Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins came into Thursday’s commission meeting ready to sell urgency, crisis and moral responsibility. Instead, she got a very public reminder that being mayor of Miami and actually controlling Miami are two very different things. In what could be seen as a political setback for Higgins just five months into her administration, […]
Everyone should have more cafecito than usual Thursday morning. It’s going to be a doozy of a day. There is an important Miami commission meeting where newly-elected Mayor Eileen Higgins drops her $450-million bond item. Police and firefighters are expected to show up in shiny uniforms to support the measure to pay for equipment and […]
Mayor Eileen Higgins has been in office just long enough to learn where the bathrooms are at City Hall — and already she’s making one thing clear: This administration would very much like to be taken seriously. Last week, Higgins rolled out her senior leadership team, a ritual that in most cities barely registers as […]
Miami didn’t need a State of the City address at the end of the month. Not technically. Not politically. Not theatrically. Outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez had already taken his victory lap — his last SOTC address — on January 15, neatly buttoned up, ribbon tied, legacy laminated. Under the city charter, this annual report must […]
And La Gringa gets a seat at the national table Just over a month after Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins was elected in a historic and competitive race, La Alcaldesa II is packing her blazer and her housing talking points for Washington D.C. The former Miami-Dade county commissioner — now Miami’s first female mayor — will […]
If Miami’s new Mayor Eileen Higgins thought her first gavel strike would come with a ceremonial smile and a welcome bouquet, City Hall disabused her of that notion quickly. Very quickly. After the ceremonial but legally required acknowledgment of the Dec. 9 runoff results at Thursday’s commission meeting, things really start to roll. Applause. Smiles. […]
Francis Suarez didn’t just leave City Hall. He left the city. He closed. Just days after officially exiting public office, Miami’s former mayor — newly free of pesky disclosure requirements and public information requests — quietly upgraded his lifestyle with a $7.4 million home purchase in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, just north of Sunset Drive. No […]
Just when you thought Miami’s mayoral race couldn’t get more absurdly partisan — like, more partisan than it already was with President Donald Trump diving in from his gold-plated Truth Social bunker to endorse former city manager Emilio González — here comes the Democratic National Committee, belly-flopping into the runoff like it’s the Iowa caucus. […]
The fix was always in for Vicki Lopez Well, District 5 will not get to vote, after all, to replace its outgoing Miami-Dade commissioner. Instead, Miami-Dade commissioners did what they’ve now done twice in five years: they chose for the people. Because nothing says “democracy” like elected officials refusing to let residents elect anyone. In […]
Even Joe Sanchez now says “Let the people vote” Well, well, well… look who suddenly found religion in democracy. On the eve of Tuesday’s big Miami-Dade Commission showdown over how to fill the District 5 seat vacated by Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is in the runoff for Miami mayor, the winds have shifted so hard […]