For Marcia Carty, economic development has never been an abstract policy exercise. It’s the practical work of improving the daily lives of the people who live in a community — and she’s approached it from nearly every angle a career can offer, from Finance Director to daycare entrepreneur to nonprofit executive director to a CPA preparing business plans for small businesses under Miami Dade commissioner Art Teele’s program for small businesses.

A Career of Building, Not Just Managing

Across her various roles, Carty has launched or led an unusually wide range of programs. She established the Academy of Excellence across multiple campuses, founded Heavenly Healing Hands to support seniors and people with disabilities, and started an anti-littering initiative in Southeast Overtown that has continued for 16 years. Through Children’s Trust

programs, she’s supported new mothers, after-school tutoring, father-and-son programming, and senior nutrition efforts.

Her footprint extends into childcare and education as well — she operated four different daycare centers over 25 years, built an alliance for small daycare centers, and ran Miami Dade County School Board’s teenage pregnancy program. She’s worked with private schools and administered SES tutoring for the State of Florida.

Some of her ventures moved into public health and housing directly: she established a pharmacy serving HIV patients that generated $1 million in its first year, helped feed the homeless and low-income residents through Farm Share and ACCESS Florida, secured finances and provided construction management services for a solar farm, and led affordable housing projects that included both repairs and new construction. Her homeless initiatives have included tiny homes and hot- and cold-weather shelters, alongside a DCF-funded Pregnancy Support Center and COVID-era utilities assistance for struggling residents. On the infrastructure side, she’s overseen improvements to roads and streets, storm drainage, water systems and pipeline replacement, and park upgrades including splash pads.

Measuring What Actually Matters

When asked which projects delivered the clearest results, Carty points to the initiatives that changed how people experience their daily lives. The Overtown anti-litter program stands out: what began as a neighborhood cleanup effort drew international attention and helped transform the area from a depressed community into a well-developed neighborhood with highrise apartments. For Carty, that’s the real test of an economic development project —

not just the dollars invested, but whether the community is measurably better off.

Bringing Businesses to the Table

Carty’s approach to business attraction starts with research: looking at what other cities have done successfully and understanding what residents actually want, whether that’s urgent care clinics, restaurants, or pet services. From there, it’s about creating connection points — networking opportunities, lunchtime community events, and social media promotion for new businesses. Sponsoring local events and showing up at community projects, she says, positions a city or business to be a genuine pillar of the community rather than an outside operator, which builds both visibility and credibility while encouraging mutual growth.

Weighing Growth Against Community Needs

Every development decision, in Carty’s framework, starts with a cost-versus-benefit analysis. From there, she factors in where the community’s mindset actually is — are people more focused on homelessness, street cleanliness, or general quality of life right now? Finally, she looks at the short- and long-term goals the city manager and city organizations are working toward together, such as reducing youth crime. It’s a layered process designed to keep growth grounded in what residents actually need, not just what looks good on paper.

Partnerships That Multiply Impact

The partnerships Carty values most are the ones that build a community’s image through cross-promotion and joint events — arrangements that expand brand awareness, boost credibility, generate new revenue, and contribute to the broader economic well-being of the area. The common denominator, she says, is mutual benefit: partnerships have to work for the city, the partnering organizations, and the constituents all at once, or they don’t produce lasting impact.

Grants as a Growth Engine

Grant funding isn’t a supplement to Carty’s strategy — it’s central to it. In the most recent municipality she managed, $48 million of an $82 million budget came from grant funding, supporting everything from streets, roads, and underground pipes to parks, social services, and even airport and golf course development. Grants have also allowed her to expand housing alternatives and fund skill and network development programs, making them, in her view, nearly essential to sustained community growth.

Where Municipalities Are Headed

Looking ahead, Carty sees the sector shifting from a recovery mindset to one of restraint. Citing the National League of Cities, she notes that general fund spending has climbed even as revenue streams haven’t kept pace, with federal grant funding affected by new administration accountability measures like DOGE. A potential elimination of the municipal bond tax exemption could further slow infrastructure projects. Public safety remains the largest share of general fund spending, while recreation and culture spending is expected to hold steady at around 10%. As property tax revenue structures shift, confidence in cities’ fiscal condition is declining, pushing many municipalities toward alternative financing, adjusted spending priorities, and a search for domestic supply options. The overall picture, as Carty sees it, is one of cities recalibrating — moving from a recovery posture to one built on resilience, pragmatism, and purpose.