Francis grew up just blocks from Juan & Megan's restored historic home in Miami's incomparable Shenandoah neighborhood.
We live in a restored 1920 Spanish Mission style on historic William Jennings Bryan Park.
Francis, when he was a rookie commissioner for District 4, spearheaded a compromise that brought a properly-scaled park office, mini community center and ADA-compliant restrooms to the developed side of Bryan Park.
The park, once in peril of being completely paved over for a competition tennis center that would have destroyed the neighborhood with noise, cars and lack of green space, survives.
Francis showed his leadership by preserving the western half of the 2-acre park as green space in perpetuity.
Each day, we look out our huge front windows and see dozens upon dozens of children and families playing on the green grass that almost became a sea of concrete.
We look forward to Francis' leadership -- on parks, job creation, affordable housing, safety, crime reduction, corridor enhancements, the arts, attracting innovative companies, historic preservation and reinventing Calle8 as a livable main street with 2-way, calmed traffic -- as mayor of Miami.
