As Miami mayor chases high-flying, high-tech dream, he can’t forget people stuck on the ground | Editorial
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has seen the city’s future and looks like Silicon Valley — but fueled by cafecito. And if Greater Miami makes the most of the assets that has put it in contention to land the tech firms and startups that are fleeing San Francisco, New York and other high-cost cities, Suarez’s vision could actually happen.
But the impact of those companies — the sky-high paydays and the soaring housing costs that resulted — further damaged those cities’ livability for middle and working class residents.
Miami already is headed in that direction without the tech hub that’s envisioned. Allapattah, Little Haiti, Wynwood are all in the path of gentrification. Displacement is real, as are low-paying jobs, still-inadequate transportation and too many elected officials preference to see luxury condos where humble, but solid housing stock stood.
Stop brain drain
Luring tech will be a beneficial game changer in Greater Miami, bringing the kinds of high-skilled jobs that smart local students can graduate into. It can slow the brain drain, enhance our universities. But, as we said, Silicon Valley — Apple, Facebook and Google are among the most familiar names — has its downside. And if Miami is to be the city that works for everyone, as its boosters like to say, the potential negatives can’t be overlooked in the zeal to transform the city’s professional landscape.
That’s why there are two words that Suarez should heed: ALICE Report. That’s stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, the United Way’s sweeping survey, looking at households with income above the federal poverty level but below the basic cost of living. The stats are sobering: 250,000 households in Greater Miami earn less that $35,000. It’s worth asking how the tech industry will enhance their lives.
“Silicon Valley” and “Miami” have been enthusiastically paired in the same breath for years. But there were too many missing links — venture capital, for instance — for the idea to gain traction. That’s all changed, however, thanks in no small part to the Miami-headquartered James L. and John S. Knight Foundation and entreprenuer Manny Medina investing in their own visions of a tech-strong Miami.
The latest conversation started with a tweet on Dec. 4 from @zebulgar: “ok guys hear me out, what if we move silicon valley to miami”
Then the mayor’s reply: “How can I help?”
Miami tech growth
“The tweet got 2.3 million impressions,” Suarez told the Editorial Board this week. “It was organic, it struck a nerve — lightning in a bottle.”
“People are starting to look at Miami differently,” Suarez said. “There is a critical mass of tech entrepreneurs here who can experience what they are experiencing in New York and San Francisco.”
Since Dec. 4, Suarez has held virtual listening sessions for the tech community. He’s assembling an advisory group, looking at incentives to draw the industry and, as important, making sure these companies, for all the assets they will bring, actually give to this community, and not just take.
So far, the mayor seems to get it: “It means doing it right, he told the Board, “We want you to be a part of the community, to be philanthropic, to create equity through your civic participation.”
But ensuring that the tech industry that finds Miami so alluring also is part of the solution to its gross disparities in housing, income, employment and racial equity must be baked into the process of giving it a new home.
Yes, we want the growth, we want the jobs, but the right way. That means doing the hard work now. That’s how you can help, Mayor Suarez.