There are eight referendum questions on the Miami Beach ballot, including two that are carefully camouflaged giveaways to rich millionaire developer friends of Mayor Dan Gelber. Even former Mayor Philip Levine — who was caught in a secret meeting with Gelber and developers trying to form a political action committee to turn South Beach into […]
The first mailer for a city of Miami Beach commission candidate of the five running to replace the late Mark Samuelian reached voters homes Friday. And already there may be some confusion. That’s because the name of the political action committee that paid for the folded, four-pager is Miami Beach Residents United, which is very […]
There are five people who qualified by the deadline Thursday to run for Miami Beach city commission and fill the vacancy left by the unexpected June death of Commissioner Mark Samuelian. They are: Sabrina Cohen, a C5 quadriplegic as the result of a teenage car accident who has since become an activist. She founded the […]
Last week, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and Commissioners Ricky Arriola and David Richardson came to their senses (read: were shamed into it) and switched sides, voting to actually have a special election within the November ballot to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of late Commissioner Mark Samuelian, instead of appointing a […]
Voters in Miami Beach will have to wait until November to vote for a person in the special election to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of late Commissioner Mark Samuelian. And the really good questions, like what to do with the historic Deauville Hotel (more on that later) will be taken to […]
Old names resurface as possible fill-ins for the late Mark Samuelian Publicly, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber says it’s too soon to talk about a replacement process for the seat vacated by the sudden death of Commissioner Mark Samuelian last week. Privately, he and some Beach leaders have already started recruiting possible sit-ins. Las malas […]
Calling the non-binding referendum vote five months ago a mandate — as if 57% was a landslide — Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and city leaders have been working since January to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m. Fresh off the Spring Break curfew that was more about development than crowd or crime control — […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is the invited speaker this week for the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting in Miami Beach. Higgins is going to want to discuss county projects in Miami Beach, including budget and legislative highlights. But Ladra is pretty certain the crowd will want to know about the monorail project proposed for the […]
Leaked audio of a September Zoom call organized by former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine shows that current Mayor Dan Gelber offered developers and real estate investors an inside track to get their projects built — in exchange for contributions to a political action committee. You scratch my back, I’ll get your mixed-use mega complex […]
Property owners would have to make it up with increased taxes For weeks, critics of the Miami Beach referendum to rollback alcohol sales from a last call of 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. have said that it would cost at least $40 million in lost tax revenue. But now we have an actual study from […]