As part of its tradition every year, the City of Miramar hosts the annual State of the City Address. This event provides an opportunity for the Honorable Mayor to share highlights of the city’s efforts, initiatives, and accomplishments made over the past year with the city’s business community, partners, and residents. This even also offers insight about what to expect in the future.
The 2021 State of the City Address, delivered by Mayor Wayne Messam on November 10, 2021 at the brand new Space Coast Credit Union (located in the Miramar Park of Commerce at 10600 Marks Way, Miramar,) was a roaring success. Mayor Messam’s theme for this year’s address was, “The Way Forward / The New Normal.” It was a powerful reminder that the community has experienced great challenges this past year and a half, but, because Miramar’s greatest strength is its people who have always taken care of each other, the city will continue to rise up to big challenges together.
With COVID-19 at its pick last year during the same period, Wayme Messam, a son of Jamaican immigrants who made history in this south Florida city when he was elected in 2015 as the city’s first black mayor, had no choice but to deliver his remarks virtually. Last Wednesday night, it was clear that the Mayor was happy to be on stage to deliver the annual address in-person in front of great audience. City officials, elected officials’ guests from surrounding cities, members of Miramar Chamber of Commerce as well as members of the public were in attendance.
The mayor talked about numerous topics, including residents quality of life, economic development, affordable housing, citywide park renovation projects, and $160 million in historic Miramar infrastructure projects.
Among the city’s elected officials and high-ranking employees were: Vice Mayor Yvette Colbourne, Commissioner Maxwell B. Chambers and Commissioner Alexandra P. Davis, Whittingham Gordon (the first Jamaican-American recently appointed as the new City Manager), Kelvin L. Baker, Sr. (Assistant City Manager, Community and Development Services), Interim Police Chief Leonard Burgess, Major Jose Vargas, Haitian-American Captain Florinet Derac, and Haitian-American Duvard Francois (Supervisor at the Code Compliance Police Department).
A small reception was held for the guests before the Mayor’s address an hour later. The event started around 8:00PM with the welcome introduction by the Mistress of the Ceremony, Shaun Gayle, who is the Assistant City Manager, Administration and City Spokesperson. She took some time to acknowledge all the City of Miramar elected officials in attendance. She also recognized some of the visiting officials, including Haitian-American Marie Paule Woodson, member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 101st District.
A group of 5 boy scouts were brought on stage to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while three Miramar police officers stood to salute, while holding the City, the State, and the American flags. A religious leader was then called on stage for the invocation of the night.
Through a pre-registered video, Vice-Mayor Colbourne and the three other commissioners (Barnes, Chambers and Davis) shared their personal initiative to the audience about moving the city forward and making it a better place to live and do business.
The mayor’s 65-minute speech focused on three specific areas: economic development, business and residents’ quality of life.
“I am here to present the state of the city on behalf of my colleagues in the city commission. We do this together,” said the first citizen of the city. “I am blessed to have the honor to represent this city as the mayor, and I work alongside my colleagues and the administration to ensure that the city of Miramar upholds its duty to make sure that you have the quality community you have invested in, your businesses you have invested in. And I am so ecstatic to stand here in the middle of the stage to declare that despite the pandemic, despite the loss of lives, despite the economic interruption that the city of Miramar is doing very well. And the prospect of our future is not only strong but certain.”
According to Mayor Messam, the business community is booming. Not only are some existing businesses expanding in the city, but other big corporations are choosing Miramar to base their new headquarters or open new stores in the southern region of Florida, including Publix, Ross, Aldi, Progressive, UTI, and Amazon.
During his address, the mayor pointed out the big developments of the Red Road and Flamingo Road Corridor. He noted that on Miramar Parkway there are three Publix stores between Palm Avenue and 146th Street, and the city has recently reached a total of 1,100 hotel rooms.
For example, when there is a major event at Hard Rock, visitors prefer to stay at hotels in Miramar as opposed to staying at the overpriced Guitar Hotel in Hollywood.
Wayne M. Messam said, as Mayor, he is proud of the city staff, taking some time to share the accomplishments various departments have achieved, including the Community Department Services, Building Department, Economic and Business Development , Miramar Fire Rescue Department, Engineering Department, Marketing and Communications department, and several others.
According to the Mayor, a business friendly environment, central locations, corporate attraction incentives, and small business assistance programs are some of the main reasons many companies have come to the City of Miramar.
From the property tax revenues generated, the city has reinvested $160 million in infrastructure projects called Historic Miramar, including the East Water Treatment Plant, Reuse Water Distribution Expansion, Canal Embankment Restoration, the Streetscape Improvement, and Phase IV Storm Water Improvements.
The audience at this event learned during the Mayor’s address that according to the results of the 2020 census, the city of Miramar has reached a population of 134,000 residents. Mayor Messam believes that the population could be closer to 150,000 people, as he noted not all people choose to be counted in the Census.
The city served 4.5 million pounds of food during the pandemic at Regional Park. This was a significant impact throughout the community. The city was able to fund some businesses assistance and mortgage assistance programs totally millions of dollars, even before the state and federal government offered to help.
Fifteen years ago, the city population was 90,000. The 2020 census result shows how fast the city’s population is growing. The median age is 34, meaning the city has a lot of young families. The median household income in the city of Miramar is approximately $73,000. The average household value is about $340,000.
Miramar is a majority black and brown community. African-Americans do very well in the city, coming in 5th position in the entire nation in terms of well-being, which takes into account income, job status, and more.
There are some multifamily developments taking place in the city (some luxury apartments), right on the intersection of Flamingo Road and Turnpike. At the same time, the local government is working hard to secure funds to build a project called “Quality Housing” in partnership with developers for those who love the city and cannot afford the price of $2,000-plus monthly rent for an apartment.
The local government recently broke down a public-private housing project in the city of Miramar for the construction of 113 affordable units. Seniors will be the beneficiaries of those units.
Mayor Messam stated that the city wants to be diverse at all levels and in many sectors. Those high paid working families and the retired senior residents who live on a fixed low income of Social Security must feel comfortable living in a city like Miramar as well.
During the pandemic, the city of Miramar received two prestigious designations. First, the city has been recognized by All America City for the way it responded to the pandemic. It also received two international Smart City awards from the Smart 50 organization.
For Mayor Wayne Messam, “It is quite exciting to be selected for two global awards recognizing the innovation and smart city concepts of our city.” He said that he is proud of the city’s hard-working staffs who continue to implement smart city solutions for the benefit of the residents and community.
To conclude his address, Mayor Messam said, “We need to invest in our technology, infrastructures and transportation network, our work force and affordable housing. We need to reach out to our youth, ensure that they have [the] resources they need not for today, but for tomorrow. That is the conversation we need to have as a team. If we do not invest and get this collaboration done now, how can we be relevant moving forward? How can we direct resources where they need to go? It is not about now; it is where we will be 10, 15, 20 years from now? We need to continue working together in order to stay on top.”
The City of Miramar has become a beacon of light for South Florida, showing not just the region, but the state, nation, and world what is truly possible under diligent, competent, passionate leadership. The State of the City address was inspirational and other communities and neighborhoods throughout the area would do well to take note of the progress being made within its borders.
Congratulations to Mayor Messam, his staff, and all those who have worked tirelessly to make Miramar a place to be, a place businesses long to set up, and a place where residents can feel inspired and hopeful about the future. Great job and keep up the good work!
Dessalines FERDINAND