Intro/Outro:
Inside the Ice House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision and global business, the dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years. Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs, and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now at the NYSE and at ISIS exchanges and clearing houses around the world. And now welcome inside the Ice House, here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
If you watched our friend Lando Norris taking the checkered flag for McLaren at the Miami Formula One Grand Prix, but for 275,000 fans at the Miami International Autodrome a couple of weeks back, you know the appeal of South Florida and Miami-Dade County is strong and getting stronger. It's drawing in businesses and individuals alike. In the last year, I spent a day with the U.S Coast Guard at its station in Miami Beach, a mile or two off Bell Harbor aboard one of its vessels, along with my friend Alfred Sanchez, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce admiring everything the area has to offer, especially from my vantage point and eyesight from Key Biscayne in the South Aventura in the north. Just a couple episodes back, we spoke with Citadel's Ken Griffin on the allure of Wall Street South, prompting dozens of Staid, Northeast and Midwest fixtures of the financial services industry to take all or part of their firm's talents to South Beach.
For many, the opportunity to transplant and thrive in this dynamic region is too enticing to overlook. Could be the perpetual 70 to 90 degree weather, the idyllic beaches, and the picturesque national parks that beckon those from colder climates. Alternatively, it might be the robust small business ecosystem, the culture of innovation and the flourishing economy that convinces companies such as Citadel to depart from its three-decade stronghold in Chicago and establish new foundations in the region. Regardless of the motivations, Miami-Dade County has firmly established itself as a beacon of progress, tackling challenges from the local neighborhood to the global stage, all while actively seeking and implementing effective solutions, leading the charge in identifying obstacles and spearheading the path forward. These effective solutions is our guest, Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava. Much like numerous transplants to South Florida, Mayor Levine Cava, Mayor Daniella, as I'm going to call her for the rest of our conversation, established her roots in the region in 1980 and has been dedicated to its improvement ever since.
Elected in 2020 following a 40 year career devoted to assisting underserved communities, Mayor Daniella has embodied not just the role of mayor, but also that of collaborator-in-chief with her constituents. As the mayor's first term approaches its conclusion amid an ongoing re-election campaign, she joins us inside the Ice House to delve into her administration's proactive approach toward addressing some of the country's most pressing issues. She's also going to detail the strategies and initiatives implemented to preserve the natural landmarks that define the region. All that and more is coming up right after this.
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Josh King:
Welcome back. Please remember to subscribe wherever you listen and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts so other folks know where to find us. Our guest today Mayor Daniella Levine Cava leads Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida with over 30,000 government employees and nearly 3 million residents. Elected in November, 2020 as Miami-Dade County's inaugural female mayor, and the first person of Jewish descent to hold the office, Mayor Daniella dedicated four years to advocating for South Florida families as a social worker, lawyer, and nonprofit leader before assuming her current role. Mayor Daniella, thanks so much for joining us inside the Ice House.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Great to be with you. I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Josh King:
Quite a win for Lando Norris at the F-One Miami Grand Prix.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Yes, and I had the excitement of standing out on the grid for the national anthem. That was it for me. I did not get to stay for the race, but it was truly the kind of experience that proves people want to be in Miami-Dade County.
Josh King:
I was watching Ken Griffin's CNBC interview for the Milton Conference in Los Angeles this week talking about the Pitbull concert in which Pitbull pauses during his set to thank everyone for investing in Miami. And I hadn't known much about Pitbull when Ken was talking about him, so I googled his story. You can't have a better ambassador for the community.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Very interesting that Mr. Three-O-Five, Pitbull, also shares his name now because of my proclamation with Ken Griffin himself. So we were together at a $50 million gift announcement at the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center, and it happened to be March 5th, which is 3 0 5 day in Miami Dade County, so I declared Ken Griffin to be Mr. 3 0 5, but clearly he knows that someone came before him in that role.
Josh King:
What does 50 million for the Sylvester Cancer Center mean for the area?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
It's really a phenomenal gift and really, even before I think Ken took up residence, he was making his mark in the philanthropic world. So it was 50 million also for our Baptist system, which is our largest private healthcare provider in the region for investments in neuro treatments. He also invested in Miami-Dade College. He's invested in our programming. We have the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, and he was one of our three initial investors there. He's invested in soccer. He's a big soccer fan, so he's making sure that leading up to the World Cup and COPA this summer, that we have more kids with access to places where they can play. So it's just actually been quite overwhelming the way that he's shown up and wanting to invest in making sure that our community can continue to thrive.
Josh King:
In your 2024 state of the county address, you highlighted the growth and transformation of Miami-Dade during your first term saying, I'm going to quote you here, Daniella, "Miami-Dade has grown. It has changed. We are the community of the future. We are the place that people want to be." Reflecting on these initial four years, what's it been like navigating the challenges and successes to maintain Miami-Dade County, as you put it, a place people want to be?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Yeah, I think also we embody change. You have to really be agile and open to all of the opportunities that come to us to succeed in this environment, and that's what makes us so famously entrepreneurial long before this new resurgence. But those of us who've been here for a while, and I'm 43 years in Miami-Dade County, know that we're a beautiful place, a dynamic, culturally diverse place, inclusive, and of course the weather and the natural environment, two national parks and the beaches, etc, but we were discovered during the pandemic when other places, you could not go out to eat. I spoke to many people from Latin America who moved here because they could go out to dinner in Miami-Dade County. And it's also the compilation of all of these different cultures that, we call it a salad, not a soup or a stew. It doesn't all blend. It's much more unique flavors that add that character.
So I think people who are here embrace that kind of dynamism and change. And we thought with the pandemic and the loss of jobs and businesses that we would have a very, very hard time, but in fact, we are considered the most recovered economy in the country.
Josh King:
I mean, on the topic of the salad, Mayor Daniella, when you maneuver the diverse landscape of Miami-Dade County, which encompasses, as you allude to, this rich tapestry of racial backgrounds, different economic statuses, everyday lifestyle presents a lot of different challenges for that sort of strata that you are talking about, the county juxtaposes, these bustling urban centers with, as I looked at the map of it this morning, tranquil, less populated regions down by Homestead and places like Redland. How do you approach the task of ensuring that wide ranging needs of all of the residents are met equitably?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Yes. So that is, of course, a challenge, but I do think that we are the place where truly the American dream still can stand up proudly, and so we have a great appreciation for people being able to move economically up the ladder. And we are still a county of small businesses, even with the arrival of the big tech and finance companies that are dominating the job landscape, we know that we are animated by these mom and pop businesses, which also are what give us that special flavor. You want to go to a neighborhood and have Puerto Rican food or Nicaraguan or Dominican or Venezuelan, you can get it all, Caribbean, you have Haitian and Jamaican, all of it, and it just, as you say, a tapestry. It's not just the visitors that enjoy it, we locals enjoy it too.
Josh King:
You mentioned your 43 years in Miami-Dade, but let's rewind the clock a little bit. You're born in New York City, spending your formative years, I think moving throughout the US and Latin America. Your educational journey then takes you up to New Haven to Yale for your undergraduate years in Columbia to get your JD and then your MSW. Then there's 1980, you decided to establish roots in South Florida and have been there ever since. After those years of relocation and moving around, what attracted you to make the region your permanent home?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Well, it was supposed to be temporary. My husband is a physician and he was giving his dad an opportunity for a sabbatical year. Unfortunately, his dad contracted cancer and we never ended up leaving. And it took me about 10 years to fall in love with the place. It was not as cosmopolitan as it is today. I certainly had the experience of, as you mentioned, growing up overseas, it being exposed to much more a melding of cultures and embracing that, and Miami-Dade was not yet acclimated to the new arrivals and there was a lot of stress and tension around some of that. So I got to work in the nonprofit sector. I was a legal services attorney, and then I was with the Guardian ad Litem program representing children who were in the child abuse and neglect system. But I really was trying to understand how to get people to invest in our community.
Hurricane Andrew, which of course was devastating for us economically, socially, and so on, was really that moment in time in which I saw the potential for this community to be truly a caring one that reached out across those different boundaries. And I've been ever since working on building community, not only in the face of disaster.
Josh King:
Talking about building community, you had your time at Columbia and Yale. One of the things that caught my eye this week was the comments by the head of the University of Florida system, former Senator Ben Sasse saying, "We're here to teach people, we're not here to do daycare." Mayor Daniella, unrest has been sweeping across college campuses in the last several weeks and months, shutdowns, cancellations of commencements, et cetera. Given your heritage and leadership of a county that hosts institutions, including University of Miami, FIU, what are your insights in the current events unfolding and how they can sort of be addressed on campuses nationwide?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
I think it's important to note that we have not had that level of unrest here in Miami-Dade County. And we talk about that and we think, what is the difference here? And I do think, again, it's that spirit of inclusion and working across cultures and economic status and so on. So obviously we have people who are very passionate about what's happening in the Middle East, but it has not infected our campuses in a way that has prevented people from being able to study, learn, reach out across differences. So I'm very proud of that, and I'm also proud of the fact that we have a very significant Jewish population in South Florida and lots of ties to Israel. And so while everybody's in anguish about the situation, we have not, as I say, seen that kind of unrest here.
Josh King:
You mentioned sort of a catalyzing event in terms of the Hurricane Andrew that struck Homestead, and I remember that, I remember when President Bush came down and the guy I was working for at the time, governor Clinton, came shortly thereafter. But between the time that the storm hit and your founding of Catalyst Miami in 1996, your nonprofit focused on aiding low and middle income families through service, education, advocacy. Were there personal experiences that fueled this passion? Going back, what drew you to helping these marginalized communities?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
In my life, there is really no choice. I've always been a champion for helping people to have a better quality of life, to be more a part of our society, to be more equitable. That's just my heritage. Not just my parents, but my grandparents. It's in my DNA.
Josh King:
Talking about the DNA, what was your grandparents' story?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Well, my great grandparents came as children from Russia and Poland, Lithuania, fleeing the pogroms and settled in lower Manhattan and did the things that immigrants did in those days, worked in the factories. And my grandparents on my father's side were both school teachers and they worked hard to provide for everything that their two sons would need to be successful, and of course they were. And on my mother's side, my grandfather became part of a construction firm that his family started, and he parlayed that into a real estate career and a real estate law career and became very successful in that and became extremely philanthropic in arts, culture, healthcare. And so I grew up with both a math teacher grandfather who taught me all kinds of math tricks and on the other side, arts patrons who were very, very charitably inclined across the spectrum of ways they could be helpful.
Josh King:
So after your lengthy career working on change in the community, the journey in government for you starts with the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, I think that's 2014, and ultimately leads to your election as mayor in 2020. What motivated your transition from where you seem to be doing such great work and finding your passion and your purpose into then pursuit of leadership roles within the government?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
So my last elected role before running for office in 2014 was in college. I was student council president at Yale. It was a post that was parliamentary in nature, so I was elected by my peers from different residential colleges. It wasn't a popular election like they do at these state universities that are real campaigns, but it was a taste of being in a governance role. And after that, I was an advocate all my career, advocate for children and families. I was petitioning government to do right by people, to create pathways of opportunity, helping children to have a better quality of life and helping families to thrive in neighborhoods that didn't have economic access and so on. And I was always outside petitioning government. And finally it was time to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk, go inside, and I think largely because I did not see government being responsive.
I was training people to be activists in promoting the well-being of community, and we were not being listened to or treated with respect by people in elected office. So there was finally an opportunity that I was persuaded was the right time and place to jump in, and that is how I got into elected office.
Josh King:
With such a diverse array of mayors across Florida from Francis Suarez in Miami to Fort Myers with Kevin Anderson up to Tallahassee, John Daly, how would you describe the level of collaboration among you and these other state leaders when it comes to addressing common issues that range throughout the state?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Yeah. Well, I'm a bit of an anomaly because I'm a strong county mayor. So in Miami-Dade County, we have 34 cities. It's about half of the county is within the smaller municipalities, the largest of which is the city of Miami, but it's less than half a million people. So county overall 3 million almost and 34 cities. They range from very, very small to more significant in size. So I say starting in my county, I am the collaborator in chief, you acknowledged that role, because I have to get these cities to play nicely in the sandbox. We occupy the same space, we breathe the same air, we use the same water, we ride the same transit, people are crisscrossing all the time. I don't have authority over a lot of the day-to-day decisions in the cities, but our resources and assets cross boundaries. So I've worked very hard to create a friendlier, more collaborative approach to governance in the county.
I'll just give an example, storm water. Flooding is a really big issue here, that we are low lying, the seas are rising, the extreme weather events are coming, and we have floods. So how do we take that water off the land? How do we build with the water in mind? We can't just go city by city, but each city has its own storm water utility. So we have to work together, and I'm really pleased that with the support of FEMA, we have achieved a really legendary low rating on our community rating score for flood risk outside the cities because really, our jurisdiction is the unincorporated parts of the county. The flood insurance went down 35% this past year, so it's an example that we have to work together to achieve those sorts of successes.
Josh King:
Over the last couple of years, Mayor Daniella, Miami-Dade County and the surrounding community has acquired this moniker, Wall Street South. I'm sitting on Wall Street regular right now looking at the weather reports down there, and I'm looking out at rain in Manhattan right now. Beyond sort of the climate that I spoke about earlier in the introduction, what opportunities and benefits do you ascribe to what is drawing these firms that used to have their nameplates on places like Wall Street and Broad Street to look at Brickle Bay Drive as a potential future home?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Well, first of all, they came because it was paradise. They discovered it during the pandemic, and so they came to visit, they stayed, they brought their families and friends and then their businesses and then their employees, and it truly has transformed our economy. So again, our economy is most recovered in the nation by some accounts, and we have grown in not just the businesses, but the investments, the venture capital. So that is a huge benefit for the startup economy. And these new jobs are largely in tech, whether it's FinTech or HealthTech or ClimateTech. And by the way, we have the only designation in the country as a ClimateTech hub through the US Department of Commerce that so designated us, and we're waiting with bated breath for major investments in our ClimateTech future, and we've assembled an incredible array of private sector employees at universities, municipalities, counties, to really fuel that economy, which is, by rights, ours. We should be the ClimateTech leader because we are facing the biggest challenges in climate.
But along with that, our finance sector grew three times faster than the overall local economy. Over the last 10 years, our banking, investment management are the fastest growing segments of the finance industry, and as far as tech is concerned, not only the companies that are here like Kaseya, which we have supported, and they have supported our local, hiring 3,400 new jobs in Miami just last year. We've got our universities gearing up and training folks as fast as they can, including with major federal and private sector grants to prepare that workforce. And tech employment compound annual growth rate was 6.6% from 2015 to 2019, and then up 81% overall in the past 10 years. So it's almost a three times growth since 2020 led by FinTech, HealthTech and ClimateTech.
Josh King:
We were talking a little bit at the beginning of our conversation about Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel and Citadel Securities, and they have a big presence here at the New York Stock Exchange. Citadel Security is the largest designated market maker on our trading floor. When we did the episode and recorded in Boca on episode 4 0 6 back in March, he talked a lot about your commitment to business and how your administration serves the greater public good. I just want to hear a quick clip of what he said in that conversation. Let's take a listen.
KEN:
People want to come here with their families and build a future for themselves here in South Florida. So we struggle with capacity on our roads, we struggle with affordable housing. And I give the mayor real credit for having an incredibly pro-business, pro-community mindset in how she approaches and takes on problems. I mean, it's really wonderful to sit down with somebody who is just so focused on how does government serve the people of South Florida and what can she do in service of those whom she represents. It's inspirational to see that in someone, their sense of commitment to the greater public good.
Josh King:
So to have a financial leader like Ken endorse your vision for the future of Miami-Dade, how is the support not only of him, but others, helped in fostering growth and innovation within the local business ecosystem?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Well, first of all, it's very humbling. I'm very grateful for the confidence and I got into government really because people don't trust government and our democracy means so much to me, to all of us, and we can't take it for granted. So it's all about customer service. It's everything from filling the pothole to making sure that the business can get the permit that it needs in record time. It's cutting the red tape.
Josh King:
And that's not a factor of what's going on in a city like this, for sure, that I'm in.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Well, look, there are requirements. The government has to spend its money in a way that benefits the larger community. There are environmental factors, there are, in our case, preferences for small and local business because they reinvest and have a multiplier effect on the economy. So with county dollars, we do have programs that might slow down a little bit for the larger good. When you're talking about a private sector employer that is building good jobs for the future, jobs that will pay a salary, that will allow people to be able to pay the cost of living here, which has grown astronomically, it behooves us to move that at the speed of business so that we can get people into those jobs. I take my job as one of quality of life and health and well-being for everybody who lives here.
It doesn't matter to me if they're in a city versus in an unincorporated party, it doesn't matter to me if I'm not responsible directly for some aspect of their well-being, I am going to use my position as the elected leader of this county to make sure that everything that could possibly help our community can happen.
Josh King:
A quick civics lesson for myself and my listeners. Can you tell us sort of click on what are your principal revenue sources?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Property tax is our major source. We are one of the few states that does not have a state income tax, so there's no revenue from income that comes directly. We do have a portion of sales tax that comes to us. We have some locally collected sales tax that's been leveraged. For example, a half a penny for our transit system. We have some taxes related to hotels and restaurants that go to dedicated purpose, domestic violence and homelessness. So we have dedicated source of revenue. We have property taxes that go to our school system and our children. We have a children's trust that has dedicated source of revenue for children's programming, not administered through my office, but... So there's a tourist related tax, sales tax. There are fees from various things. You pay for your water and your sewer, you pay for your garbage pickup. So there are things that are fees, fees related to service as well.
Josh King:
Many of our listed companies are in the cruise ship business. What does the cruise economy do for the county?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
It's huge. We are the cruise capital of the world. Cruising is up year over year. Post pandemic, everybody's gone back to vacation and cruising is a big, big part. We have a new terminal. Our terminals are iconic, they're architectural gems, and the newest one is going to be the largest cruise passenger facility in the world. It will birth three major ships at the same time. And then it's all the allied industries. Not only do we have cruising, but cargo is way up. We are the cargo gateway to Central and Latin America and the Caribbean. Just as an example, we took a trip to Japan I guess almost two years ago now, and we met with Zim, a major cargo company in the world, and they did not have a particular presence here. When we talked with them about the gateway aspect, they moved here and now they are setting sail from the Port of Miami.
Josh King:
So let's talk a little bit about your first term. January 2021 marked the launch of I think what you called Thrive-305. In your administration, this was a groundbreaking public engagement initiative in Miami-Dade County, collaborating with Miami Foundation, a coalition of philanthropic organizations. What were the primary objectives of Thrive-305 and how did it aim to enhance the wellbeing of the constituents?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
So remembering I'm a lawyer and a social worker and a public interest lawyer at that, everything that I do is people centered. And I don't know what's best without listening to people and having them participate in our democracy. That's how I build trust. Yes, it's patching the potholes and getting businesses their permits, but it's also listening to people and responding to their priorities. So Thrive-305 was the largest ever public participation process program in this county's history, and we listened to a full 1% of the population. I think 27,000 people actively engaged in this effort across all sectors. It was during the pandemic, so we did some things virtually, but we also went door to door. We used paper surveys as... Well, we went to the door and collected data directly because not everybody has access to internet and don't use it. So it was really important that we hear from a cross section of the population.
And what emerged was very consistent, a focus on housing, which has now really come full circle, how serious our housing crisis is, small businesses, good jobs, protecting our water, protecting our bay, and all things that have gone into the priorities in our budget and in our business plans for our 28 departments.
Josh King:
When you did your state of the county address in January, you highlighted that Miami-Dade Counties has this 1.6%, 1.6% unemployment rate in the end of the last year compared to Florida's 3.1% and the national 3.7% number in the same period. And really, it illustrates some of the things you're talking about in the small business community. What strategies or initiatives have you implemented to ensure that this community continues to grow and thrive?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
Yeah, and it went down to 1.4% unemployment. It's not good news because it means that if you want to work, there's a job most likely for you, but it also means that we can't sustain our business sector even in the public sector. Obviously the county is another employer and we also are trying hard to attract and retain our workforce. So just parenthetically, bus drivers. People came back post pandemic and our riding transit. We don't have the penetration that a New York City has in the 60%, but we are back way above pre pandemic levels, which is unusual in this country. So we needed bus drivers to animate our improvements in our transit system, so we added a bonus, we added a finder's fee for people that could help us find bus drivers, we added that we pay for commercial drivers licensed training and licensure, so we did a lot of things and we were able to build back up our bus operator workforce, just as an example.
But look, we are facing a crisis in affordability. The movement of people from other places to live our lifestyle, live our paradise has led to dramatic increases in housing costs. And while we know housing is a national crisis, for us, it's even more so. We are considered the most expensive relative to salaries, the highest percentage of people paying more than 50% of their income on the combination of housing and transportation, and the two do go together, and so we've just doubled down. We are building at the clip of about 10,000 new, affordable and workforce units annually, but our gap is over a hundred thousand units and we're losing. We're losing what we call naturally occurring affordable housing. Buildings being knocked down, rebuilt at luxury, which is the price point, really, because price of building is so high here, the land is so limited and expensive, the cost of the labor and the parts has gone up so dramatically. It's very, very difficult to build at a price point that people can afford. So we are subsidizing through a variety of methods.
We prevented evictions by helping pay back rent to landlords and providing legal support. We are helping people stay in their condominiums after the collapse of the Champlain Tower South and Surfside. Of course, people all got to work examining the safety of their older buildings, and there are special assessments to shore up these buildings, and folks don't have that reserve. So how do we make sure that they can stay living in those buildings and those buildings don't get knocked down to build something more expensive that makes it even harder? We created a special assessment loan program up to $50,000 for 30 years zero interest up to 140% of our area median income. So many, many people have taken advantage of that. And to our small apartment owners, multi tenant buildings, we are getting grants to fix up those buildings, keep them affordable, and we have gotten a lot of federal support for refurbishing, renovating our buildings and expanding the footprint.
Josh King:
So Mayor Daniella, you've fully addressed how you are tackling one crisis that is derived basically from a good thing, which is the attractiveness of your lifestyle and what is drawing so many people down south. You alluded to this earlier, but let's talk about another potential crisis, and that is what's happening in climate change. According to projections from the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, sea levels by 2040 are expected to be 10 to 17 inches higher than they were at the beginning of the century in 2000. 10 to 17 inches, mayor. That's an ongoing issue for Miami-Dade, and one that's going to require continued solutions in the year come. Help educate us on how the county is enhancing its resilience specifically in infrastructure to deal with rising sea levels.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
We are canaries in the coal mine when it comes to sea level rise, and we've known that for a time. And we do have this regional compact which works together across the counties, across a mega region, if you will, which is extremely helpful. We have a lot of good data and plans, and we have a lot of policies that are in place. For example, we did launch our climate action strategy in 2021 before I went to Glasgow for COP 26, and we have pledged to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next six years and to reach net zero by 2050. So we're doing our part on the global front. As far as adaptation is concerned, we are building higher. We've got pumps and we have the... I told you FEMA had rated us very high in our adaptation strategies around flooding. We have new legislation called the Impervious Ordinance that will require people to keep water on their land, meaning you can't flood someone else's property. You have to build with water in mind.
We were working on the stormwater runoff issues across municipalities because what runs into the ocean also pollutes the ocean. So we have to work together to do filtration and land absorption wherever possible. Our parks are being built with water absorption in mind. By the way, the listeners can't see it, but you are seeing my virtual background on this zoom call, and it's my backyard with a pool of water from sunny day flooding. So just to be clear, that is from King Tide and I live rather close to the Bay, and on King Tide days, the water is coming to my backyard. So that is proof positive. But my house is actually at a seven foot elevation and we have a lot of education programs to help people understand what they need to do. So private developers, they're building with this in mind obviously, but we are refurbishing. And we have the army Corps working with us on something called the Back Base study. The draft was released in April.
It will be finally adopted in August, and it will hopefully lead to some major investments to protect against storm surge like Hurricane Ian that hit the west coast of Florida and devastated Fort Myers Beach. And I went to Fort Myers Beach right after the storm because we sent our people to help. We sent our water sewer department to restore their water system. We sent our firefighters, our police officers to help. And the buildings that were built on concrete and on stilts, they were relatively unscathed. The ones that were not part of the new building code, they were gone. So we do know how to build with water in mind, and we're working hard to make sure that we do that as well to move away from some of the more vulnerable areas.
Josh King:
As I can see behind you, water is never far from Miami-Dade County resident. And focusing on climate change and nature and wildlife preservation, Daniella, Miami-Dade County touches, I think, Biscayne National Park, also Everglades National Park. During your term, what strategies have been implemented prioritizing both the preservation and restoration of these natural wonders?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
We're so fortunate to have two national parks. That's unlike any other place in the country. And I am very delighted to serve now on the National Park System Advisory board. So because of my passion for national parks and all of my free time is spent in nature in these wilderness areas, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, river rafting, etc, so it's very much a part of what I know is critically important for our country, for our world. We have a very strong partnership with these national parks. They are attractants for tourists, they are areas of preservation and natural wonder and beauty, so we work together. We have a great county park system as well, very extensive, and we partner together to build eco-friendly community and get our young people out into nature so that they can truly become the future stewards.
Josh King:
You talked to me a little bit earlier about some of the strategies of making sure that your fleet of buses have drivers behind the wheel. Just to go a little bit deeper into the transportation challenge department. In March when you talked to the Aspen Ideas climate 2024 conference that was held in Miami Beach, you were engaged in discussions about transportation, specifically focusing on electric vehicles. We've got an EV IPO today at the New York Stock Exchange. You were talking alongside Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland and the Deputy Secretary of Transportation, Polly Trottenberg. How is your administration actively fostered an environment conducive to EVs and then facilitated their integration throughout the county?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
We are going to have the largest EV bus rapid transit system in the world within the year on our South Dade Corridor. It's a twenty-mile stretch that will be all electric bus rapid transit vehicles. We have purchased one of the largest fleets in the country, 176 buses, and our county's fleet for service vehicles is also working towards 30% by 2030, charging station infrastructure, critical piece of that we've installed throughout county-owned facilities and making sure it's equitable for all residents. A key factor. We've got 54 level two chargers dispersed throughout the community and one level three charger for our county fleet and we're building a major charging infrastructure for the bus fleet. So we are definitely future ready when it comes to electric vehicles. And also solar. We have put solar on three major county facilities, and we're working towards solarizing our airport, which brings me a special joy.
We are modernizing that airport at a rapid pace. It's modernization in action, and we are investing $8 billion in modernization of infrastructure and maintenance. So we have a special team, elite team that is running around fixing smaller things, so we're keeping up. I mean, it's not a new airport, so we are working hard on that. But as far as solarizing goes, we have to keep the solar power generated on the facility. We're not allowed to wheel it to other facilities pursuant to Florida law, otherwise we are a utility. So that somewhat limits what we can do, but we know the airport has a huge energy footprint. We're going to be saving millions of dollars through this installation, just like we are at the libraries in the jail where we installed solar. So we're working hard on all of those fronts to reduce our carbon footprint and also to adapt to the climate change.
Josh King:
Mayor Daniella, as we begin to wrap up, you are, as we mentioned at the beginning, in the midst of a re-election campaign, and voting is going to set to take place in August. As you've reflected over the last couple of years of your first term and look forward perhaps to the next four, what's been your message as you've been out on the campaign trail about what's to come and what they can look forward to, if you should be given a second term by the electorate?
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
So I ran on a platform of vision, integrity, and results, and that is true to what I have done in office and what I will do in a second term, and specifically to restore trust in government through delivering on that commitment. I feel very positive. The public knows how hard we work, the public knows how forward thinking we are, how we are making sure that the booming economy, make sure that the rising tide will lift all boats, that we're about equity and resilience building in a way that will make sense for a resilient future. And so I'm proud of our team and what we've been able to do, but there's more to do and there are more challenges here in our paradise. So I'm very hopeful to win in August, which is the primary. It's a nonpartisan seat, so I can earn and have earned support across the aisle and look forward to another four years.
Josh King:
Vision, integrity, and results. It's certainly persuading a lot of folks to make the permanent journey from Northern climbs down to Miami-Dade County, and over the last four years at least, has served the residents of Miami-Dade County very well. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, thank you so much for joining us inside the Ice House.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava:
It's my pleasure. Thank you.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week. Our guest was Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County. If you like what you heard, please rate us on Apple Podcasts so other folks know where to find us. If you've got a comment or a question you'd like to ask one of our experts to tackle on a future show or to hear from guests like Mayor Daniella, please make sure to leave us a review. Email us at [email protected] with any of your suggestions. Tweet at us at icehousepodcast to give us some commentary. Our show is produced by Lance Glenn with production assistance and engineering, editing and Ken Abel. I'm Josh King, your host, signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next week.
Intro/Outro:
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