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This March, we hosted the 15th-anniversary celebration of the Jazz in the Gardens music festival, and, once again, it was a great success.
The economic impact that Jazz in the Gardens has on the area is tremendous. I know we made many of our business owners and small restaurant very happy. The hotels filled up, entertainment venues and clubs made money from hosting visitors who came from out of town for the event. Jazz in the Gardens brings revenue to this entire region — Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. People come from all over the country and the Caribbean to participate and experience the event and all that South Florida offers.
The event’s premise is for people to come and experience Miami Gardens, so they’ll leave with a better outlook on the City. It’s our opportunity to tell our story, and then we party like it’s 1999 all over again. Previously, we’ve had upwards of 50,000 people attending the two-day festival, but we had to reduce our capacity to about 20,000 a day this year. We encouraged social distancing and mask-wearing, and hand-sanitizing stations were available throughout the venue. We met the requirements of the CDC, and most importantly, people respected each other.
As we long beyond Jazz in the Gardens, the City continues to provide valuable programming for our seniors and youth at our facilities. We never stopped doing those things; they never take a back seat to Jazz in the Gardens. It is our responsibility to ensure we offer quality activities and resources for everyone in our community to enjoy. Now we’re getting ready to celebrate Juneteenth!
In addition, Miami Gardens is gearing up for Formula 1, the Orange Blossom Classic, and of course, the Miami Tennis Open also takes place here. The City garners a lot of interest because people see us as a destination City. Formula 1 is a multi-billion dollar event that will be here for (10) ten years. I’m also part of a group of Mayors working to secure FIFA World Cup in our area for 2026. And, of course, we want to have the Super Bowl back.
A growing City
We’ve annexed a portion of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, located east of the City. We will concentrate on this area for the upcoming quarter — getting maps drawn up, looking at redistricting, and things of that nature. We’ll continue to work on economic growth in the City, attracting developers and businesses who want to be active participants in this community. We are also finishing up the development of our parks and focusing on the projects in our general obligation bond program.
As we grow and deliver state-of-the-art programming to our residents, we also have to figure out how to address the issue of speeding in this City. We’re going to have to impose some severe consequences for motorists to be more compliant and conscientious of the safety of everyone commuting through our City.
Safety on all levels remains a priority for us. Remember, we are still in a pandemic. Continue to follow all the safety measures and protocols to protect yourselves and each other.
Stay safe.
Mayor Rodney Harris
