Affordability, transit woes, flooded streets, corruption in City Hall.
The two remaining candidates for the City of Miami mayoral race traded insights into how they would tackle some of the city’s most pressing problems in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade on Wednesday night in Little Havana.
Candidate Eileen Higgins took the largest share of votes in the Nov. 4 first-round of the mayoral election, pulling in nearly 36% of the votes amid thirteen candidates. Candidate Emilio Gonzalez came in second place, with 19.5% of the votes, putting him in line for the runoff election. The runoff election will take place on Dec. 9.
READ MORE: Higgins, Gonzalez headed to Miami's first mayoral runoff election since 2001
At the forum, neighborhood groups from across the city submitted questions to the candidates.
Affordability and permitting
The evening began with frank talk about affordability issues, as the city has repeatedly been named one of the most unaffordable places in the entire nation in recent years.
Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner until last week when her resignation went into effect, said she would tackle affordability by overhauling the city’s permitting system. She compared the city's permitting to the county’s permitting for low-income housing for seniors projects.
“I secret-shopped both systems. I put one [project] that was available for county zoning for permitting, and one in the city. The county’s project was permitted in 107 days,” said Higgins. “The same project submitted the same week to the city took over a year and a half. We’re literally keeping people out of housing.”
Gonzalez, a former city manager, agreed that permitting is a major problem in the city for housing and for businesses.
“I have spoken to numerous small businessmen and women in this town,” said Gonzalez. “One-hundred percent of them tell me that the biggest issue is permitting. I know small businessmen that refuse to expand their businesses because of the permitting issue – businessmen that would rather expand in Broward County.”
“I’m almost to the point where I think that if we abolish the permitting system altogether and take a step back and see what happens it would be better than what we have right now,” he added.
Abolishing property taxes
Gonzalez also latched onto a topic that has gained significant steam in Tallahassee and which will be a major debate in the Florida Legislative session that begins in January: a push to abolish property taxes in some form.
“Our young people need an opportunity to stay here. They can’t stay here. Which is one of the reasons why I’m so into the idea of doing away with ad valor property taxes. Because you can put more money in people’s pockets — young families — that are struggling to buy a new home. Imagine if you don’t have to pay taxes.”
Top lawmakers calling for reducing or eliminating property taxes have been unable to answer specific questions about how the proposals would work in practice, and what it could do to the credit ratings of local governments that were relying on property taxes for income on loans they have already taken out. Municipalities in Miami-Dade would lose nearly half a billion dollars in revenue if taxes on homesteaded properties were eliminated, according to an estimate by the Florida Policy Institute. The non-partisan group warns that slashing property taxes could lead to a drastic reduction in services offered by local governments like the City of Miami.
Governor Ron DeSantis has repeatedly butted heads with fellow Republican lawmakers on any such plan to reduce or eliminate property taxes, and it remains to be seen how the idea will play out.
Agreement on political instability, split on immigration
Higgins is an unabashed progressive Democrat and Gonzalez is an unabashed conservative Republican, although the mayoral race is technically nonpartisan. But at many points the candidates agreed with what another said. Both said they were running for office because the the political instability in Miami over recent years, and they broadly agreed on areas of concern.
The sharpest contrast of the night between the candidates arose when the conversation turned to immigration in the Trump era. Mediator Nicole Perez of WPLG Local 10 asked the candidates about masked ICE agents detaining immigrants in many US cities “based on the color of their skin or the language they are speaking,” and what the candidates would do to restore trust in the local law enforcement at a time that the Miami Police Department is formally collaborating with ICE.
Between 2005 and 2008, Gonzalez served as the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service under the George W. Bush administration, and he spoke about how proud he felt when helping swear in many new US citizens during his tenure. Gonzalez was born in Cuba.
“I will always defend my community. I will always defend my immigrant community. But I will never ever defend rapists, thugs, murderers and child molesters just to make a point with the federal government,” said Gonzalez.
He said he expects that anyone who interacts with Miami police or ICE would be treated with respect, and said he would “go to bat” for anyone who needs it through his contacts in the federal government.
In response, Higgins said to cheers: “They told us they were gonna go after criminals. But they’re going after everybody.”
“We have from Washington and Tallahassee a culture of trickle-down hatred. The way they are talking about our residents and our neighbors who are our neighbors who live on the street with us, who go to church with us, who go to synagogue with us, they are speaking about people as if they are less than human,” said Higgins.
Higgins brought up the so-called Alligator Alcatraz facility, which the State of Florida has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building and operating. Records obtained by the Miami Herald show that hundreds of detainees there had no criminal record whatsoever.
“It’s wrong. It’s immoral, and in my opinion and I’m sure my mother’s and my priest’s [opinion is that] it’s a sin,” she said.
Flooding in Miami
Higgins said she has regularly attended meetings with the Florida Department of Transportation to make sure street flooding projects get funding, and she pointed to projects on Biscayne Boulevard and on SW 8th Street as examples of progress on street flooding, a major concern in some neighborhoods.
Both candidates questioned what the city has done with a $400 million bond passed by voters in 2017 in large part to address flooding issues and helping Miami adapt to rising seas. $100 million of that bond was earmarked for affordable housing, as WLRN has reported, although some of the housing money was spent in questionable ways.
“We don’t know where that money has been spent, how it’s been spent, they haven’t even started the projects they claimed that they should be doing,” said Higgins. Added Gonzalez: “All I’m asking — and by the way, I’m being very honest, I’m not accusing anybody — tell me where it is. Tell me where the $400 million bond is.”
The city has a Civilian Oversight Board that monitors and tracks progress of the special bond and it meets regularly, although reports are not regularly posted online. But according to records WLRN obtained in 2023, community pools, park renovations and stormwater drainage projects were already underway. A brand new city park opened late last month that was funded by the 2017 bond.
Transportation
Both candidates said they see a real need for making major strides with transit in the city.
Higgins said she has worked on transit projects including getting a commitment from the federal government to fund $400 million for a commuter train project from Miami to Aventura in partnership with Brightline. As WLRN has reported, there is an ongoing legal dispute between Brightline and the Florida East Coast Railway, which owns the railroad tracks, that puts that entire project in jeopardy.
She said she would also champion the long-proposed Baylink train that would extend the Metro Mover service from Miami to Miami Beach.
“It’s virtually ready to go. It’s been stuck up in Tallahassee,” said Higgins. “I will work on it.”
“We live in a city — and we hate to admit it — where if you’ve got to walk two blocks you get in your car because it’s too hot or for whatever reason,” quipped Gonzalez. “We really haven’t broken the code on getting people to use public transportation so that they don’t have to take their vehicles.”
When he lived in Washington, Gonzalez said he took the metro everywhere because it was practical. He said that the routes of city street trolleys are extremely outdated and need to be updated to reflect where people actually want to go, and that the trolleys themselves need to be renovated. Once that happens, people will be more likely to use the services, he said.
“Our people need to develop a transportation conscience because if not we’re just going to live in a gridlock,” he said. “These are the things that we have to do as leaders so that folks respect and have confidence that we can make things happen.”
City scandals
Gonzalez and Higgins shared an urge to turn a page on city government after years of being marred by scandals, arrests, ethically questionable behavior and high profile lawsuits.
“If you as a city employee do something unethical you are gone. No discussion. You’re gone,” said Gonzalez. “We have a Citizen’s Bill of Rights, I don’t know how many of you know. It’s in our charter. Put one up in every office. Make sure that people understand that people understand that they’re there for the taxpayer, not the other way around.”
“One of the ways to get rid of corruption is just don’t be corrupt,” said Higgins.
