Here are five things to look for in Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s second term
As Francis Suarez begins his second term as Miami’s mayor, he says he’s got several initiatives he wants to push in the coming years.
He’ll need support from five city commissioners, including Commissioner-elect Christine King and newly re-elected Commissioner Joe Carollo, to pursue his agenda. Suarez has limited power in City Hall — he has no vote on the commission, but he can veto legislation and hire and fire the city manager. So he’s left with the power to influence commissioners to vote for his proposals.
After winning another four years Tuesday, Suarez spoke about a few priorities during press interviews. Here are five initiatives to look out for as the mayor begins his second term.
Miami Freedom Park
A big-ticket item from Suarez’s first term that has yet to be realized is Miami Freedom Park, the $1 billion commercial and soccer stadium complex that would host home games for Major League Soccer team Inter Miami. Proposed by the team’s co-owners, Jorge and Jose Mas, the plan would allow the owners to build a mall, stadium, hotel and public park on city-owned Melreese golf course.
The leases needed to build Miami Freedom Park require approval from four commissioners. The complex set of agreements is expected to go before the commission in the near future, though even Suarez is hesitant to predict when that will be. Negotiations have crawled over the past few years, hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic and significant differences between the city and team owners on the terms of the deal.
“I’m not sure that there’s anything really left unresolved, and I say that with a lot of hesitation because every time I say that, there are things that are unresolved, to be honest, ” Suarez said told reporters on Wednesday.
Plan to reduce homelessness
The mayor said he will soon be unveiling a “functional zero” plan aimed at virtually eliminating homelessness on Miami’s streets.
He said in preparing the plan, which is expected to receive about $7 million in city funding, he approached multiple agencies that work to serve people living in the streets and asked what is needed to beef up their operations.
“It’s a collaboration with a variety of different organizations,” Suarez told the Miami Herald. “I basically went to them and said, ‘What’s your wish list? How do we get to zero?’”
Cultural facilities
Suarez said he wants to finally see three of Miami’s historic buildings restored: Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key, the Olympia Theater in downtown and the Coconut Grove Playhouse.
The Olympia, the former movie palace on Flagler Street with a crumbling facade, has long languished without renovation. Suarez said he believes the facility deserves some of the money from the $400 million Miami Forever bond, passed by voters in 2017.
“The [theater] deserves, at minimum, a $10 million contribution from the city’s Miami Forever bond. That’s something that I will propose,” Suarez said, adding that he hopes whoever operates the theater could contribute funds to do a complete renovation.
The mayor said the city is in the process of soliciting an operator for the Marine Stadium so the city can finish designs and pursue a makeover. The city already has $45 million earmarked for the project.
“We don’t want to build something that the operator can’t operate profitably,” Suarez said.
The mayor said he is discussing alternatives for how to reopen the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Competing camps in the public and in politics have fought over how to restore the theater. Suarez said he’s trying to bridge gaps in conversations with Miami-Dade County’s government.
Tech
Earlier this year, Suarez pushed to have $3 million in the city budget directed toward Venture Miami, an extension of City Manager Art Noriega’s office that would focus on attracting tech companies to Miami and connecting employers with the city’s tech workforce.
The project is an extension of the mayor’s sustained promotion of the Miami as a top destination for entrepreneurs. Miami residents can expect to see Suarez continue his marketer-in-chief role, hosting cafecito tech talks in his City Hall office and staying active on social media to boost the local industry.
‘Ignoring haters’
The mayor made it a point to push back against his critics after winning reelection Tuesday night. At his victory party on the Miami River, he said that his agenda includes increasing funding for police, “using our public lands for public good” and supporting resilience projects to help protect Miami from the impacts of climate change.
He said his administration would do it by focusing on issues that unite the city’s government — which is led by an often dysfunctional commission — and by paying less attention to his fiercest critics.
“We’re going to do this by working hard. We’re going to do this by not caring who gets the credit, and by ignoring the haters,” he said. “And you know who you are.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 7:08 PM.
