South Florida Mayors Launch Strategy To Address Environmental, Economic & Social Challenges
MIAMI (CBSMiami/CNN) - South Florida Mayors helped unveil 'Resilient 305' on Thursday morning, a 20-year strategy to tackle environmental, economic and social challenges for our region.
Miami Dade Mayor Gimenez in partnership with other local Mayors from the City to the Beaches announced the initiative about planning for the future.
"We now view most county operations through the lens of both immediate and long term resilience," said Mayor Gimenez.
"None of the these challenges get done if there's turf wars and infighting," said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.
From flooding in Miami Beach to Brickell to sea level rise the plan is to help South Florida communities better absorb the shock of stressors like hurricanes and infrastructure failures, even to make traffic better.
It's a plan that extends well beyond any Mayor's tenure.
Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and developed over three years, it's part of the 100 Resilient Cities plan that includes other major cities around the globe that face similar problems and threats and share solutions.
In Miami-Dade County alone more than $22 billion invested is aimed at resiliency.
"We are not necessarily going to declare a climate emergency but we are acting as if it's an emergency, we are treating it as if it's an emergency and making sure we have the policies and procedures so that we adapt, so that we mitigate so that we reverse so that we never ever have to retreat," said City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.