Julio Robaina
Interviewed by Greg Bush on November 5, 1999
Greg Bush: Let me start by reading a little something from the governor of our state, Jeb Bush, who said “As I drive to work each morning I pass through three separate communities, Kendall, South Miami and Coral Gables . Unless I note the subtle change of the street signs I would have no idea that I was driving through separate communities.” I’m wondering why you think the city of south Miami is in any way unique in a region that has so often been associated with urban sprawl.
Julio Robaina: Well that is a good theme to start on. The governor was absolutely correct. South Miami , even though we consider it to be unique by the standards that most citizens compare us by. They can drive through and call us the city that if you blink you never saw. I think what you have is just that. We’ve been a city that even through all the urban sprawl you see has still been able to keep our small hometown feeling. That shows there really hasn’t been that much development. But I tell you one thing. That was before Jeb was governor. If he came down now and saw some of the new development like the Shops at Sunset I would guess he would probably change that and report some development that is now starting to distinguish South Miami . One of the reasons that I think a lot of people choose to live here is because we like it that way. We want the city to stay at a level where people can relate to it as a city that did not get caught up in the massive development of Dade County . When we talk about that theme I believe that we can have that perfect mix without losing that identity that the governor talks about.
GB: Let me take you back in time with your own life. When you were growing up in South Miami did you feel you were growing up in the suburbs of Miami or in your own real city?
JR: I was born in Miami and actually moved to South Miami when I was eight years old. I felt I moved out of the city of Miami and into the suburbs when I came to South Miami . That is what attracted my mom and dad. They would tell you they were tired of the city life. We lived in the area around Bobby Maduro Stadium. So moving to South Miami was a d rastic change for us.
GB: Do you have a lot of memories of the area you first lived in?
JR: I will tell you that the neighborhood was a very good one in terms of there being little crime. It was a middle class neighborhood. We lived across the street from Maduro stadium. I grew up going to private school so the kids were pretty good kids. There wasn’t much trouble with drugs back then. Kids all played together. We would go to the stadium and be batboy for the Miami Marlins way back then. It was a good neighborhood. Unfortunately it is not like that today because I have gone back and revisited it. But back then it was my parents need to move out of such a busy area, because it was very busy rather than due to any neighborhood problems. We had a railroad that was six blocks away and seeing all the people that would come to the stadium and seeing how the area was beginning to grow with Jackson Memorial hospital that is what sent them searching the suburbs to live in.
GB: What do you think about what has happened to the stadium and the fact that it could go away?
JR: It is a shame because I personally think it is history. I would have liked to have seen that stadium restored. If you lived like I did there you knew every nook and cranny. I even knew where the hole was to sneak onto the field when the stadium was closed. It was Miami back then. Everybody rallied around that stadium. It wasn’t just a sport events place but a place where people would have organized demonstrations and rallies. It was also a place for the kids to go out and fly their kites with their parents in the adjacent parking lot. So it was like a park in addition to a stadium. If you saw the engineering of it it was beautiful. The metal, the way that it was designed, the seating. That was what I felt was the charm of the area – that stadium. And it is a shame that it went down. If you’ve seen it now it’s dilapidated. Right now it probably wouldn’t be feasible to redeem the site.
GB: Do you remember any other experiences you had as a kid with any other downtown parks?
JR: My parents were immigrants from Cuba so when they came here, they called Bicentennial Park Freedom Park at that time. That park was their home. I remember them taking me out there and sitting me by the water and showing me the Freedom Tower . It was a really clean, beautiful place to go to. I visit it now as an adult and I’ve seen some changes. I see over-development that has really taken away the charm and beauty that I remember the old Miami to be. I used to go down to Bayfront Park and fish with my dad. I remember party boats that left Pier 5 and we used to enjoy things like that – no longer there. It was really a nice area for families to bond. Now some people say that Bayside does that but I think that Bayside was designed to attract tourists not so much the local people.
GB: What were your early hobbies and interests when you were a kid?
JR: Baseball and football were among my most interesting hobbies. My brother played ball at Miami Jackson Senior High. He played basketball, football, and baseball. He was an All-State, All-American athlete. He decided to choose baseball and went on to play for the Houston Astros minor league team which was up in Coco Beach and the Kansas City Royals. Naturally I followed my brother into baseball but I quickly pursued football in Middle School in the Pop Warner league and then into high school. Hobbies I had – I was an altar boy. I was very involved with the church. Being at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, which I am saddened by the barbed wire fence it has surrounding it these days, one of the things I did was attend mass a lot. I spent my Saturdays being an altar boy at weddings and that was a lot of the fun that I enjoyed. Basically doing things around the church. My father was very active in the church. He was the one who did festivals for fund raising. I grew up in more of a parochial environment. So my hobbies were basically what was going on in the church at the time.
GB: Do you remember first coming to South Miami?
JR: Absolutely. Total shock. Your talking about an area that I came from all the kids knew at three o’clock that we would be hanging out in the street playing stick ball and at someone’s house other than your own playing cards or marbles. And then coming here, I felt that I had moved out to a farm. We called it the farm with lights when we first got here. What we liked was that there was very little traffic, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. There were opportunities out here for employment for my father. He found work with the city. I was just overwhelmed with all the green space. We weren’t used to that by the stadium. Now I started to learn a new environment. As a young kid I was very impressed and scared to be left alone with all the trees around the house and all the places to hide. We learned to love it.
GB: Where did you live and what kind of neighborhood existed there?
JR: We moved to the northern most part of South Miami which I call the forgotten part of South Miami. Which is the area that circles up by Bird Road and 62 avenue. There are a lot of unincorporated pockets up there. It is beautiful. When we moved there we were attracted to an old wooden frame home. It was built back in the forties. The charm of seeing this old wooden home with the wooden floors with the landscaping and the nice backyard which I was not used to in Miami. This was in the early seventies.
GB: Tell us a little about your schooling when you got here.
JR: That was also a shock to me. Coming out of a parochial school and being divided boys and girls I got my first introduction to public school. I went to David Fairchild elementary in the fifth grade. I think I was probably the best-behaved kid coming out of parochial school and the teachers took a liking to me right away. Not even a month later I was appointed a patrol boy. I was teachers’ pet in every class. I found the classes pretty easy and made good grades. I got involved with the YMCA right next door. During the summers when my parents were working I spent a lot of time at the YMCA and now I’m a board member at the same one. I also attended South Miami Junior high and South Miami High School.
I remember names of teachers even at the elementary level. I had a German-American teacher named Ms. Mueller whose daughter is now a teacher there; she has long passed on. She was one of the ones who really made an impression on me because of her one on one attention I got. She knew I was scared and the type of attention I got at the time was incredible. You’ve got to remember at that time that the classrooms were small. There were 20 kids in my class. It is unfortunate now that Dade County Schools don’t enjoy that ratio. The teachers had the ability to be like a parent and approach you when something was wrong.
Now in middle school I was actually a good kid. During my three years, 7th, 8th and 9th grades, I met who would become my campaign manager. His name is Dick Ward. He was at South Miami Middle for thirty years. I met him as just your average kid who was involved in a lot of things in terms of planning things like dances and other stuff for the school. Whatever the school had I got involved in. That is where I first got introduced to diversity. At the time we had boundaries all the way to the Palmetto area which is today Pinecrest. And that was my first introduction with interaction with kids from the African-American, Jewish and Asian-American communities. I feel I got more out of public schools because of the level of diversity I was exposed to. In the parochial school it was very limited.
GB: Are you at all upset by the state of public schools today?
JR: When I came into office four years ago, I was told by a lot of people never mix politics and education. Let the public schools do their own thing. I have fought that the whole way and I think that is nonsense. I created the first educational committee which has educators and people that are dealing with issues like vouchers and other issues affecting our community. I also personally interact with all the schools and teachers and principles. I try to get to know the new teachers and principles that we hire in South Miami. What we have seen is the South Miami has definitely bonded. I’ve had the honor of being principle for a d ay at all our schools here in South Miami. And when I walk in they all say Mayor Robaina how are you. I think that is the first step in trying to bring education and local government together.
GB: Lets talk a little bit about your parents.
JR: My mother came from Cuba in 1958. She was single. Her and my father met here in Miami. I’ve seen pictures of my father in his tight shirts walking along Haulover pier and down in Key Biscayne. They were two youngsters that met and fell in love. I believe they met at Crandon Park. My father worked here in Miami Monday-Friday and then fly to Cuba to be with his family on the weekends. This is before Fidel. My mother worked here also. My father’s background was more of a farmer. He can trace his roots to Spain, Catalonia. My grandmother and grandfather are both Spaniards. They moved to Islas Canarias and from there to Camaguey. My father’s family was very religious. My grandfather was a very firm man. He treated my father and his 5 brother and 3 sisters very strictly. He expected everything from his kids. He was a d isciplinarian. My father grew up with total respect for his father. Eventually all my dad’s brothers and sisters finally came here although at different times. My father grew up as a farmer. He only received a fifth grade education because at that age you went out into the fields. He can tell you any thing about farming but his education was shortchanged by his time he needed to devote to the family. My mother came from a very upscale family. She was educated and had people who catered to her family. They had moved with her family here and then she met my father.
They had no knowledge of the political current that was going to occur so my mother’s family came primarily for economic motivations. My father was trying to seek a better life here in the US. My mother found work here in the shoe business. Even though she was well off in Cuba she wanted to do her own thing here. She had a lot of her young friends who moved. She decided to move here as a single person and find herself. My mother is everybody’s mother. She is a nurturing woman who has had to work the majority of her life. A woman that would come home and still find time to clean and cook. My mother would give you her home if you needed some place to stay. She is also a perfectionist and you will never find here with a hair out of place and she is still that way. Just a beautiful woman whom everybody just loves and had bonded to the minute they meet her.
GB: Talk about the process of immigration by some of your father’s siblings.
JR: They slowly migrated from the late sixties on. It was a big celebration. I remember as a kid having to go to pick up my aunt and her kids at Miami International Airport when they came over. And we took them to our home to stay with us. The kids were so happy almost to the point that I couldn’t understand why they were so happy after leaving everything they had in Cuba. There was just that much joy leaving that communist regime and being able to eat what they wanted to eat. I remember stopping at place that had churros and the kids got out and could not believe that they could have as much as they wanted. My father thought that it was the greatest thing that he had the money to give that to the kids and his sister. We worked with the church and got them some clothing and it was great. They were rejoicing and could believe that they had gotten here.
My father was here during his teenage years. He worked at a coffee shop cleaning the place and working the register. My father went into the wood working trade. He became a carpenter at Holiday Unit Doors. I used to go see him work. That was over by the Golden Glades interchange. That is where he learned to become a carpenter. After that the next job he held, due to his wood working skills, he applied with the city of South Miami because they need a public works carpenter. He worked a total of 14 years and eventually ended up being supervisor of maintenance for the city.
GB: Did you learn a lot of politics from him?
JR: Yes I did. One of the things that really set me into motion, because remember I was in my teens and early twenties so I really began to understand how the city functioned, he would share with us a lot of information about what was going on. I used to come to commission meetings where they would honor him. I got involved and interacted with the employees he interacted with, the city managers at the time, the chief of police, everybody else. I was starting to see how city government worked from a very young age.
GB: You live at home now and you are single?
JR: That is true since I was about nine years of age. And let me tell you a little about the home. My parents bought the house and I’ve lived with them. I told you we bought and old wood frame house that was really beautiful. Well years went on and the house really deteriorated badly so I had an option. I was going to find a place to live by myself in the city boundaries and see how I could do something for my parents. What we decided to do was to continue to live together. So we knocked down the old home and build a new one on the same site. And we did that right after hurricane Andrew. It is a two-story home and I have the two upstairs bedrooms and they have the bottom. That gives me the opportunity to take care of my parents. My dad is actually on disability and social security. I came in and was able to help them out during their tough transition but yes we still live together in the same home. I’ve never been married. The house is under my name because I actually am the one who did most of the work and paid for all the work to be done.
GB: What is it like to be a single person for a number of years both in government and in people’s attitudes toward you as you get older?
JR: Well I have a significant other and she attends all the meetings with me but I’m very honest and I tell people nowadays to do what we do I don’t see how married individuals do this because it will really put a strain on a marriage. It is very time consuming. I feel my children and my family is not only my mom and dad but also 11,000 residents in the city. I’m putting in 40 to 50 hours a week in being a part time mayor. I think that if I had a family right now, if I were married and had children it would not allow me the luxury to give as much of my time as I do to what I doing now. There are residents that say that if I don’t have a family that I’m not sensitive to certain issues and I say that is nonsense. I feel like a parent because of some of the situations that I have to sit in with adults and mediate. When it comes to children I think that the best rapport with them than any young elected official in the city. My age is another thing. So does it hinder me? No I think it helps me out being a single person because of the element of time. If you really want to do something you have to be willing to give 110%. I do it for $3000 dollars a year. Which costs me about $17000 a year to be mayor which is money that I give up that I would have made at my other job, which is as a BellSouth technician for the past 20 years. It is an act of love. I love what I do. I believe that this city has the most potential and is what I call the diamond in the rough and that is why I do this.
GB: I want to talk a little bit more about you identification with your Cuban heritage.
JR: In the house it is a strange situation. My father speaks perfect English so I speak to him in English 85% of the time. My mother I speak to in Spanish. She understands English perfectly she can speak it but it is very broken and hard to understand. So I get both worlds. I will tell you honestly I learned English before Spanish. I was always called the gringo of the family. I learned Spanish through school. My Spanish was horrible. I learned it the same way anyone would learn English, through textbooks and teachers starting in parochial school.
GB: What about you father and mother’s attitude toward Castro?
JR: It has been totally negative but my parents are a d ifferent type of Cuban than you have here today. My parents are not political. They are not out there with the propaganda. They are very low key. Not at all what you see today with a lot of the new Cubans that have come over. As a matter of fact they stay out of that lime light all together. I have grown up the same way. I’m not out of Cuban Radio screaming about doing away with Castro. I just isn’t in me. I didn’t grow up with that feeling. I consider my roots Cuban but this is my home. I grew up in the US and I don’t want a send a message that I don’t sympathize with the Cuban community. I fear what happens to my friends and family still in Cuba but I feel for my parents that they can’t even go back to their home. But I don’t think that I my situation that I am bonded to that as much as some other people are meaning they were born in Cuba and lived their. I more an Americanized Cuban kid who grew up with this type of element and am not much into that type of politics. My generation grew up in a way where this was just not an issue. I live here and I think my issues are those that I need to address locally and in this country that I was given the opportunity to live in. Those are my primary issues. Don’t get me wrong g I get approached everyday by groups of immigrants to get involved and support or follow something that would help them out to get political freedom I will support them wholeheartedly.
GB: What was your reaction to the Mariel Boatlift?
JR: I had about a 10% element of happiness and a 90% element of fear. The happiness was because I had family that came over. But as soon as I found out what Castro released I was in fear because what I feared was not only the prisoners that were tossed to us but what is going to happened to the wonderful reputation that the Cubans have in South Florida. Now were are going to be depicted as some of those who were coming over and these are not a reflection of the community at large – guilt by association. That was my fear what would it create. Would we lose the support that the Cuban people had as being serious people that were here to do a d ecent day’s work not to come to here and create and problems?
GB: Did you go and see any of the refugees?
JR: I was actually were nervous and scared because there were obscenities being screamed at use and I remember my mom and dad not wanting to get in the middle. Maybe we paid one or two visits but we largely stayed out of it.
GB: What about the role that Jorge Mas Canosa and the Cuban American Foundation played in your political maturation?
JR: I never really knew a lot about what he was doing. I know my parents know everything about him and consider him a true leader in this community and applauded his efforts but in my generation and my upbringing there was very little contact with that except what my parents discussed with me.
GB: How do you look at the Freedom Tower now as a symbol for the Cuban Community?
JR: I see the building as the preeminent symbol of the Cuban American experience because of the historical information that my parents shared with me. I would love to see that building restored. I am one of the ones who wrote Mr. Mas Canosa’s son about it and asked him to please restore it because I am a little embarrassed about the way it looks now. I can’t believe that the building looks like that because it is probably the biggest gem we have downtown and I asked him to please put the money in and turn it into a museum. Let that be a focus point. That building should be the major historical building we have downtown.
GB: Let’s go back to politics. You started out in what political party?
JR: I had no party affiliation initially. The first time I registered to vote was non-partisan. And then changed my affiliation as I started to get older and look at different issues and get my own mind on what I saw coming from different parties. It is not because all Cubans vote Republican, that is nonsense and a farce. I think that my issues were along the vein that most of the politicians that I bonded with and shared points of view with were Republicans. But I don’t vote the party I vote the candidate. I’m proud to say that I voted for Clinton. I think that is where this country shortchanges itself a lot of times because people vote for the party regardless even if you don’t support the candidate, which is nonsense. Vote for the individual who is best for the job. I support Mayor Penelas and I get a lot of heat for it at some of the meetings I go to. Which I don’t understand because how can you not support a good person who is trying to do something just because he is a Democrat?
GB: What about the role of Ronald Reagan and George Bush in you upbringing and politics?
JR: I followed Reagan and thought the world of him. I thought he was a great president. I really do. Bush, I think was the weaker of the two but I support everything he did and really took a liking to him on a lot of the stances he took. Again voting the party at that time it was easy for me to vote the party because those were the stronger candidates. I admired their stances and decisions made. Reagan I believe was one of those presidents who had no problem making a major decision. Bush learned a lot from him so I really took a liking to both and admired a lot of what they did. Foreign Policy is one area that I tend to be reserved about and a lot of presidents get into foreign policy more than they should because of different pressures that come.
GB: Speaking about foreign Policy, what are you opinions about Dante Fascell?
JR: Fantastic individual. I got to meet him and was honored. My father knew very few politicians in South Florida but he knew Dante Fascell. When he had something going on my father attended these events. I had the honor of meeting him several times. I think if we had government officials like Dante we would be in the limelight as the most incredible city, county and state imaginable. He was a man of integrity and inclusion. He knew it all and was a resident of South Miami. Even when this man was sick he would still come out to events people invited him to. That man was a true leader from his first day to his last. He was a true role model.
GB: What about the role the University of Miami plays in South Miami and the relationship between South Miami and Coral Gables?
JR: I remember as a kid you would want to ride your bike to the other side because the grass was greener on the other side. We used to ride over by Riviera Country Club. I grew up looking at that area saying boy this is where I’d like to be. South Miami was the farmland that is how I would see it. Because as a young boy you are impressed by the luxury and the homes and the money and the Biltmore which I used to walk around when it was all boarded up. We lived in the shadow of Coral Gables. I always wondered why this area couldn’t be the same way. We are right across the street. I understood the element of economic background. But I thought it is so close why can’t we all be the same. At times I wondered if there was any way we could become Coral Gables. I grew up swimming in the UM pool and say the campus start to grow and develop. I followed their sports and enjoyed the campus. It was just a great place for a kid to go and walk around. After high school and college I used to go to the Rathskeller which was a place to meet friends and enjoy ourselves. We did live under the shadow of Coral Gables which is changing. I like to brag sometimes that we are seeing a resurgence of our downtown area and I think that the Gables is trying to copy us sometimes in that way.
GB: Let talk a little bit about the structure of South Miami Government. I think a lot of viewers would be interested in hearing about it from the Mayor. Let start by talking about the benefits you see in the City Manger form of government.
JR: The structure we have now is what I consider a city manager corm of government meaning that the manger pretty much runs the city and the elected officials set policy. The composition is very simple. There is a mayor and four commissioners. One is a vice-mayor who is the highest vote getter in the commission elections and holds the post for two years. We are the city manager’s bosses. He can make decisions that effect the city but must be approved by the city commission and the manger then hires staff and does the city’s business. I think it works because the city manager serves at our will and he doesn’t just have to appeal to one person but a majority of the commission. It is a great form of government. You are able to tell us what you want and we in turn are able to hold one individual accountable for what’s happening. It keeps the politics out of it because when you have a strong mayor or and executive mayor I have found it creates jealously and animosity in other people and God forbid that you have a mayor that has veto power and decided for political reasons to veto an idea that has merit for political reasons. I like the way it is here and it works. It has worked for 50 years in this city and hopefully will continue to work. I’m not wold at all about what Miami did. What they have done is create and even greater case of separation and isolation by giving one man too much power. The other think I don’t like is districts. What that creates is grandstanding and animosity between all those elected officials. People should be elected to serve at large over the whole city because it creates a harmonious situation because I can cover all the people rather than just one group. I think the voters are to blame for the increase of personality politics because here we have the greatest give, the vote, and we don’t use it. Voter apathy is terrible. If you don’t used your right to vote you get what you got now. This kind of apathy is due in large part to the large amount of corruption and the political grandstanding and the political machines and the lobbying and the special interests campaign money. I’m very happy to say during the last election in this city many people paid for their own campaign. I didn’t take any money from any developers because even right now we are working on an ordinance that would bar vendors money going to officials here in South Miami. Those are some of the problems. Hopefully our ordinance will catch on here and move around the country. Because what these campaign monies do is gives someone and edge or an opportunity that is not justified or proper. That brings up all sorts of ethics issues. If people exercise their right to vote I think that anything can be changed. What you are seeing now is a large grassroots movement in local politics. For instance me. I have never been a politician. I am a service-orientated person. I have worked as a telephone technician for 20 years. My job is to give service to those people that have phone trouble. That is what you need. People that don’t have further political aspirations and that are using their position to better themselves but are doing to give back to the community.
GB: Would you be in favor of term limits?
JR: Absolutely. I have no problem with term limits. To be very honest you notice that it is catching on. I think it is a very good idea. As an elected official, and this is something that I’ve learned in this position, after 6, 8 or 10 years in one position people start getting comfortable with you and think they can get away with murder and call you. Then they start getting fresh and start trying to get things and that is when the ethics start crossing the line. These is also the opportunity for new blood. I am one of those that loves new blood and new ideas. I like to keep the cycle going with younger people bringing me their ideas as I get older. The day that I sit back I can enjoy the things that their ideas have provided for the community.
GB: What do you see as your most significant role as mayor?
JR: My role is mostly to be the individual who is out there marketing the city, putting the city in a positive light and bringing issues to the table and as an individual who knows how to share with the rest of the commissioners but also one who can show that there is a leader that can keep the leader and guide the city. My number responsibility is showing what this city represents and I think that is the most important thing that I do.
GB: How do you assess the quality of local news coverage relating to politics in the community?
JR: Terrible! It is creating the apathy. The media needs to be aware of this. The media has created such a negative aura that sells papers and they never take the time to report the positive. It is always about the corruption and the illegal deal and this guy gets indicted. If they put a little more emphasis on the positive ideas it will catch on. Positive journalism would definitely help. When people pick up a paper everyday and see the negative of course they don’t want to get involved in local government. Your grassroots people don’t want to get involved and it is a message that creates the apathy. We need to take a stand. The bottom line is who buys the papers, we do. Being a union member, when the Herald did something we didn’t like we had people come together and drop our subscriptions to the paper. People need to come together and send powerful messages when thousands of subscriptions are lost.
GB: Do you think that it would be possible to set up a website that focused on alternative local press?
JR: Absolutely. What is coming with the new technology that is out there is eventually that may be your real source of information where you don’t get an opinionated or slanted view of the news. People should be able to pull up an alternative source of information from the web.
GB: When did you first run for political office and what was that experience like?
JR: It was 1996. I was involved with a group we had put together called The South Miami Alliance for Youth. That group is how I first got involved with the city. We wanted to find some funding to put together programs for kids after school. We started meeting at South Miami Middle School. Dick Ward said you’re a young man and seem to like to give you time to the community why don’t you get involved with the homeowners’ board. So I did. From there he asked me to help him with several other elections for other candidates he was involved with. I got involved making phone calls and holding signs and stuff like that. One of the main reasons I got involved was when I was building our new house I found that this was one of the most user unfriendly building departments in have ever dealt with. And my father had long been involved with the city so I knew a lot of the grumbling around city hall. It wound up costing me thousands of dollars on things that I thought were unfair. SO the reason I got involved was because I was very upset with what I saw. I was totally frustrated with government. I didn’t see a progressive government. I saw my taxes going up and up but I didn’t see my infrastructure being improved. So many things that I thought people here at the time were just going through the motions of being elected officials just for the title.
People told me I was crazy. They said I was too young and people didn’t know me. All I had done was sit on the homeowners board and worked with the Alliance for youth. And the worst thing I heard was when I was approached by some people who knew I was running for mayor they said your name is Julio Robaina, you don’t stand a chance. This city is a majority Anglo and African American and you are dead in the water. I said let me find out for myself. So I became a commissioner and it was totally different, a whole different world being on the other side of the podium. I had to do a lot of growing up. I’m young man and I had to mature a lot more by learning to take the shots from people without getting personal and in the beginning I was taking them personally. And that doesn’t help it just creates animosity. Now I just listen and listen and let people speak and vent and them ask them for their solutions and then offer our help and solutions. Life in city government is all about compromise. The first years were pretty tough especially because we were tackling issues that a lot of people didn’t want to deal with because they didn’t want change and they feared we were going to turn the city into something it wasn’t
GB: What were some of the key issues?
JR: Redevelopment was a key issue. Downtown was dead. The one project on the burner was the Shops at Sunset which was around before I got here. Personally I like redevelopment but not anything of that magnitude. To me it is way too big of a d evelopment. I made that very clear. I am for four floors and parking onsite and some control on the mass of the project. The other overall problems in the city were police. There was a lot of turmoil and politics being played in the department. Issues dealing with the deterioration of the infrastructure in the city. But my biggest concern was the lack of youth programs. And that was what I ran my campaign.
GB: Talk about the process of campaign and political strategy.
JR: Locally what we did here was my first campaign we ran for $5000. It came mostly from residents and I think that the majority of the money came from my own pocket. When I decided to run for mayor that was a whole different scenario. I was running against the incumbent who was an African American female. I personally disliked her style of government but I liked her as a person. I never bickered with her as a human being. When I ran against her I knew she had a lot of developers that were going to support her. My campaign started on the backs of the residents, local merchants and groups like the PBA and Fire Fighters and groups that were of that nature. Most of the merchants were opposed to the Shops and opposed to a higher level of government. I lobbied this commissioner many times about the mass of certain projects. I felt that I really needed to really give and strong effort and what I think happened was the grassroots kicked in. They had seen me fighting as a commissioner for a couple of years and fighting what was in place because we had a city manager that had this city in turmoil with people being fired for political reasons. We were negative in the press. Everything you read in the press was terrible and that upset me. We wanted changes that the previous mayor didn’t want. I made the motion many times to fire the manger but it never happened. Voter apathy was not an issue during the mayor’s race. In fact we had the highest voter turnout when I ran for mayor. People were totally frustrated with what was going on and they responded to a take it to the door campaign. I must have knocked on 800 doors and explained the issues. I think the residents really deserve a round of applause for getting out and putting their apathy aside and using their right to vote. That is why I’m proud of this city because it has an open mind and will vote for the individual. We went from an openly gay mayor to an African-American female to the first Cuban Mayor. They are not going to base it on ethnicity or any other factor other than who the best candidate is. We are completely different that the City of Miami. We are our own city and people here do their own thinking and they are educated and they study the issues. They don’t follow any political propaganda.
GB: How would you characterize the state of race relations in South Miami?
JR: Two years ago in the midst of the campaign it really got bad. There were racial flyers being sent because there is still a lot of racism in South Miami. You can’t hide that horrible snake as its keeps popping its head up every once in a while. But during that election a lot of racist flyers came out that made a lot of news. People were very hurt and there was a lot of animosity. To this day there is still some of it that has not been brought to closure. It created a very bad feeling. I remember an article came out in the New Times that said South Miami- City in Turmoil. It showed some of the pictures that people had dome that depicted the mayor and the chief as chimpanzees. I knew that whether I won or not I was going to have a hard job in front of me to mend the situation. Let me tell you what we did. As soon as I was elected we call for investigations with the US Attorneys office to find out who started that and then we started with the proactive side. We got involved with the community relations board of the county. I’m proud to say that South Miami was the only municipality at the time that put together a community relations board. It works great. You talk about diversity and the inclusion of all elements in the city, that board takes care of that and we have gone out ourselves, my staff and so on. Getting out and talking to people and letting them learn about you and find out who you really are is a very effective way of interacting with the community. We’ve asked the people to judge us on our actions and how we vote and what we do. In this county talk and campaigning is cheap. It is what actions are taken that count. I think that we now have a wonderful relationship with all this diversity in our city because of our actions not because of our words. I feel great. I think there is always room for improvement. I know there is racism. I’ve had people come into my office and tell me they didn’t like how I voted on an issue and have told me to go back to Cuba because you are destroying South Miami. But I know the people like that hate because they don’t know how to love. That type of animosity doesn’t phase us because overall if any city has made progress in race relations it is South Miami.
GB: What about the Community Redevelopment Agency and how does that function in support of your goals?
JR: Another reason that I feel that young people and new blood and new ideas need to come on board. The CRA is the first agency we put in place that is addressing the problems of the African American community. I have often asked why in the past 20 years with all the great people that have led this city have that not done something about the dilapidated areas. What I found out was that it took energy and a will to lobby the state which we never did for funds, to go to Washington to get out into the community and go to the county and establish an agency to make what I consider the worst area of South Miami a good area. Why the mentality of our forefathers in years past wasn’t along the lines of your city is only as good as your poorest area I don’t know. To me that is my concept because when people brag about South Miami they always remember that little area in there with so much drugs and problems and the HUD homes. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand that this should have been addressed years ago. SO talking about the CRA, we wanted a tool to improve that area. We were confident and took a lot of heat from people that are from a completely different economic scale that have the best of everything when we started discussing this tool, the CRA.
GB: Why do you think that the set of problems you were discussing was allowed to persist?
JR: I think there was an element of racism. Certain people that did not want anything done in the African American Community and I’ve got to be honest, there was an element of racism. When I say that I think that elected officials during campaign time would go into that community and promise the world and never do anything to improve anything. For instance the multi-purpose center. Twenty years ago they discussed building on to keep the kids off the street but it never happened. Another thing is the bureaucracy. Due to not having a vision there was never any new money to go in a d o anything except just to do the everyday business and just put band-aids on new problems. Infrastructure and services and everything else that people expect from their city suffered. In the African American community the ministers are the go to group that you count on. They are the ones a lot of times that bring people to the table. They are the ones that they trust. Unfortunately we have to gain their trust. They don’t trust us. I may be trying but until 10 or 15 years go do the line and see the fruits of my labor that is when I might start getting that trust.
GB: Why is planning and zoning so important and how has your own attitude changed over the last couple of years regarding planning?
JR: Young men and women may see that and think it is boring. It is the most important element in moving a city forward or as an individual in moving your life. We plan our lives on a d aily basis. Unfortunately this society we live in we tend to live off a calendar. They point is planning is everything. If you don’t plan it will catch up with you and you are going to see you surroundings falling apart around you. This is something that this city was lacking. I drive this city everyday and I see sidewalks broken and potential areas where trees could go. The Gables has a vision. Notice what they did on Grenada and Coral Way. Years ago they planted different types of trees. They saw a vision of what the city was going to look like 30 years down the road. Now they have it. We have to plan everything. SO lets talk about planning and zoning. Planning- We are finally getting together a troop of professionals that are planning the future of this city. Our goal is to develop of vision of what this city will look like when it grows up. My vision is of a place that I am proud to say come visit me and am able to show people our beautiful downtown. Let me show you the beautiful community. The parks. So how does it get there? You need to plan. Where are you going to get the funds to do the improvements? What type of buildings do you want? How high? How much mass? Parking? Traffic? If they would have planned these things years ago you wouldn’t have all the problems of traffic and some other things that we have today. You have to have a game plan for anything you do in life. You can’t run government from one day to the next and see who calls in with a problem.
GB: What do you think the chief function of parks is?
JR: It is bring back the quality of life and bringing back families. In South Miami we had an elderly lady who passed away who left a big parcel of land with an old rock home on it and developers were pawing away to get it and subdivide it. It was brought to our attention. We decided that we would aggressively find funds wherever we could to but that property. It was something that the city had never done before. We were able to purchase the property and it is presently called Open Space Park because we haven’t had a chance to name it. It is beautiful. Parks are a gathering area for families to have a greater quality of life. In the past several years we have probably done everything to improve every single park from landscaping to the cleaning. All I get is nothing but compliments. It raises property values and people like going there. They push their strollers and bring their dogs and enjoy that element that we have. Earlier I was talking about the multi purpose center. That became a passion of former mayor Tom Cunningham. One of my campaign issues also was to build a multipurpose center because you can be proactive or reactive. We spend a lot of money on police and jails but I found out that if we put money into community centers we can tackle the problems of crime and drugs from the root. We went out and got over $4 million dollars and are now in the process of building that center. That is going to bring people out of their homes and away from the TV. It is not only going to be a rec center but there are going to be computers and it will teach skills for those that need it. A lot of people need jobs and they need to be computer literate. We are doing all of that. Even before its built we are out there getting funds for the computers for both kids and adults. Here is an opportunity for the city to get involved in making people’s lives better.
GB: Is there a growing constituency for park funding and involvement?
JR: It is very important to bring the constituency back to parks. They only come if they see the effort being put forward by their local elected officials. That is what we have noticed. The parents are finally coming back. We are getting parents that are coming out to support their kids. If they know the city is behind it and they know we are spending money you won’t believe the increase of parents that have gotten involved. These kids really appreciate seeing their parents out supporting them at their games in the stands. The funding has gotten tougher but I have found as the funding gets tighter you just have to take it up a notch. When funding dried up a few years ago from the county this city for the first time in 73 years went to Tallahassee to get funding. We brought that on two years ago. We have found money for one thing or the other and it is all by just going up there and putting the best foot forward. We have gone to Washington again the first time. It was the best-kept secret. A lot of municipalities were getting that we had never asked for. The issue on the funding is if you do give the effort you can get the money.
GB: How do you feel about the rails for trails program?
JR: It’s great. That is something that I took on personally and is now green space. I like controlled development and green space. I took on the cause because several residents came forward. Many people have fought the county on this many times. They promised not to bring it up anymore but just a couple of years ago again they suggested using the FEC corridor for light rail. That is why people don’t trust government. This issue effects mainly people in the unincorporated areas. I took it on as a personal initiative. I aligned myself with mayor Penelas and other commissioners at the county level and we moved forward and won. We not only had the county send a clear message to the county manager not to study it anymore but to develop the Rails for Trails program. There was no support at all for that rail in people’s backyards. The director of the program for the Keys and Islamorada came to South Miami and was so impressed with our progress he agreed to help us. We have the mayor’s people here. We have the commission’s people here. We have the Trust for Public Land here. We have personally assembled a group that will develop a program to buy that corridor. The people from the Rails for Trails Conservancy tell us we’ve done half the work by selling it to the public.
GB: What role do you think that Greenways can make if expanded throughout our region?
JR: That goes back to the quality of life issues in terms of getting people our of their house and go out and spend time in their environment and love the community they live in. Because we live in South Florida because of the weather and to be locked in the house is ridiculous. The element of green space in terms of aesthetics is beautiful. In terms of quality of life it is fantastic. The property values continue to go up. It is all about balance. What is going to happen to our kids if all they see is development and concrete? It is the future of those people to and you have to take that into account. What I like about green space is that I see families go out. I envision those rails for trails areas as places where families go out in the evening after dinner take their dogs and go on out and walk. Its exercise, it’s a chance to get out and meet your neighbors it is interaction.
GB: In what ways are you trying to appeal to seniors?
JR: Our senior citizens center was a neglected center. They went from their little apartment down to eat and then back. They like to get out. They want to go to parks but someone has to plan their events and get them there and they have to be safe. You don’t see seniors in the parks a lot of time because they don’t have people to get them there. We have done that with our Parks and Recreation department. The center has more activities than they ever have. We have buses available for them to go to the Everglades or Fairchild Gardens. We will take them to social events and cultural events. They like going out. They want people to know that they are here and not to forget about them. They love going to parks. In fact we have just initiated a d ominos program where we take seniors out and have them compete against other areas. And when they see our parks they love.
GB: How would you address problems of mass transit and transportation?
JR: It is all about planning. I think that Dade County in general has got the worst planning than any other county in the US. I have travel to 28 different states and I like to go into the cities and compare transit systems. We really suffer from a lack of a good transit system. It all comes from a lack of planning and poor politics with money going to places where it shouldn’t. I’m not a popular person when I decided to support the recent referendum on transit but I did. I supported Mayor Penelas on the penny tax. I didn’t like the way it was implemented. It needed to be reworded and unclear and I think it lost its support there. The using of that money for other things also scared people. The lack of trust also doomed the idea. I supported the idea because we do need to have that money. People have to understand that a lot of that money would have gone to studies and to bring in true professionals down here to study the problem. South Florida is growing and it will do so regardless but we need to have better planning. It is time to stop the politics and have sources of funding available for study because in order for us to survive we better study the situation before we move into gridlock or deadlock. I will continue to support initiatives to study the issues of mass transit which personally I believe is very poor that we have in place.
GB: How can high school and college students help?
JR: Charettes. That idea has really taken off. I think it is the future when areas have a meeting your local governments shouldn’t be dictating what is going. It is a brain storming session that brings the residents to the table and let everyone discuss it. It doesn’t matter if you are 50 or 15. Kids need to get involved. Their input needs to heard because it is their future. Although the planners and staff are there, they are there for guidance. But residents need to be there to push the action ahead.
GB: What have you learned about yourself in this Oral History process?
JR: Actually I have learned most importantly that I am very secure and I know what I want to see this city become and what I want to do. I have realized how much I enjoy what I am doing and how focused I can really stay on the issues. The one thing that I would say that I am also saddened that there are not more people sitting here with me doing the same thing. I want to see more people, younger people getting involved.
A Librarian