Colorful Miami Beach Mayor Mourned

MIAMI BEACH, FL — Flags in Miami Beach have been ordered to be flown at half-staff on Friday in honor of "colorful" former Miami Beach Mayor Harold Rosen, who passed away on Tuesday. Rosen served on the Miami Beach Commission from 1974 to 1977. His funeral will be held on Friday.

“Mayor Rosen was one of the most colorful characters in Miami Beach history," recalled Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy L. Morales on Wednesday. "I had the privilege of knowing him for over two decades, and can attest to his love for this community.

Rosen who turned 92 on Dec. 30, served as mayor from 1973 to 1978. In a video history he recorded for the Miami Beach Visual Memoirs Project, Rosen talked about being a young attorney and hanging out with his friend Jesse Weiss, whose father owned Joe’s Stone Crab at the time.

"He tells a funny incident there when he was dining with Jesse, J. Edgar Hoover, a frequent patron and Walter Winchell," explained project officials. "He also talks about his friendship with Meyer Lansky and their frequent breakfasts at Wolfie’s."

Rosen also recalled a scuffle during the 1972 Republican convention at the Miami Beach Convention Center and discussed the campaign against rent control. He spoke about some of the people who helped put Miami Beach on the map like the late Arthur Godfrey, whose legacy survived an attempt to rename the city's Arthur Godfrey Boulevard.

"I didn't want to be the mayor because frankly I didn't have the time," Rosen acknowledged in the taped interview. "It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work and my business went down the drain because I was so busy going to meetings and things like that."

Morales said that Rosen was one of the most positive people he had ever met in the city.

“He used to always say ‘your attitude determines your altitude,’ and he certainly always had a great attitude," Morales remembered.

"I have no doubt that his dedication to Miami Beach will continue to live on," he added.

Rosen said that rent control was the major issue of his day and took six years to resolve.

"We had rent control here. A lot of people didn't know that," he told the interviewer. "It inhibited our growth to no end. People used to live in these hotels and used to have little cooking facilities in their hotel rooms and everything else."

In 1976, he and his fellow commissioners voted by a narrow 4-3 margin to drop rent control.

"Once we got rid of rent control, people that owned the buildings started to rehab their buildings. Condos were starting to be built," he said. Elected official split because they didn't want to anger the city's large population of retirees. "It was like a new era."

Even so, change didn't come easily to the urban resort.

"They used to send me letters, you know — don't start your car, hangman's nooses and everything else because I was so anti rent control," Rosen recalled.

Photo courtesy Miami Beach