SUMMER/FALL 2016 INFLUENCE | 109 Someday, in Buddy Dyer’s dreams, in his vision, deep within the core of his very soul, he wants to be mayor of a Big City. Not just any Big City. Not a New York or Chicago. Too cold. Not a Los Angeles or Houston. Too messy. Not even necessarily big, if you’re into counting heads or skyscrapers. His Big City, his dream, his vision, is a place with a vibrant urban feel: hip, colorful, active, creative, bustling with youth and diversity, booming with 21st century businesses, plugged into the digital industries of his children’s world, powered by entrepreneurial energy, alive with sports, theater, the arts and what’s-next, packed with safe and tidy little neighborhoods full of trendy stores, coffee shops, cafes and bars within walking distance, and yet with planes and trains and bicycles going everywhere. Of course, all of it never more than a short drive from some primo hunting and fishing spots. And maybe even prosperous for all, if it works out that way. Enter Buddy Dyer’s current city, Orlando, and you must do so knowing he sees it as the base, the starting point for the Big City of his vision. Buy into his vision, bring something to offer, and you, too, may be a player. It’s why Dyer focuses so much of his energy on Orlando’s downtown and central city. “From the day I took office until today, I’ve pitched how important the downtown is to the region,” Dyer said. “I’m a believer in the (urban studies theorist) Richard Florida’s ‘creative class.’ How do you attract the creative class? You’re going to be successful if you have the young, bright entrepreneurs. And they want to live in cities that have SunRail, professional basketball, professional soccer, a world-class performing arts center.” Tragically, in June, Orlando became the home to world-class horror when a madman entered its popular gay nightclub Pulse and fired his guns until 49 people lay dead, 53 others lay bleeding, and a city lay traumatized. Yet the massacre quickly led Orlando to transform itself into a worldclass symbol of unity and recovery. Almost instantly, it pulled together like a family. Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, his sometimes-partner and sometimes rival, were the unquestioned leaders of that family. Jacobs played the traditional mother providing emotional salve, day after day bringing together people of all faiths, all backgrounds and all sexual orientations in one community-wide hug after another. Dyer played the traditional father, making sure, in what should have been a state of shock for the city, all the hard work got done, with all the quick planning and decision making, and all the outreach to all the big players in town. In half a week, the city’s huge institutions and small partners all stepped up. Millions of dollars poured into relief funds. A relief center was established at the city’s Camping World Stadium, with 35 agencies and businesses offering help to the grieving and hurting people affected by the massacre. He arranged President Barack Obama’s visit. None of it may have been possible so swiftly and effectively had Dyer not spent the past 13 years working closely with institutions throughout the Central Florida region, getting them to buy into his vision a long time ago of what became the city’s post-Pulse slogan, Orlando United, said Jacob Stuart, president of the Central Florida Partnership, a coalition of Orlando-area chambers of commerce. “I think he’s been a remarkable leader over his many years; but I think those many years of leadership have positioned him for this single moment, where everything he’s got is being tested,” Stuart said. “And for me he has passed with flying colors when it comes to this moment of great pressure and great sympathy for those affected.” Everyone hears about this vision. They know, up front, what Dyer’s agenda is, and where ideas might fit in. If it doesn’t fit, Dyer has been known to dismiss or ignore them. If it does fit, he’s all in, reaching out to form collaborations, create task forces and push them forward. He built a stable, inner-circle staff of like-thinkers, and lets them and everyone else know that he’s got their backs. You deal with them, you’re dealing with him; no second-guessing. And though he has, through the decades, taught himself to be more and more outgoing as any politician must be to survive, on the Myers-Briggs personality scale Dyer’s true nature probably falls between shy and introverted, many of his longtime associates say. That makes it easier for him to defer or share credit. Someone else wants the limelight for an accomplishment? Fine. You can have it. Just so long as you push the vision forward. “His strength is, he has a really clear vision of what he wants this place to be,” said Oscar Anderson, an Orlando-based lobbyist with Southern Strategy Group. Dyer’s admirers, and there are many in both parties, say he governs in a nonpartisan way. “The thing about Buddy is, he doesn’t care what party you’re in or what part of town you’re in, he’s only interested in what’s best for the city,” said Republican strategist Tre’ Evers of Orlando-based Consensus Communications. Many of his detractors, particularly on the left of his own Democratic Party, also say he governs in a nonpartisan way. Darn it. They say he’s more interested in helping PHOTO: Mary Beth Tyson Big City Dreams No matter your politics, when it comes to creating his ambitious vision for Orlando, Mayor Buddy Dyer invites all to the table BY SCOTT POWERS
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