We need more elected officials like Manny Diaz. When Manny was first elected Mayor of Miami, he entered office with the single most important asset any new mayor can have: ignorance. He didn’t know what he couldn’t do. Those who spend their lives in politics learn to live by certain limitations: groups that cannot be challenged, laws that cannot be changed, projects that cannot be undertaken, words that cannot be uttered. Manny had spent his career in the private sector, and he brought none of this baggage with him. When people wise in the way of government told him one...

I wrote this book because the focus of politics in America has to change.

Many politicians write memoirs and biographies, filled with anecdotes and personal recollections from their term in office. There is a lot of that in these pages. It is also my hope that you will find something much more important. My premise is that we need to restore pragmatism in politics through a renewed investment in our cities. Unless we do so, we will continue to head down a very perilous road.

I understand I am not the first to say this. Yet, it is a painful...

It began as a fairly typical morning for me—a typical morning for any six-year-old child in Cuba. I awoke to the beautiful sunny skies of Havana, “La Habana,” and sat down for a breakfast of “café con leche”—coffee with milk—and bread. At the table sat my mother, Elisa, and maternal grandparents, Benigno and Hortensia Galnares, as the traditional Cuban home very often included several generations under the same roof.

But this was not to be a typical morning.

My father, Manolo, would start his day as a political prisoner in possibly the worst Cuban prison of its...

Trained in the principle of Men for Others, I left high school with a strong sense of public service, wanting to help others. However, in order to do so, I would have to navigate uncharted waters. Politically and culturally, I was part of the first group of Cuban Americans who grew up in the United States. Even though we were born in Cuba, most of us were too young to remember much of anything. America is what we knew, but Cuba was never far away. Our parents and grandparents would never let us forget. One minute you’re having dinner with...

Numerous individuals inspired me to enter public service while I was growing up. If we are going to change politics in this country, we have an obligation to inspire and encourage today’s young people to heed the call for public service, advocate for their vision of their future, and run for public office. This is how I got started, and this is what we must do for them.

I first began by managing typical low budget campaigns that instilled in me a love for grassroots organizing. These campaigns allow you the opportunity to meet your neighbors, the voters you seek...

The elián gonzález story begins on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, a month after my dad had passed away. Fishermen found six-year-old Elián holding onto an inner tube off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His mother, Elizabeth Broton, and several others had drowned after the small boat they were on capsized two days earlier. A court granted legal custody of Elián to his great-uncle Lázaro González and his family in Miami. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the stage was being set for something much larger than finding a home for a motherless child.

Early on, U.S. attorney...

In fall 2000, I formally decided to run for mayor of Miami. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.

After the raid on Elián’s home, I witnessed the expression of many of the same feelings in our community so prevalent in the aftermath of the Mariel boatlift. News reports showed African Americans standing next to white Americans holding a Confederate flag yelling “Cubans go home.” This was a stark reminder of a time and place I had fought so hard to move us beyond. Much in the same way that in 1980 I went back on my personal promise not to become...

I did not run for mayor as part of a pre-programmed political career path. I did not run as a stepping stone for future political office. I ran to make a difference because I loved Miami and saw its potential. Miami is the city I grew up in. It is the city that my parents, in their own humble way, helped to build. It is also city made up predominantly of Hispanics, primarily Cuban Americans. If Miami was considered a laughingstock, then by extension, Cuban Americans would be viewed in a similar vein. This could not be the legacy of...

People in government no longer have grand ideas. When I was a young boy and President John F. kennedy said we would go to the moon, many people thought he was crazy. Less than ten years later, I sat with my parents and watched on TV as Neil Armstrong landed the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon, taking those first historic steps. This image has always stayed with me. Dream big; then lead others to your idea.

When, as mayor, I closed my eyes and imagined the Miami of twenty or thirty years in the future, I knew exactly what...

The lack of growth and investment in Miami led the city toward a decline where opportunities for prosperity and advancement were few. Miami, the headlines declared, was the poorest large city in America. The joke went that “moving on up” meant from fifth poorest to number one. As soon as I walked into City Hall, the press shoved a microphone in my face and expected me to deliver a ten-second solution to a problem that had developed over the past thirty to forty years. Poverty and lack of economic opportunity is not something that can be eradicated overnight, in five...

I am an example of someone who beat poverty through education. Without access to a good education, who knows where I’d be now? It is therefore impossible for me to conceive of any kind of strategy that provides opportunities for advancement out of poverty that does not make improving education the top priority.

Because of the way school districts operate in America, most mayors have no control over schools. We have no say over the most important determinative factor that impacts the future course of our city. Miami has a separate, independent school board, with taxing authority, charged with operating...

The most fundamental responsibility of government is to provide for the safety and security of its people. Successful policing involves more than just crime statistics; you must earn the trust of all residents through professionally trained police officers governed by a clear set of rules, including the use of force that respects the dignity and rights of your residents. It must also take into account improving the overall quality of life of a neighborhood. Catching bad guys is one thing, but making sure streets are clean, cracking down on illegal housing units and abandoned cars, even ridding the streets of...

City investment starts with its neighborhoods. When people read the story of Miami’s emergence, they see the new skyline as a symbol of growth. It is the sexy visual that accompanies the television or magazine story. But the real story of the reemergence of a city takes place in its neighborhoods. Creating the attraction that repopulates a place means that investments must be made to improve the condition of these places. Fixing streets, improving parks, cleaning waterways, making common sense transportation choices all combine to bring people back. If you fix it, they will come.

MIAMI NEVER HAD a strategic,...

All mayors face significant challenges: combating poverty by increasing economic opportunity, ensuring the safety of their residents, bringing quality education to their children, and creating opportunity for all, especially at times when people are suffering the loss of their jobs, their homes, their businesses. Sometimes city design gets lost in all that. Yet, a mayor’s role to make cities sustainable, to make them work, is more important today than ever, as the world is becoming more urban. Mayors must become the architects of their city’s future.

For the first time in history, over half the world’s population live in cities...

Miami needed a strong and vibrant cultural arts life similar to what is found in other major world cities. That void made it difficult to attract people. It also struck me very personally that we needed these opportunities because I had developed a deep appreciation for the arts at an early age, when I was strongly influenced by the humanities curriculum of the schools I attended. I wanted children in Miami to have the same opportunities, the same exposure to art and culture that children in other cities do.

I began with this idea: a great city like Miami deserves...

Of the many memorable moments I had during my time as mayor, one of the most poignant came when I spoke at a naturalization ceremony in Miami. There were thousands of faces in that auditorium from all corners of the world, all with different backgrounds and stories. They were united by a common desire to become citizens of this great nation. On that day, out of many, we became one.

It was made more special by the fact that the ceremony was held in Miami, a city built on the aspirations and dreams of so many who have come to...