October 6, 2006

In Miami, under the leadership of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, we joined together for the Mayors Hemispheric Forum. Mayor Diaz and USA mayors joined mayors and representatives from 12 countries, the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Mayor Diaz has expressed concern about our ignoring our hemispheric mayors who are our neighbors. Mayor Diaz cites the recent Presidential Debate on International Affairs in Miami that lasted for hours with not one word mentioned about our USA international relations with Central and South America.

In Miami last week, we focused on four topics: city design; public safety/crime; energy/alternative fuels for transportation; and economic development.

When mayors discuss city design, it is all about people and it is almost spiritual to see how so many mayors are focusing on redesigning cities that are friendlier to humans. From the USA, we were fortunate to have Jeff Speck, Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts.

No matter who talks in these design meetings, their PowerPoint presentations are funny too. Not only do they show you the best practices, they show some of the worst practices. Though sad, you have to laugh. Signage that is confusing, parking lots that cover the beauty of the city, and, of course, highways that rip the heart and soul of a city – all that are so easily seen as ridiculous. You wonder how these worst practices could have happened. The bottom line usually is that so many major design decisions are left to specialists.

The mayors of our hemisphere assembled in Miami learned from the good and the bad decisions.

Our Mayors Institute for City Design will continue to go international. Throughout the world, our Institute, formed by Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, continues to teach and learn from other best practices. Mayor Diaz is leading the way in Miami along with other mayors of our hemisphere.

We learned in Miami that Venezuela is now more violent than Colombia. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, so much of the emphasis was on the drug violence in Colombia. Brave Venezuelan representatives brought to the table the police violence of Venezuela. According to the facts presented, police are directly involved with 80 percent of deaths and in the last few years, the rates have increased 250 percent. Also cited was the rate of deaths in jails, which is 20 times higher in Venezuela.

Chuck Wexler, Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum, continues to partner with us in raising concern about the rise in crime we are experiencing in many USA cities. While Chicago and Miami show a drop in homicides, murder is up in other cities.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney related his experiences in New York and Philadelphia. He told the story of the day he was sworn in as Chief in Miami in 1993 when 13 cops were indicted. His approach in those cities was to get control of cops and get the shootings down. He told us about the 20 months straight in 2003-2004 when no police shot a bullet and the arrests were still up by 30 percent.

Chief Timoney is most excited about the new Miami Police Academy that he, along with Mayor Diaz, is involved in establishing for the USA, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The academy will have three separate schools: a standard academy department; a professional development department; and an institute on democratic policing. The latter, according to Timoney, will help stop the juntas and dictators and will help the leaders of so many countries come to Miami for training the police toward true democracy building. Miami is viewed by so many nations as the place to learn more about democratic policing. The nation and our hemisphere are fortunate to have the Diaz-Timoney team together in Miami providing hope and vision for so many that fear, for good reason, their own police force in their individual countries.

Representatives of Brazil were masterful in Miami in telling us of the sugar cane-based ethanol which is used in 85 percent of all their transportation.

It all came about in the 1970’s when faced with the gas crisis, it was a national conscious decision to develop a fuel from sugar cane to keep a balance between urbanization and rural economic activity. We learned also that sugar cane-based ethanol is not exactly that new in Brazil since there were uses of sugar cane as fuel going back to the 30’s and an increasing reliance during World War II.

Today, the sugar cane-based ethanol is federal law and it is a way of life. It is the lowest cost ethanol in the world and the world indeed is now focusing on Brazil, and for us it is how we, the USA, can learn from them. There are climate conditions in Brazil that are friendlier to the production of sugar cane than here in the USA. But all conclude sugar cane is a viable option to provide fuel for transportation along with corn and other home grown products.

Mayor Diaz and I are following up to bring the Brazil story up front to all USA mayors. This is most important as we continue with our regional and energy summits this year geared toward a new energy policy as we will have a new Congress and a new President in our near future.

This month we will have our second energy summit emphasizing the building, rebuilding and modernizing of all buildings – business, governmental and residential. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin welcomes you to Atlanta where she and her city will share with you some of the best “best practices.” Come to Atlanta – share and learn. It is most important. We need you there and your city will benefit as you take home new solutions to the present challenges we all face for today’s people and the generations after. Register now. Call Debra DeHaney-Howard at 202-861-6702 or Judy Sheahan at 202-861-6775. I look forward to seeing you soon in Atlanta.