Today, what a difference. In 1980, Miami had the highest big city homicide rate in the country with 229 total murders. Last year, in a city with a population that is more than 25 percent bigger than it was back then, the city had 31 murders, an all-time record low murder rate.
Miami is still rich, but today it’s now chic and swanky as well. It’s a destination for the global glitterati with events like a branch of the Art Basel art fair and shopping areas like the Miami Design District. The city, and the South Florida area generally, have also transcended their historic economic roles as a gateway to Latin America and a leisure destination. Miami is now becoming a genuine hub for business at the national, even global, level. Major hedge funds and other institutions are setting up shop in the area, notably Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investments, which relocated from Chicago. Numerous Silicon Valley venture capitalists have opened Miami offices, with Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois moving to Miami and becoming an evangelist for the city.
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez gained a national reputation after showing up in the replies to social media posts by California tech executives complaining about dysfunction in their state. His four-word question to them has become his catchphrase: “How can I help?”
Miami’s day-to-day operations are run by a city manager, allowing Suarez to focus on being a sort of chief promoter and recruiter for the city, a role he’s played extremely well. Suarez is a charismatic Generation X leader who is the child of Cuban refugees and whose father was the mayor of the city in the 1980s. But while his father was a Democrat, Suarez is a Republican, perhaps the most prominent Republican mayor in the country. In the Miami area, which is very urban, dense and diverse, Republicans have done unusually well in recent years, a contrast to their weak performance in cities elsewhere. In 2022, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio won Miami-Dade County by double digit percentages.
Suarez describes what might be called the Miami model of urbanism. It’s rooted in a patriotic, optimistic spirit culturally imprinted on the city by those who found refuge there after fleeing communist and other dictatorships. “We feel a sense of debt and gratitude to this country. We are pro-America in every sense of the word,” says Suarez. He thinks this renders the socialist-inflected ideas of the American left less appealing in Miami.
He also talks about the governance philosophy of the city and region. “We do three things and only three things and we do them well. We keep taxes low. ... We keep people safe. We had the lowest per capita homicide rate in history last year. We lean into innovation.” He notes that the city never embraced Defund the Police, never went for the de facto decriminalization of shoplifting as in California, and never eliminated cash bail.
Suarez also stresses the elimination of the state and local tax deduction at the federal level that made it less attractive to live in high tax states, the fact that Miami and Florida were more open places during the pandemic, and the rise of remote work that allowed people to choose where they wanted to be. These opened people to the possibilities of Miami, and they liked what they saw. “If you read Ken Griffin’s interviews,” Suarez adds, “he’ll say he didn’t leave Chicago because of the taxes. He left because of the crime and the quality-of-life issues that were impacting his employees. We believe that quality of life should be a premium.”
That doesn’t mean Miami is without its challenges. High housing prices threaten to choke off business growth because it’s difficult for non-wealthy employees to find a place to live there. Climate challenges such as flooding and sea level rises will be difficult to address. And Suarez has a list of things he still believes the city needs to create, ranging from non-stop flights to Asian business capitals to creating a globally elite university.
But the change and momentum are real. Miami is one of the great but under-heralded urban turnaround stories. Its mix of density, diversity and global orientation, with a strong public safety and pro-business culture, plus a competitive, successful Republican Party, is unique. Miami can’t be simply replicated, but there’s a lot to be learned from looking at what it’s accomplished.
