Spotlight On: Alix Desulme, Mayor, City of North Miami

Spotlight On: Alix Desulme, Mayor, City of North Miami

2023-04-05T11:49:42-04:00April 5th, 2023|Economy, Miami, Spotlight On|

2 min read April 2023 As Mayor of the City of North Miami, Alix Desulme has a wide variety of concerns and initiatives that he is invested in. Among the most prominent are improved transportation, education and public initiatives. In an interview with Invest:, Desulme spoke on how the city is working to stay on top of new advancements in funding, technology and safety through an array of programming efforts.

Why and how have you implemented tech programming in North Miami?

I served on the FCC InterGovernmental Advisory Committee for many years. A lot of the initiatives that we were talking about centered around bridging the gap of digital divide. That’s one of the things that’s keeping classes and families apart, especially when you have a community such as North Miami. We’re not like any other communities in South Florida, because of our demographics. We have folks who’ve been here for 30 years, but don’t speak English and don’t yet have the information that they need. They rely a lot on the government. Everything is going toward tech; you have to be tech savvy. Not necessarily those who do not speak English, but the older residents, they’re afraid of technology. When I heard about what Moolah Wireless was able to do with the City of Atlanta, I started researching. We knew that this would be a game changer because everything that we do now, from banking to education to entertainment, is done through tech. 

Another challenge that we are now faced with is that there are some actors that were already out there promoting their services, but that are taking advantage of this program to scam the elderly. We’re doing massive outreach, making sure that we maximize the number of residents who are getting this free tablet, and then they will get a new one every year for the next 10 years. This is part of a bigger federal program that started under the Obama Phone program that Congress expanded into this tablet program. We happen to be the first municipality in Florida to take this on, and we know that some more municipalities in Florida are coming on board to do the same for their residents.

What challenges is the workforce facing?

Education comes first. It is the leading challenge facing the City of North Miami. We have had this issue for many years. Even when we had the development of the SoLé Mia project happening in our city, part of the deal was that the company hire within the locality, within the city. The workforce pulled from our residents were not ready. In response, we’ve done a lot of workforce training. We partnered with the local high school and we are one of the few cities that gives a lot of money from our general fund to the high school. We have a program that helps folks either through learning English or learning different trades. What we are finding out is that people who are living here do not necessarily have the trade of those who are coming in. So we have to work around that. We’ve also partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the night school to subsidize the entry fee for our residents.

What steps have you taken to support affordable housing?

We have done more than any city when it comes to affordable housing in the past few years. We have redirected money from our general fund to increase the funding level to our housing program. We are in an entitlement city. The HUD money that we were getting has been depleting for a long time and it had nothing to do with party affiliation. When it comes to the HUD money that we received as a city, the crisis has gotten worse. We are fighting lenders and building owners all the time to try and work something out because we know their ability to raise rent is extremely detrimental. We have started offering assistance for homeowners, renters, as well as specific programs. We have one right now going on for women who are battered and those who are homeless. These are the types of specialized programs where we are able to help despite not having a lot of money to work with. Finally, we recently approved plans to conduct a housing study in collaboration with Florida International University. Results will show other opportunities to support affordable housing within the city. 

What issues do you see in terms of sustainability and transportation?

As a mid-size metropolitan city, if you look around the country, we probably have the worst public transportation system in the nation and in the world. We do not use our spaces, our roads or our seaway effectively. One of the proposals that I talked about was creating little taxi waterways to connect you from North Miami to South Beach within 10 minutes. I saw that all over New York and New Jersey. They maximize what they have, which would help with our green space. We really need that because right now. any little space you see, a developer has probably already put in paperwork to develop on it. I think as a government, we have a responsibility to innovate and maximize the use of all of these things. We need to look at everything and see how we could make it better because that’s going to help our bottom line to have a more sustainable South Florida.

I have several initiatives that we’re working toward in North Miami. The first one is public safety. Our crime has remained low for the past 50 years and we are extremely lucky in that regard for a city of our size. That is due to the wonderful work of the North Miami Police Department. One of the things I put in place prior to becoming mayor was giving residents free ring cameras as a part of our ongoing safety first efforts. The next initiative is financial stability. We did get a little help with the funding that President Biden gave to cities. We were able to get $80 million and used those funds to get us out from where we were. I want to be able to build our city reserve, which we have not done in many, many years. For a city to be viable and healthy, they have to have a healthy reserve. Number three is infrastructure; there’s a lot that comes with that. It’s your streets. It’s your water improvement. There’s a big septic to sewer conversion that we have going on right now. The fourth one, which is very near and dear to my heart, is social service and community engagement. My public office has done a lot for the seniors and I want to expand that program to make sure that we have a lot of services available for them. I also want to expand on the youth program and MIT program that I founded a couple of years ago. We want to make sure that people feel like they have a voice, that they are able to reach City Hall. One of the policies that we have passed into a resolution is that within 48 hours of anyone sending an email to an employee, they get acknowledgement of the email. One of the top tier initiatives that we cannot cope without is technology and sustainability. 

For more information, visit: 

https://www.northmiamifl.gov/ 

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