At the keynote session of Bilzin Sumberg’s South Florida Redevelopment Conference, newly elected Miami-Dade Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, shared her vision for the County in the coming years. With a long history of public service to County residents, and as the first female mayor of Miami-Dade County, Mayor Levine Cava’s participation in the Conference garnered keen interest from attendees.
As Commissioner for District 8, she invested her time in championing a better life for residents by advocating for innovative infrastructure and transportation projects, protecting the environment, creating affordable housing, and expanding economic opportunity. As Mayor, Levine Cava demonstrated how she had continued to champion these important topics in her first 100 days in office. She also detailed the County’s success in limiting COVID transmission and increasing vaccine distribution. And in a push for advancing equity and inclusion, one of her office’s first initiatives was the creation of the Office of Equity and Inclusion to assure that all the work being done by the County is accessible and operationalized through an equitable lens.
During the keynote discussion with Bilzin Sumberg partner, Brian Adler, she laid out her vision for the County’s sustainable development in the coming years through a range of initiatives. These include a recently launched partnership to protect the environmental integrity of Biscayne Bay, a strategy to promote clean sailing at the Port of Miami and its cruise terminals, and programs to increase business opportunities.
On the latter, Mayor Levine Cava expounded on her flagship initiative for Miami-Dade’s economic development: RENEW305. The program aims to attract new businesses to Miami-Dade County, scale existing businesses, boost venture capital investment in local startups, and expand workforce training opportunities for locals. An ambitious initiative, Mayor Levine Cava emphasized the wide net that its casts:
“RENEW305 will target all potential types of capital attraction: startups, scale-ups, and brand new arrivals. Miami-Dade County has always been adept at evolving and embracing change, which is why I’m so confident about attracting businesses, and more generally about our post-COVID future.”
As a cap to the conference’s diverse agenda of topics, attendees appreciated Mayor Levine Cava’s ability to offer a big picture overview of where the County is heading, and walked away with an enhanced appreciation for its future growth and development.