Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

BIG CITY SUCCESS: Miami’s Secret Recipe

By

By Bogdan Dyiakonovych @ Shutterstock.com

You’ve read a lot about the failure of the big blue blob cities of the Northeast, and how everyone wants to escape San Francisco. But there are a few examples of big cities done right in America. Miami is one of them. With its Republican Mayor Francis X. Saurez, Miami has found the secret recipe to running a big city the right way. Karol Markowicz explains in The Wall Street Journal:

Life Comes at You Fast. Slow It Down with My Friday Email. It’s Free.

Residential real estate here is a seller’s market, repeatedly setting records for total sales, percentage of asking price and lowest inventory. More homes were sold in Miami in the first nine months of 2021 than in all of 2019 or 2020. June saw more sales than any month ever.

What’s attracting all the buyers? “The formula is simple,” Mayor Francis X. Suarez says over a cafecito (sweet Cuban espresso) at his City Hall office: “Don’t tax more than you have to. Government shouldn’t constantly be in our pocket. Use technology to make everything run better. Invest more in policing, not less.” That may not sound radical, but it goes against the grain of American urban leadership in our polarized age.

Mr. Suarez is one of America’s few Republican big-city mayors and the first Miami native to lead the city, though not the first Suarez: His father, Xavier, an immigrant from Cuba, served nonconsecutive terms in the 1980s and ’90s. The current mayor, 44, drew attention last year for his Twitter boosterism. In December Delian Asparouhov, a co-founder of Varda Space Industries and a principal at Founders Fund, tweeted: “ok guys hear me out, what if we move silicon valley to miami.” Mr. Suarez responded: “How can I help?”

Mr. Asparouhov did move, and in April he hosted a “tech week” around the launch of On Deck, a tech accelerator program. Mr. Suarez invited all the visiting “founders” for cafecitos—his trademark. When an investor from Manchester, England, asked if the events would be in person, Keith Rabois, another Founders Fund partner, who moved here in 2020 replied: “All meetings in Miami are IRL,” an abbreviation for “in real life.”

South Florida has always had low taxes and nice weather, but Mr. Rabois’s answer hints at another attraction, newly developed in 2020: Life here is almost normal. While other states and cities dragged out their Covid-19 lockdowns and many even now mandate mask-wearing in public, Gov. Ron DeSantis had allowed businesses to reopen by last fall and suspended all state and local Covid-19 restrictions this May.

For this Mr. DeSantis was met with opprobrium from the national media and criticism from Mr. Suarez. On CBS’s “Face the Nation” in February, Mr. Suarez complained that the governor wasn’t allowing him to enforce a mask mandate and said of open bars, nightclubs and gyms: “Unfortunately, that’s not in our purview. That’s something that the governor has decided.” In August, the mayor told CNN that masks in schools “may need to be mandated” if the summer Covid surge continued. It eventually subsided, but the Miami-Dade County school board continues to defy state policy by demanding that children wear masks.

While Covid has hit Miami hard at times, the city was mostly spared the wave of urban riots in the summer of 2020. “Protests are OK,” Mr. Suarez says, “but destroying property or hurting people will send you to jail here.” Miami increased its police budget when other cities were promising to “defund” their departments.

Mr. Suarez is expected to win a second term easily on Nov. 2; he was elected in 2017 with 86% of the vote. On the same day, Democrat Eric Adams is all but certain to be elected mayor of New York. “On Jan. 2, 2022,” Mr. Adams told the Journal last month, “I’m taking a flight to Florida, and I’m telling all those New Yorkers that live in Florida—I’m telling them, ‘Bring your butt back to New York.’ ” (Mr. Adams had already visited Mr. Suarez for a cafecito.)

Mr. Suarez praises Mr. Adams but says he isn’t worried. “I like Eric, I think he’s dynamic. We hit it off in ways I didn’t connect with his predecessor. We can have a good relationship between Miami and New York.” But he ticks off his city’s advantages: “New York City pays 14% more in taxes than Miami.” (The combined state and city income taxes are actually as high as 14.776%, versus zero in Miami.) “He’ll have to overcome the tax differential, and it’s also three times more expensive to live in New York. We have an innovation economy in Miami. We’ve excelled at it. We’ve created 8,000 jobs with an average salary of $120,000. Companies are buying property, they’re signing leases. They’re not going back.”

Action Line: If your city treats you more like New York than Miami, it’s time to look for a better America today.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

Recent Posts from YourSurvivalGuy.com

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Your Survival Guy has a client whose grandfather left him some money. That was nice. But the real gift was how his grandfather would teach him about money when they were together. How to roll pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters sitting on the floor and talking. Adding up the pile and feeling the weight in […]

How Joe Biden Raised Oil Prices

You saw Joe Biden demonize fracking and the oil industry throughout his campaign until the debates when Donald Trump cornered him on it, at which point he denied it all. Then, once he moved into the White House, Biden began his war on oil and helped to drive up prices on everything Americans need. At […]

Is the Philadelphia Looting Spree the Wake-up Call America Needs?

Crime has ravaged businesses across America since 2020, when radical politicians gave looters the green light to turn America into a warzone. Since then, the nation has watched with horror as roving gangs have cleaned out popular locations like Nordstroms and Apple Stores and even little gas stations. For two days now, America has watched […]

“No Way I’m Spending That Much on Those”

Your Survival Guy and Gal were in Boston this weekend, visiting our daughter and son. If you want to know what stagflation feels like, have two kids in college at the same time. Many of you know exactly what I’m talking about. Take, for instance, after breakfast, strolling down Newbury Street window shopping. The next […]

What Trade Policy Serves America’s National Interest Best?

In The American Conservative, Micah Meadowcroft examines the words of one of Your Survival Guy’s favorite presidents, “Silent Cal” Coolidge, who is known for saying, “The business of America is business,” but who actually said, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing […]

California Wants to Make the 2nd Amendment Unaffordable

California, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is doubling the tax it demands from law-abiding gun owners on sales of ammunition and guns. It appears Newsom and the California legislature have settled on a strategy of simply pricing the poor out of their Constitutional rights as enumerated in the Second Amendment. Adam Beam reports for the […]

“You Didn’t Eat That Again, Did You?”

As Your Survival Guy, I understand the immense pressure you’re under to “do something.” Everyone’s got a plan of what to do with your money. I know this not because you tell me what they’re telling you, but just from experience. I know, for example, when you’re asking me, “Why are we holding this position?” […]

Is McCarthy Up to the Task?

What’s wrong with a line-by-line approach to the budget? Here, Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) explains to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo why he can’t support McCarthy’s approach to running the House of Representatives. The way to fund the government is not by doing it the same way Congress has since the mid-90s, where it’s one […]

Rising Costs Are Hammering Commercial Real Estate

The commercial real estate market is getting hammered by rising costs. Not only are higher interest rates scaring away potential buyers, but high insurance costs are also killing demand. Konrad Putzier reports in The Wall Street Journal: Commercial property owners, already struggling with high interest rates and rising vacancies, face exploding insurance costs that keep […]

Your Survival Guy Fishing with Dolphins

Your Survival Guy was fishing this summer and came into these pods of bottlenose dolphins. You can see some of the famed Newport mansions in the background. Best viewed on a mobile device. Life Comes at You Fast. Slow It Down with My Friday Email. It’s Free. 

Judge Shatters California High Capacity Magazine Ban

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez shattered the state’s ban on high-capacity magazines, calling it unconstitutional. The ruling could set up a Supreme Court decision on the matter, potentially affecting similar bans throughout the country. Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters: A federal judge in California on Friday declared that state’s ban on magazines that hold more […]

Is Your Water Safe to Drink? NOLA Residents Aren’t Sure

Residents of New Orleans are wondering whether or not they’ll have safe water to drink as forecasts for the Mississippi River levels decline, and the threat of a saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico becomes a reality. Nadine El-Bawab reports for ABC7, writing: New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has signed an emergency declaration over […]

Wellington and Wellesley Funds Not Managed by Vanguard

In my conversations with you, we talk about the virtues of being a balanced investor. You can achieve this through a mix of blue-chip dividend payers and laddered bonds. To illustrate, I’ll use as a proxy Fidelity Balanced, Vanguard Wellington, and Vanguard Wellesley funds. In that order, they have roughly the following stock/bond allocation mix: […]

Remembering Jimmy Buffett: The Oldest Surfer on the Beach

I was driving past First Beach in Newport, RI, this past weekend, watching the waves from Hurricane Lee forming an offshore break from a northerly wind. It was peaceful. And it reminded me of the song “Oldest Surfer on the Beach” by Jimmy Buffett. Appearing on the 2013 album Songs from St. Somewhere, it was […]

The Folly of Windmills from Nowhere USA

Your Survival Guy and fellow boaters were astonished at the city-like size of a massive ship parked outside of Newport Harbor for weeks this season. Turns out it’s used to put up windmills not made in the USA. And, cue the music, they’re running out of taxpayer money. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board reports: […]