'' initiatives with city-owned hybrid vehicles, more parks, and the expansion of homeless services despite the housing agency scandals.

His goal of a denser downtown makes utmost sense if we are to steer development away from the county's western marshy boonies. Ideally, Miami 21 would have been in place before the cranes built the downtown towers, but even those taller buildings along Coral Way that have too little parking and hurt the character of the residential neighborhoods behind them were not the mayor's doing. They were built under the old ``anything goes'' code.

I disagreed with the mayor on the baseball stadium, but even that deal wasn't as bad for the city -- which will actually get some money from the parking garages -- than it may be for the county, which is stuck with the bulk of stadium construction costs.

Time doesn't stand still, and Diaz made it work. This isn't My-ami, the Miami I grew up in, the sleepy 1960s town or the 1970s Que Pasa, USA? culture shock or the 1980s cocaine-crazed Miami Vice era. It's a more sophisticated, international place, with cultural offerings that are the envy of most other cities our size.

Diaz's vision helped bring young professionals to live in Mary Brickell Village, more families and businesses to the Upper East Side, a revival of the Design Destrict, Little Haiti and Little Havana. Young families populate the Roads and other neighborhoods where once they would have moved to the county's suburbs. Even ever-struggling Overtown has had more attention, though not enough to make the type of transformative changes Diaz wanted.

Tomás Regalado's election last week can be seen as a repudiation of Diaz's eight years or simply a matter of timing. Regalado, if he's true to his fiscal conservatism, can do the one thing that Diaz regrets he didn't pay enough attention tountil too late: city pensions.

But today it's not about Tomásito's challenge but Manny's legacy. He leaves behind a changed city, even in these worst of times, a more dynamic and livable place we love to call home.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@