On Monday, Diana Giraldo was sworn in as the new Ward 2 City of Fort Myers Council member.
Prior to being elected to the City Council, Giraldo worked as a consultant on Fort Myers’ new Parks Master Plan. So she was more than excited that voters approved the $75 million General Obligation bond referendum that will provide the funding for the plan.
“Parks stabilize neighborhoods,” said Giraldo. “Parks enhance quality of life. They enhance the value of real estate. And parks are great for the physical and mental health of the community.”
Giraldo is not in favor of stand-alone parks. In her view, they must be connected to each other by bike paths and hiking trails, along with self-guided public art walking tours.
“So what’s the ability for us to integrate parks and trails and art so we can be unique and be known for things that are out of the ordinary?”
She mentions the numerous historical landmarks that dot the Dunbar community which, she says, are largely overlooked and underutilized.
“If we looked at them in a cohesive way, can we create the historic Dunbar trail?” Giraldo asked. “And can art be incorporated as the pivot that takes you from one place to another? … Those are staples in the community. Those are landmarks that need to be enhanced and preserved. Add a sense of place and bring flavor to the community. You don’t have that everywhere in the city.”
With the proceeds provided by its G.O. bonds, the city has the opportunity to acquire land for parks and green space. Those places can integrate landmarks, foster placemaking and enhance local flavor. Giraldo says the city has to be thoughtful in how it goes about doing this and resist the temptation to sacrifice quality of life elements on the altar of value engineering.
“We have to understand being responsible with a budget, but I also understand that if you look at the numbers only and you don’t look at quality of life, you have to be able to align them both,” said Giraldo. “I don’t want to live in a place that has not thought out how our parks are being developed, how roads are being put together, where projects go, what flavor do they have.”
Giraldo promises to incorporate her training and experience as an architect and the lessons she learned as a child into this analysis.
“We just have to look at things in a little bit different way,” said Giraldo, who is from Colombia. “I come from another country. Art is everywhere. We’re very colorful people, so hopefully I get to add some of that color to my city.”
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Giraldo would like the city to consult the Parks Master Plan when deciding where and how to place other projects throughout the city.
“When we are looking for projects, we can look at [the Parks Master Plan] as the spinal cord for how everything else happens around that.”
Giraldo advocated for a more people-centric approach to choosing the location and details of future projects.
“When a project is proposed, it’s about the project, of course. But it is so much more about the people [who will be impacted by the project] and, too often, we don’t consider the human element. My background will be helpful in that aspect.”
Giraldo was born in Colombia. An only child, she enjoyed soccer, theater, music, singing, dancing and painting growing up.
She was raised in subsidized housing, where the lack of open spaces, trees and sidewalks inspired her to pursue a career in architecture and urban planning. Today, she’s involved with the Affordable Housing Coalition and estimates that 70 percent of her consulting work involves affordable housing.
Giraldo lists among her qualifications eight years of experience as a city employee; more than 25 years of relevant experience in community development; being a successful minority woman-owned business owner; having gotten over 20 miles of missing sidewalks and trails built; participation on the Lee County Recovery Task Force, Housing Branch; and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee Chairperson.
Giraldo has a master’s degree in management.
She has advocated for the creation of a historic Dunbar trail for more than four years. Some of the landmarks that might be included in such a trail include Dunbar Community School, Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church, McCollum Hall, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Dunbar Christian School, St. John First Missionary Baptist Church, Trinity United Methodist Church, the Woodlawn and Oakridge sections of Fort Myers Cemetery and Williams Academy in Clemente Park.
In fact, these were the very landmarks visited by the Dunbar Cultural Landmarks Trolley Tour on October 12, 2013, with the history of each location being described in an associated guidebook.
Giraldo would like to see the city use parks, green spaces, bike paths and hiking trails to integrate and unite these destinations in order to pay homage to the historical origins of the Dunbar community.
“I’m super-excited that the very first park that’s under design [under the Parks Master Plan] will be built in Ward 2 – City View Park on South Street,” Giraldo added.
While Giraldo appreciates the impetus to value engineer projects, she thinks that we’ve gone too far in that direction.
“We used to be a lot more thoughtful in what we did with our cities,” Giraldo said. “But at one point, value engineering became the end goal and developers did the bare minimum to follow the building code and regulations, and nothing above and beyond that.”
She would like that to change.
“How do we come together to be the catalyst for doing something greater that what we typically do, to think a little bit differently, to factor in quality of life?” Giraldo wondered aloud.
Partnerships and collaborations might be one way to achieve this result, Providing naming rights on buildings, parks and green spaces might also be an inducement, said Giraldo. Expecting a different mindset from developers is another.
“You go to Tampa-St. Pete, a developer goes there and they have a list of things they have to do. We don’t,” Giraldo pointed out. “We’re going to have to level the playing field and I believe when you put these opportunities out there, people will be excited and will want to do things with and in the city of Fort Myers.”
Giraldo also feels that art is the crucial quality of life component.
“Art is undervalued,” she said. “Art is an avenue for us to express ourselves. Art provides mental health, emotional health support. I know that because I practice it myself.”
Giraldo views art as more than an isolated sculpture or mural. It’s more about how the overall collection expresses the city’s vision for the quality of life it wants to create for its citizens.
“What do we want to be known for? I think that’s what we need to look at, and say how do we enhance the local flavor?”