And technology certainly helped destroy the place – the place is America.
Hence the need for reinvention, which I discussed with Mayor Francis Xavier Suarez of Miami last month. It seems like an eternity has passed since our conversation – and yet it resonates.
I called the Peppy Pol because the city of Florida had been drawing a lot of attention lately after a number of well-known Silicon Valley investors – like Keith Rabois and Shervin Pishevar – moved there from the Bay Area to start over.
Do you remember “Miami Vice,” the Florida crime drama TV that was an ’80s phantasmagoria of white suits, fast speedboats and loads of artisanal stubble? Now, decades later, look at the latest trend: Miami VC.
Mr Suarez, a young up-and-coming Republican star, has drawn a lot of attention lately using social media to market his bland town as the next great place to start over. It all started in early December when a longtime investor suggested moving Silicon Valley to Miami on Twitter.
“How can I help?” Mr Suarez responded, employing a can-do-come-on-down brio that is in stark contrast to the growing despicable cities like San Francisco, which evolved for technology culture.
Mayor Suarez loves you, Tech Bro, he really loves you.
He stuck to it for weeks, with a series of pithy and adorkable comments on Twitter, trying to capitalize on the sweeping reassessment many tech firms are having regarding their stay in the Bay Area as the pandemic has sparked a rethink on remote work .
Of course, Mr. Suarez knows that creating the next Silicon Valley has been tried and failed many times over the past few decades – remember Silicon Prairie? Silicon desert? Silicon Beach? Restoring that iron triangle of venture capitalists, a great world-class university, and tech giants is a long way off and perhaps pointless for Miami.
