FORT MYERS, Fla. — For 17 years, Councilman Johnny Streets Jr. has held the District 2 seat. Now, he’s moving on to a new Councilman: Diana Giraldo.

Giraldo is the first Latina to serve on the City Council, which will now be predominantly made up of women.

“All of us have to be part of the change,” Giraldo said.

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First Latina councilwoman elected in Fort Myers; Predominantly female council

Giraldo is no stranger to the Council. He worked for the city until 2014 and has since attended countless meetings to voice his concerns.

“I care about the future of the community. I care about the vision, the quality of life,” he explained. “What I want to see is more parks, more green spaces, alleviating some of the traffic and finding interesting ways that really improve our public transportation system.”

As for problems, Giraldo plans to address flooding.

“We need to start looking at whether we need to improve our stormwater systems and whether we need to create around those neighborhoods that flood a central system that can absorb some of this water,” he said.

Housing is also a priority, with the hope that he can leverage his experience in urban design, architecture and community development.

“We have a big gap in our transitional housing, which is how to stabilize people so they can access permanent housing,” Giraldo said.

Beyond the problems, it is breaking glass ceilings.

“In the history of Fort Myers, there has never been a Latina elected to the City Council,” she said.

Giraldo will join Darla Bonk, Teresa Watkins-Brown and Terolyn Watson on the board, making it predominantly female.

“I looked at it from the perspective that we all have different backgrounds, experiences, values ​​and conditions that we bring and diversity to a place where we can come up with a really good plan for the city,” Giraldo explained.

It’s a plan she wants to help formulate using community feedback and increased communication.

“It’s going to take some education on how the community can be part of the change,” Giraldo said. “More interactively we can identify challenges and formulate solutions.”

It will have its first official meeting on November 18.