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MARC DAVID SARNOFF
A BRIEF HISTORY
My name is Marc David Sarnoff and I was first elected City Commissioner for Miami’s District 2 on November 21, 2006. The term was for one year, finishing out the former commissioner's term, which would have ended November 2007. The next election for this office was November 2007, which I also won.
I have lived in Coconut Grove for about 20 years now, and I am proud to say that I love my City.
Our Bernese Mountain dogs - - the reasons why I helped get the Blanche Dog Park established, saved, and maintained along with the Kennedy Dog Park.
Or just maybe, you know me at a time as one of your neighbors who pitched in to save our tree canopy.
By way of background, below is a brief history.
1959
I was born in Brooklyn, NY
1967
My family moved to Long Island when I was 8, where I grew up in a loving home, attended Central High School and pursued my passion—competitive swimming.
1977 - 1981
Attended
University of Tampa
on a swimming scholarship. I graduated with honors. BA in Criminology. During senior year, I interned as a law enforcement officer for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Despite an offer to stay with them as a recruit, I chose to go on to law school.
1984
Received a Juris Doctorate from
Loyola University School of Law.
I then continued my studies in Tulane University in New Orleans LLM Program in Admiralty, which also took me abroad to Greece.
1985
I had my first opportunity to practice law in the DA’s office, Section A, Criminal Division of
Orleans Parish Criminal Court, which proved to be an education in itself.
1987
I made the big move to paradise: Miami, settled in Coconut Grove and established my practice as an Aviation Attorney, specializing in representing passengers’ families and airline staff, and pilots, who were wrongfully killed or suffered life threatening injuries in airline crashes.
1991
I had the honor of representing Eugene Hasenfus, the former Marine whose C123 Maulewas shot down over Nicaragua while delivering guns to the Contras. I also had the honor of representing, Kassenee Sawyer, who was the widow of the pilot in the Hasenfus plane. For those too young to know, this downing was the beginning of the Iran Contra Affair.
Still living and practicing in the Grove, I began to notice that although prosperity was
being enjoyed all around us, somehow it seemed to have passed over the City of Miami
and my Village of Coconut Grove. It was during this time that I became President of the
Center Grove Neighborhood Association(now known as Village of Center Grove). This was the fertile ground to hone my interests in promoting and maintaining our trees and
green space. Replanting and replenishing had become an increasingly important issue
post Andrew for us since we had lost so much of our canopy during the hurricane season.
1996 - 1998
Recognizing the problem is easy... acting upon the problem was my calling. Along with neighbors like Mike Bushey, I planted more than 150 oak trees on and around Virginia Street, Mary Street and Day Avenue. This sparked a continued commitment by neighbors such as Lester Pancoast, who then helped landscape for another 100 native trees around Blanche Park and Kirk Monroe Parks.
2000
With the success of the tree planting initiative under our belts, we started working
with former Neighborhood Resource Officer, Audrey Eckert and created the original dog parks in the Southeastern United States. We approached Purina for financial assistance and they agreed to give us enough money to fund the infrastructure, paving, grass, irrigation, fences and picnic tables in the park. These parks have become an important part of our community and are known by most people as Blanche Park and Kennedy Park. Blanche Park and Kennedy Park paved the way for similar ventures across the state, endeavoring to marry private enterprise with our noble goal.
2001
Teresa and I tied the knot at the Redfish Grille with Judge Robert Newman performing the honors.
2003
We managed to persuade Moran Construction, the builders of the Ritz Carlton todonate 22 waste receptacles for use in the Grove without requesting City Funds.
2004
Along with my colleagues at The Grove Merchant Group, I helped create Code 33, a program that promotes participating Grove merchants and restaurants by rewarding local residents in the 33133 zip code with discounts on purchases and meals. The program continues to thrive with more than 500 participants and 100 local merchants.
2004
Another milestone -- One Grove Alliance was created to unite all the Grove homeowners associations under one roof. Soon after its inception, Home Depot’s plans to take over the Grove Gate Shopping Center emerged, and The Grove First, aka “The Grove Says No to Home Depot” organization was formed. Out of 18,000+ local residents, 13,000 people signed our petition to give voice to the opinion that Home Depot or any big industrial box store does not belong in the middle of a densely populated residential community. This has become a pivotal and unifying quality of life issue in our Village.
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2005
With the encouragement and help of my wife Teresa, my neighbors, friends and community, I ran for Cocoanut Grove Village Council, for which I was the Chair.
2006
I was co-chair of the Village Council’s TreeWatch Committee to ensure the safety of
our precious tree canopy. Through our perseverance with the City Manager to collect and enforce fines to irresponsible developers who have leveled much of our beautiful canopy,they are finally being charged with large fines and are being forced to replace what they
have destroyed. Through this effort, the City Manager has allotted over $300,000 to reforest the canopy of Coconut Grove which has been depleted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
My platform is pretty basic and universal……
My motivation is to strive to attain goals that speak to all residents in Miami. Many are quality of life issues, which after a long hard working week is what we all need and want to thrive and find happiness in our lives.
These are my issues and they speak to us all:
Greenspace for beauty, recreation, enjoyment, fresh air, heat absorption, hurricane protection, water absorption, creation of a park system that includes more parks green space. Promoting the use of our parks to expand music, art and sports programs. Providing safe play areas for our children.
Stop over-development of the city’s residential neighborhoods, stop unchecked development that receives approval out of the sunshine, holding the line. Protecting this city’s neighborhoods is of the utmost importance.
Protecting our natural resources, wetlands, control flooding. Wetlands purify our water and produce life, our future survival depends on this.
Promoting the use of our bayfront. Opening the waterfront for all with the creation of the Waterfront Plan.
Encouraging the economic development in all the areas in District 2. Expanding and emulating the Code 33 concept to cover other up and coming neighborhoods and using the last two digits of their zip codes
Bicycle Paths and bike racks – Let’s try to get out of our cars and emulate the Chinese and the Dutch, but to do that we need safe bike paths to ride on
Maintaining and creating a better quality of life in our beautiful City and ensuring that it becomes a model for future cities all over the world
Miami, A City of Neighborhoods |
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