Regional Shift: South Florida in Transition

As our story on quality of life indicates, numbers don't necessarily tell the whole story.

Do you think Loving County, Texas, is a better place to live than anywhere in South Florida? Well, maybe if you like cattle, oil wells and arid scrub land. The Texas county has seen its population fall from 227 in 1950 to 67 these days, so it's safe to say rush hour doesn't resemble I-95. South Florida's public school districts are known for their fractious nature, but not Loving County. "The county closed its school system in 1972 because only two students were enrolled and its cost was $146,000 a year," according to the Handbook of Texas Online. But the numbers - whether good or bad - can become a perceived reality throughout the nation. For the record, we at The Business Journal love South Florida and appreciate its vibrancy as a place to work, live and play. We also realize that we face many challenges as the region runs out of raw land and the population continues to swell. An example of our image problem: Forbes magazine just gave Miami-Dade County the booby prize as the poorest large city in the nation. (Pay attention in Palm Beach and Broward, because outsiders often lump our counties together as "Miami.") "Squeezed between ultra-rich and wretchedly poor, the county can't seem to find its business footing," Forbes declared. The magazine makes much over residents leaving Miami-Dade amid a continuing influx of new residents.

While Miami-Dade does indeed have average lower income levels than its neighboring counties, immigrants see opportunity here, not a wretched place.

It's up to us in the business community to put this talent to best use. It's a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Forbes' idea that Miami-Dade doesn't have a business footing is laughable. The county has two of the busiest seaports in the nation, one of the top airports for international cargo and passengers, an abundance of top-level resorts and a thriving professional community serving the needs of a sophisticated international clientele. The county has success in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields among others. In a rebuttal sent to Forbes, Frank Nero, president of the Beacon Council, said: "Few communities can boast of the cultural infrastructure provided by our international citizenry. Comparing Miami-Dade to Madison, Wisconsin, is akin to comparing Hong Kong with Provo, Utah. Nothing against Madison or Provo, but these communities are in no way comparable as centers of international business access." Also spotlighting our region is a report this week by FAU's Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions. It found one category of improvement during the 1990s: better quality of water. Mobility and housing have declined, while land and habitats were unchanged. As a region, we've experienced 23 percent population growth in the 1990s, the FAU report states. But we have virtually depleted our vast supply of open tracts of land. Highway congestion costs $2 billion to $3 billion annually, about $500 to $900 a motorist. We need to unify across county lines and work together. Maybe the higher quality of life ratings will attract some businesses to Palm Beach and Broward, but employees and customers are typically more regional in their scope. One county's success can help another. With that in mind, we would like to note the regionalism article in this week's issue of The Business Journal. In case you missed the key sentence in it, here it is: "South Florida is the only region [in Florida] without a regional economic development organization or a major marketing partnership." Pooling funds from the three counties to jointly market a region makes better sense than each county working on its own. The region shows signs of starting to work together, but we have much left undone. The June 3 economic summit at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood will be a great place to accelerate this process.

Perception and reality