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 Matti Herrera Bower
First Woman Mayor
During last year’s race for Miami Beach mayor, the so-called
political experts said Matti Herrera Bower was a little spacey, a
bit unpolished and didn’t have a chance against the big money of
former Commissioner Simon Cruz.
They were all wrong. After knocking Cruz silly over his attempted
$180 million bailout of
Mount Sinai Medical Center, Bower surfed a grassroots wave
straight into the mayor’s office, proving that money and
string-pulling by establishment bigwigs isn’t everything. She
might be a grandma, but Bower isn’t taking any crap from the
Beach’s backroom brokers.
Miami Beach’s first female and the first Cuban-American mayor,
69-year-old Bower is having the time of her life at the city’s
helm, and she’s keeping her promises to be the people’s mayor.
Once a month, she hops behind the wheel of her big, old white
Cadillac and drives her office out to the people as part of her
Mayor on the Move initiative — if residents can’t make it to City
Hall, she goes to see them.
Bower also formed the Mayor’s Gay Business Development Ad Hoc
Committee earlier this year to help strengthen the Miami Beach
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, which is being
lost to other cities such as Fort Lauderdale.
Now, the building department had better watch out: Most recently,
Bower formed the Transparency, Reliability and Accountability
Committee to shine a light in the dark nooks and crannies of City
Hall where crooks operate.
Bower — who became active in the community more than 30 years ago
as, among other things, president of the Feinberg Fisher
Elementary School, Nautilus Junior High and Miami Beach Senior
High School Parent Teachers associations — spent eight years on
the City Commission before becoming mayor.
Having harnessed the power of the people, Bower truly is a force in
Beach politics.
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