One Mayor Makes US News Leaders List

Posted by Carol Coletta on November 24, 2008

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who has been mentioned as a possible choice of the Obama administration to head the Office of Urban Policy, has been named to U.S. News and World Report's list of Best Leaders of 2008.  He shares the honor with Jeffrey Sachs, Stephen Spielberg, Amory Lovins and Jeff Bezos, among others. 

On top of his inspiring personal story, U.S. News credits him "with attracting major developers, combating crime, bringing down poverty, and improving city services. He tries to get the city's 3,655 employees to see the big picture and praises them when they do. He answers his own E-mail. He blogs. He isn't above picking up a piece of trash in a city Forbes magazine heralded as the cleanest in the United States. 'I'm personally a clean freak,' confesses Diaz, who subscribes to the 'broken windows' theory of community policing that says areas marked by disorder are havens for criminals. Violence, though it has dropped, remains a concern"