Joe's Initiatives and Accomplishments

As Commission Chairman of the City of Miami,

Joe's initiatives have spanned all of the major issues in our great city: housing, safety, sustainability, capital improvements, arts and culture, and outreach to all the neighborhoods of our community.

Housing

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

More than 700 modern, low-cost rental apartments for senior citizens at Rayos del Sol Apartments, Vista Alegre, Victoria Residential, West Brickell Apartments, Hunter Riverwalk and Brisas del Mar.
The Little Havana Home Ownership Advisory Board, who did not spend a penny on overhead while steering $7.5 million in federal HUD funding toward successful projects such as Sunshine Condominiums and Latin Q.

A development summit with the Urban Land Institute and local business to showcase the City's potential. The half decade of unparalleled urban investment that followed has been dubbed the "Miami Miracle." Tens of thousands of housing units were created, enhancing urban Miami and slowing suburban sprawl with Smart Growth.
La Palma Apartments, an affordable rental building serving persons 62 years or older with 90 one bedroom/one-bathroom units.
Villas Teatro Marti, with at least 25 senior affordable apartments for senior citizens, ground floor retail, a park pavilion and a community room dedicated to the history of the former Teatro Marti.
A pedestrian-oriented urban redevelopment with an overlay district that connects SW 22nd Avenue with the historic Calle Ocho and Flagler Street corridors. As a result, it was the first major, mixed use, market rate condominium to be built in decades opened to homeowners in this urban infill area.
An audit of the Miami Community Redevelopment Agency and created an oversight board, resulting in tigher financial controls and a new management team that enhanced streetscapes, supported historic preservation, created jobs and affordable housing at a rapid pace.

Safety

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

Traffic calming that has made the Roads a much safer neighborhood for children, families, seniors, bicyclists and all pedestrians. Speeding and cut through traffic has been tamed by 15 beautifully landscaped traffic circles. Based on the success of Chairman Sanchez's initiative, traffic circles have been built in several other neighborhoods and are protecting residents all over the City.
Going directly to senior housing and activity centers to talk about crime prevention and distributing senior safety guides to elderly residents. This has raised awareness of scams aimed at senior victims.

Teaming with the City of Miami NET Office and the City of Miami Police Department to greatly diminish crime in Miami neighborhoods by having regular crime prevention community meetings where citizens express their concerns.
Demolishing abandoned buildings in the Roads and Little Havana while turning up the heat on neglectful absentee landlords and supporting legislation that has boosted the City's ability to bulldoze unsafe structures that harbor drugs, thugs and worse.
Spearheading legislation banning the use of bicycles, scooters and similar devices on Calle Ocho's sidewalks - to protect pedestrians.
Taking the lead on a tether ban now prohibits the unlawful tethering of dogs in the City of Miami, saving them from suffering and possible risk of death.
The anti-revolving door legislation that places a two-year ban on City employees going to work for an outside vendor on the exact same project that they procured. Prior to this ethics law, City employees were allowed to procure a major contract from a firm, and then leave the next day to go to work for that firm on the very same contract.
Initiated an audit of the old Bayfront Park Management Trust which resulted in a prison sentence to its former executive director.
Giving back to the community by mobilizing staff to distribute free ice, water and food that did not need refrigeration within hours after hurricanes Katrina and Wilma hit Miami.

Sustainability

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

Restoring shade canopy, protecting the environment and practicing hands-on sustainability that has been a District 3 commitment long before the City started "going green."
The largest cleanup in the history of Calle Ocho brought hundreds of volunteers together to clean every inch of SW 8th street between SW 4th and SW 27th Avenues.

Community tree plantings large and small have transformed medians and traffic circle sites along the Miami River and neighborhood streets with shade trees and landscaping.
The Classroom Adopt-a-Tree Program, bringing Miami's youth together in a worldwide fight against global warming, with 70 classrooms each planting a tree at their own school.
Free home energy makeovers donated to more than 50 Little Havana homes, where energy efficient light bulbs, shower heads, and other items have produced sizable utility bill savings.
More bicycle lanes and paths in the city, with more on the way. Because of Chairman Sanchez's directive to the City Manager, every street improvement in the City is evaluated for bike lane feasibility.
Supports and attends Bike Miami events for bicyclists, skaters and pedestrians. The initiative promotes bicycling, livable streets and the growing urban neighborhoods of Downtown Miami. Streets are closed to create safe areas for the public to attend the free event.
The Miami Green Lab, a regional environmental resource center, which will be housed in a former fire station in District 3.
Eco-friendly legislation as Chair of the City's Green Commission, that: gives expedited permitting to green buildings, provides for green space management, encourages green purchasing and requires that efficient, green vehicles be purchased when replacing City car and truck fleets.
Preservation of Old Miami High, a 1905 bungalow-style structure that faced demolition, which is now relocated in Southside Park and reopened for public use.

Neightborhood Improvements

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

Transforming Cuban Memorial Boulevard into a beautiful, wheelchair-accessible pedestrian pathway covering 14 blocks between Calle Ocho and Coral Way. Shade trees line the walkway, its historic monuments and its plazas. Dozens of property owners have been inspired to improve their homes along the boulevard.
Tree planting of six royal palm trees on Cuban Memorial Blvd, dedicated to each of the six Cuban privences, with the help of help of students from Jose Marti School, Brigada 2506, Los Municipios de Cuba en el Exilio, La Junta Patriotica Cubana and other groups.

Jose Marti Park Gymnasium, an architectural marvel stocked with modern fitness equipment, a second floor gymnasium for basketball and other sports, a 500 person capacity meeting hall and an urban location chosen to preserve green space.
Jose Marti Park Community Center with on-site learning labs for adults and children, exercise equipment and meeting space.
Domino Plaza urban oasis and community gathering place with brilliant colors, plentiful landscaping, inviting park benches and decorative lighting.
Preserving Calle Ocho's neighborhood character with an overlay district that requires redevelopment on a main street scale with pedestrian open space on the ground floor.
Triangle Park transforming it from a neglected urban space into an upgraded facility with a repaved and repainted basketball court, a green picket fence, small playground and wheelchair accessibility throughout.
A shelter building with restroom facilities, which will soon be built at historic Henderson Park in the heart of Little Havana.
The Miami River Greenway, a linear park with street improvements, lighting, seating, signage, historic markers and other amenities along the river corridor.
Changing the entire direction of the Downtown Development Authority, focusing on making the streets of downtown cleaner, safer and more beautified.
Landscape enhancements by working with the DDA to fund $1,000,000 in landscape improvements for Brickell and superior sanitation and security services for Flagler Street. More funding has been directed toward improvements that downtown residents, workers and visitors can "see, touch and feel."

Arts and Culture

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

Cultural Fridays showcases entertainment, food, art and culture of Little Havana on the final Friday of each month on Calle Ocho.
An Art and Theater Cultural Specialty District gives theatrical and artistic-based properties access to liquor licenses to help sustain the arts as viable entertainment businesses.

Spreading the cultural/arts renaissance of Calle Ocho in other diverse areas of the City such as Wynwood, MIMO/Biscayne and Little Haiti.
The arts by bringing new life to Calle Ocho with more than a dozen dynamic art galleries and a trio of critically acclaimed theatres.
Parking to serve the theaters, galleries, shops and restaurants at several lots convenient to the Calle Ocho corridor.
Supporting creative entrepreneurs that built Hoy Como Ayer into an acclaimed music venue that has earned praise from the New York Times and international press.
A Cafetera Fountain will beautify Domino Plaza with public art valued at $100,000. Artist Cesar Santalo and the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana are donating the sculpture that celebrates Cuban coffee.
The American Children's Orchestra for Peace has taught hundreds of children to play violin, viola, cello, bass, piano and percussion instruments at Ada Merritt Middle School, Jose Marti Park and Centro Mater.
Bayfront Park, making it the City's major downtown festival and Performance Park, ranked in the top 10 performance facilities worldwide by Pollstar Magazine -- the bible of the entertainment industry.
Converting the Bayfront Park Management Trust from an operation in the red, to a model agency operating well in the black for years.

Opportunity and Outreach

Under Sanchez's leadership, he has worked to initiate:

Giving away more than 15,000 free Thanksgiving turkeys and trimmings to needy families in his district and making nutritious meals for senior citizens and child care for working families a high priority. He has supported these local needs with hundreds of thousands of federal dollars.
Creating a long track record of securing HUD dollars for an agency that trains developmentally disabled people to enter the work force.

Creating a program for developmentally disabled people, trained by the Hope Center, to have meaningful jobs at Miami City Hall.
Protecting federal dollars for Miami's needy through rallies and letter writing campaigns to block cuts that would have further depleted funding from Washington.
Passing a resolution urging the President and members of Congress to grant Haitians Temporary Protective Status.
Advocating for Temporary Protective Status for the immigrants of several Central American nations.
Supporting and advocating for fair immigration practices for all people.
Voting against the the City of Miami Fiscal Year 2009 Budget because it burdened residents with a $40 fee increase for solid waste service in difficult economic times and contained too many pet projects.
Restoring stability and credibility to a City that once had a deficit projected to be $68 million and an oversight board managing its business because the previous government couldn't be trusted.
Building a healthy cash reserve of $100 million to protect the citizens in the worst economic period in decades.
Boosting Miami's bond rating to a level equal with some of the most respected cities in America -- when previously had fallen to junk bond status.
Fighting for Miami's fair share from the State of Florida, because the funding gap between the taxes Miami-Dade County sends to Tallahassee and what it gets back equals deficit of about $150 for every adult in the County.
Supporting a state amendment that now allows working waterfront property to be taxed based on its industrial use, reducing the burden on Miami River marine business properties that were previously taxed based on the development potential of the land.
Facilitating ongoing expansion of mega-yacht maintenance, repair and refitting facility at Merrill-Stevens that will create 500 full time jobs for skilled workers thanks to the $55 million expansion by the oldest continuously operating business in Florida.
Using Bayfront Park Management Trust grant to buy equipment and uniforms for the Jose Marti Park baseball program. City Parks have been granted $1 million for programming from Bayfront Park's proceeds.

Joe's Biography

Joe Sanchez has spent a lifetime putting neighborhoods first.

Born in Cardenas, Cuba, Miami City Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez arrived in the United States at the age of five. A proud product of our local schools, Joe graduated from Miami Senior High School and Miami Dade College.

In 1987, he joined the Florida Highway Patrol. His eleven years of experience as a State Trooper made him aware of the community's needs, and instilled in him a desire to seek a career in public service. During this time, Sanchez enlisted in the United States Army Reserve, a commitment he proudly devoted seven years to.

Chairman Sanchez was honored for his service to our community on June 5th, 1998, when he was appointed to the City of Miami District 3 Commission seat. Four months later he made history in the City of Miami as the first official to ever run unopposed. The voters of District 3 have since elected him to two full four-year terms.

Chairman Sanchez's initiatives include: the delivering of outstanding city services to all neighborhoods, transparent and efficient government, job creation through major public works projects, affordable housing for all of Miami's residents, increased funding for parks, more parking and beautification for business corridors and boosting the local economy through artistic, theatrical and other cultural development.

Projects undertaken during his tenure as commissioner include traffic circles that have greatly reduced accidents in the Roads, a tree-lined pathway along Cuban Memorial Boulevard, the state of the art Jose Marti Park Gymnasium, the Domino Plaza public space, a community center in East Little Havana, a shaded pavilion being designed for Henderson Park and numerous beautification projects.

During his tenure as a city commissioner, Sanchez has focused on fiscal responsibility, uplifting Miami from a $68 million deficit to a financially sound City with a $100 million cash reserve.

Joe Sanchez is proud to be the Chairman of the Downtown Development Authority, where he shifted the entire direction of the DDA to focus on the beautification of downtown, thus making it cleaner and safer. He is also the chairman of the Green Commission, which promotes a more environmentally-friendly Miami through shade canopy, green buildings and sustainable initiatives.

Joe Sanchez is also a board member of the Miami River Commission, the Community Redevelopment Agency and the State of Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Commissioner Sanchez's greatest achievement is his loving family. His wife, Beatriz Figueroa Sanchez, and their four children, Lucas Joel, Elissa Michelle, Vicente Antonio and Isabella Nicole, are proud to call the City of Miami their home.

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