Miami, not a pretty picture from afar either, by gimleteye

Zogby recently released a poll of Americans' attitudes toward Miami, provided as a public service.

Andres Viglucci gets it right in The Miami Herald. In case you didn't read it, click on "read more".

It turns out that a fair percentage of Americans surveyed, one in four, don't have much of an understanding of Miami. That's good for Miami politicians trying to edge onto the national stage, who can spend taxpayer dollars influencing public perception.

But public corruption here registers high on the awareness of people elsewhere: not so good for Miami politicians trying to edge onto the national stage.

In the question, "where would you move if you have choose among the following cities: LA, Houston, Miami, Chicago, SF, Las Vegas, or Orlando," Miami came in last. (And the respondents hadn't even experienced our traffic!)

Just read the Zogby poll and the recent poll by Mason Dixon in which Floridians decry the decline in quality of life. According to the AP: "A recent Mason-Dixon poll found 43 percent of Floridians said their quality of life is declining and 37 percent believe the decline will continue in the next year. One in three said they would tell a friend or loved one not to move here; one in five said they are seriously considering a move."

In light of results like these, let the Florida Chamber of Commerce, fighting desperately to stop Florida Hometown Democracy, explain why voters shouldn't take back control of their communities.

Posted on Thu, Jan. 31, 2008
Poll: Miami haters don't know the place

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
Here in a nutshell is what most Americans think of our town, according to prominent pollster John Zogby: Miami, not so nice.
Sure, it has sun'n'fun, beaches and tourism, respondents told Zogby. But there's also lots of crime, hurricanes, public corruption, racial and ethnic tension, overpriced housing and illegal immigration, they said.

D-uh.

What Americans don't know about Miami may be the real news, said Zogby, who recently opened a local office of Zogby International and says he's bullish on the city.

About half the survey's respondents have never been here. Of those who have, most haven't been in the area for five years or more. In many cases, a quarter or more didn't know enough about Miami to answer a question. Very few were aware of Miami's principal cultural or entertainment events.

And they ranked illegal activities like drug trafficking and prostitution as the second most important economic sector after tourism. (Tourism is still big, of course, but far outsripped in the aggregate by professional and financial services, education, health care, transportation, trade and finance, according to various studies. As for crime, it's way, way down, and cocaine cowboys are old hat).

What all that suggests, Zogby said, is that public perceptions of the city are somewhat dated, and still shaped to a large degree by stale news and popular entertainment like Miami Vice and CSI: Miami.

''People know there is a Miami, but there is a time warp,'' Zogby said in an interview. ``We found anywhere from confusion to a lack of knowledge. It's not understood that it's a global business center, the 42nd largest metro area in the world. It just means Miami has to get its story out better.''

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who said he asked Zogby for the pro-bono survey, agreed.

''We may all think locally we've made advances, but clearly there are some issues that still linger out there, where the reality may be different, but perception remains the same,'' Diaz said. ``That's something we have to deal with.''

Still, some popular perceptions of Miami appear based on solid information -- high housing costs, for one, and the persistence of crime, which hasn't exactly gone away.

And whether accurate or not, those perceptions may have real consequences, a survey summary -- posted Thursday at www.zogby.com -- suggests.

Only 6 percent of respondents opted for Miami as a place to visit among eight major cities, including New York (17 percent), San Francisco (19 percent) and Orlando (14 percent).

Miami ranked last on the list as a place people would move to; it was chosen by just 3 percent of respondents.

About half the respondents had an unfavorable view of the city, compared to about 43 percent who were upbeat about it. Only one-third rated the quality of life here as good. And fewer than 1 in 10 rated Miami as a good place to raise a family.

But there was some gilding in the survey. About half of respondents in business regard Miami as an excellent or good place for doing business.

And 55 percent rated Miami as good or excellent for young single adults.

''Young people are enthused about Miami, which bodes well for the city,'' Diaz said.

Zogby conducted the online survey of 7,106 adults across the country both to help drum up business and as a public service. The interactive online survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points, was conducted Jan. 18-21.

''If Miami is misperceived, and leaders want to do something about that, the best place to start is with some data,'' Zogby said. ``Perhaps Miami needs some kind of rebranding -- the new Miami, the global city, where maybe people are thinking of Miami 25 years ago.''

Diaz said he will make sure that happens.

''There is definitely some strategy that will come out of this,'' Diaz said, adding that he has already met with business and civic leaders to outline the survey findings. ``I am looking for the business community to step up.''

If it happens, it would be the answer for prayers at the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's tax-funded business-development organization. Its leaders have complained about the paltry $1 million the county spends on marketing Miami as a business place, compared to $23 million in Atlanta and $10 million in Toledo, Ohio.

For one thing, Beacon Council president Frank Nero said, respondents who rated job prospects in Miami poorly seem unaware of its diversified economy and the fact that the local unemployment rate is lower than Florida's and the country's. A recent study found South Florida is home to 1,200 multinational corporations with more than $200 billion in revenue, he said.

''We have to be mindful of what the respondents are saying,'' Nero said. ``It's no wonder. People still don't know about this city.''



© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com


Florida finds itself becoming less popular; net arrivals from other states drop off
By Associated Press
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
CAPE CORAL — When Eric Feichthaler became mayor three years ago, this town was booming. The city issued 800 permits that month to build single-family homes.

Cape Coral still has thousands of empty lots, but last month, it issued just nine permits.

A number of factors explain the downturn, and many of them are not unique to Florida. But it is becoming clear the Sunshine State is losing some of its luster.

Census figures show that in 2007, the number of people who moved to warm and sunny Florida from other states outnumbered those who left by just 35,301, down from 268,347 in 2005. It was just the second year since 1990, when the Census Bureau started keeping such records, that the state saw fewer than 50,000 net U.S. arrivals.

For many years, Florida was like a stateroom in a Marx Brothers movie: more and more people kept arriving, and hardly anyone left. During the 20th century, Florida's population boomed, with growth rates ranging from 20 percent to 80 percent per decade. Florida is now the fourth-largest state, with about 18.1 million people.

Experts blame the recent slowdown on a combination of circumstances: The national mortgage crisis and the bursting of the real estate bubble, hurricanes, Florida's steep insurance rates and property taxes, and rising unemployment.

The shift is felt most in places like Cape Coral, which went from barren southwestern Florida swampland to bustling bedroom community and one of the state's centers of a building and buying boom. But now there is a sea of unsold homes and undeveloped lots in this 115-square-mile city.

"It was very good before. It was like houses everywhere, buildings coming up everywhere and all of a sudden, everything stopped," said Elliot Aguilar, a 35-year-old electrician and married father of five who lost his permanent job and is working a lower-paying temporary position. "If this continues, we probably have to move to another state."

Feichthaler said he is glad certain folks have left — "the people that came in three years ago in a gold-rush mentality" — even if that's causing some upheaval. The downturn, he said, is leading to more affordable housing and the departure of unlicensed contractors, shady title agents and other scam artists.

All of that, however, is of little comfort to those suffering from the downturn.

Foreclosures in Lee County, of which Cape Coral and Fort Myers are a part, shot up more than fivefold last year, to 12,566, according to RealtyTrac, which records such data. The median price of single-family homes in the county fell to $239,300 in October from $322,000 two years earlier, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

And unemployment in the Fort Myers metropolitan area has climbed to 5.4 percent, its highest level since 1994, in large part because roughly one in three people in Cape Coral work as real estate agents, title insurers, contractors or in some other job linked to a sagging housing market.

The slowdown is not just here along the Gulf Coast. Across the state, people tired of hurricanes and high housing costs are reconsidering Florida.

Beth Mann, 27, lived in West Palm Beach until a year and a half ago, when her husband, Michael, was offered a teaching job in Georgia. He took it — at a higher salary than he was paid in Florida — and they moved to Buford, Ga.

Their house is three times bigger. Their property taxes are 75 percent less. Their homeowner's insurance bill has been cut nearly in half.

"We're like, 'Why didn't we move sooner?'" she said. Eight other homes on the Manns' street are also occupied by former Floridians.

A recent Mason-Dixon poll found 43 percent of Floridians said their quality of life is declining and 37 percent believe the decline will continue in the next year. One in three said they would tell a friend or loved one not to move here; one in five said they are seriously considering a move.

Stanley Smith, who heads the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida, blamed hurricanes, taxes, insurance and housing prices.

Florida actually grew in 2007 by an estimated 193,735 people, including births and immigrants. That's a sizable number, just not as big as in years past.

"Florida isn't going to be losing population, but the increase will be smaller than it was in these boom years," Smith said.

A 2005 report by Smith forecasts a decline in people moving to the state through 2030, but the overall population is still expected to increase by more than 10 percent in each of the next two decades.

In Cape Coral, where the population has more than doubled to about 150,000 since 1990, some welcome the downturn. Bob Janes, a Lee County commissioner whose district includes Cape Coral, said it may give officials time to improve mental health care, roads and other services.

But Feichthaler, who is challenging Janes for his commission seat, said the decrease in property values and the resulting plunge in tax revenue will mean the city must cut $6 million to $7 million to avoid tax increases. There have been municipal layoffs, and more are possible.

Many remain optimistic.

"People still want to follow the sun," Janes said. "And as soon as it gets cold up north, they think more and more about the sun."

© Naples News