Our county is in desperate need of visionary, smart leadership. The mayor who succeeds Carlos Gimenez must be a Democrat who will tackle the serious issues facing Miami-Dade. As the Miami Herald reported in January, there are a number of Democrats considering running such as Commissioners Daniella Levine Cava. I’m a 23-year-old professional who’s starting off his career in Miami. Affordable housing, public transit, and sea level rise are critical issues to me. If a politician wants my vote in the 2020 mayoral election, they need to propose bold solutions to these problems.
The future of Miami is inextricably linked with the future of climate change. We are wholly unprepared for rising seas that pose an existential threat to Miami Beach, Little Haiti, and the entire county. With frequent flooding and stronger hurricanes, climate change will negatively hurt Miami’s property values and consequently our tax base. Venice has less than 80 years before it’s submerged underwater. This is causing locals to permanently leave.
Venice’s unnerving future is very similar to Miami’s. I hope to live here for decades to come, and raise a family here. The county should begin spending millions of dollars to build for such a volatile future that my generation and future generations will face. We can clearly pay for it. Just ask Mayor Gimenez who gave himself a nice $100,000 salary raise last October for all his hard work!
Just like we are losing time to adequately deal with climate change, everyday we lose our patience on the road when we deal with traffic. Traffic is a headache we deal with daily. This is not an inescapable problem. It exists because county leaders suffer from a lack of imagination.
We need creative solutions to reduce traffic, like multiple extensions of the Metrorail to unserved areas. Traffic has been neglected by commissioners, a number of whom were easily re-elected last year, allowing them to swagger into their supreme positions with serenity.
Another issue the next mayor must focus on is lowering the exorbitant housing prices that are squeezing out residents. Miami ranks among the worst cities for affordable housing. In 2016, approximately 34% of Miami renters paid more than half of their income on rent. This financial struggle hurts their ability to stay employed or afford healthcare.
Our county is run by the rich, for the rich. Building developers give money to the campaigns of commissioners and mayoral candidates and they give the developers all the land they could ever want, without mandating conditions that account for the needs of the community. Miami-Dade’s next mayor must have the courage to confront developers and fight for affordable housing for all.
The greatest challenges facing the U.S. today is the growing level of income inequality that is lowering the nation’s standard of living and the existential threat that is climate change. Miami is ground zero for both issues. The next mayor must lead us through these great challenges and secure a good future for me and my generation of Miamians. I call on local Democratic clubs and all those tired with this abysmal leadership to start planning for the goal of electing a bold Democratic mayor in 2020. That work must begin now.
About Bryan Hernandez
Bryan Hernandez is the President of the Kendall Democrats Club, a grassroots organization with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. In 2017, Hernandez worked at the Democratic National Committee in Washington. He graduated from American University with a B.A. in Political Science.
