How does one measure quality of life? It's generally described as the well-being of individuals and society, but this encompasses such a wide range of topics that owning a house with an ocean view might rate highly for one person while living in a country with a moral government does for another.Here in Miami, this elusive designation includes much-needed open space in the city, a robust economy, better paying jobs for residents and that all children - regardless of their family's income - have the chance to escape poverty through education.Carlos Fausto Miranda, president of Fausto Commercial Realty and Fausto Capital, dedicates many hours to ensuring Miami is guided by its citizens in the right way toward what he believes is its destination as the next global metropolis.So he's keenly tuned to anyone else working to improve the city's quality of life. For this necessary and often selfless quest, he named Meg Daly as one of the Best of Miami for leading the initiative to create The Underline, a 10-mile linear park and urban trail from the Miami River to Dadeland South under the MetroRail.Ms. Daly, who formerly owned her own marketing company, re-entered the workforce after her retirement by running a friend's real estate practice. "I realized that my job now is to make Miami better," she said. "Everything I have done in life prepared me for this moment."Ms. Daly devotes about 50 hours each week to the endeavor. She doesn't pay herself and says when The Underline is completed, it will be her legacy project.
"The vision for our city must be ours - not mine, not yours, but all of ours," Ms. Daly said. "We have kept The Underline process very open and transparent for that reason."
That said, Ms. Daly believes the vision for our city should not be led by a few. Rather, "everyone needs to own a mission to make Miami better and carry the baton to ensure we all make it better."Incorporated as a 501C3 in January 2014, The Underline has gone from an idea to an initiative in less than a year."To date, we have hit major milestones very quickly, including three design studio exercises at University of Miami's School of Architecture, very active social media, numerous events and the funding and selection of James Corner Field Operations as the Maser Plan Design Team," Ms. Daly said. The plan will be competed in September 2015 and the goal is to start building in 2016."A city needs people like Meg who sees an underutilized space that others have forgotten and,through applied creativity, forges a vision of a
community amenity," Mr. Miranda said.More so, he said, the city needs people like Ms. Daly who "develop that vision and then are willing to incur the personal costs to champion that idea and see it manifested."
