MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, along with Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez held a news conference Friday morning to announce the release of the Resilient305 year-one strategy report.
Resilient305 was a joint initiative created in 2016 to tackle a wide range of issues throughout the county, including sea level rise and affordable housing. It was implemented just over a year ago.
On Friday, the mayors discussed the challenges, successes and progresses that have been achieved so far.
“We’ve made important progress to safeguard our community from multiple impacts of climate change,” Levine Cava said.
“We have collaborated as a community to make sure this city is one that is around forever. Our brand is ‘Miami Forever,” Suarez added.
Under the Resilient305 initiative, former Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in 2019 that they were renewing their commitment to dump sand on the beach to replace the eroding shoreline, protecting Biscayne Bay and other projects.
“We’re putting $22 billion into Resilient in the next years. A lot of it is already starting right now,” Gimenez said at the time.
Miami Beach planted mangroves at parks to serve as a natural seawall and installed pumps to reduce flooding.
To improve public transportation, Miami expanded its trolley system to Liberty City.
The city will also work with Florida International University to build 12,000 units of affordable housing by 2024.
On Friday, Levine Cava said “80% of the 59 original action items in the strategy are well underway.”
The progress report touts 53 action items are already implemented, like an investment to create more living wage jobs, affordable housing, tackling the challenges of sea level rise, protecting Biscayne Bay and more.
“Miami Beach is now less of a peril for flooding than it was previously because of the work we’ve been doing on resiliency,” Gelber said.
The county and cities plan to work on these issues for the next 20 years.