If you’re going to sell off one of Miami’s last big pieces of waterfront land, why not do it at the very last City Commission meeting of the year — and the very last one for Joe Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez?
That’s exactly what happened last week, when the Miami City Commission voted 4–1 to approve the $29 million sale of a 3.2-acre parcel on Watson Island, clearing the way for luxury condos on one of the most valuable — and controversial — pieces of city-owned land left on Biscayne Bay.
The timing wasn’t the only thing making eyebrows meet hairlines. The price seems woefully low for one of the last stretches of waterfront property, which has been appraised as high as $342 million.
Read related: Miami blinks on Watson Island deal — kicks can, saves face, still smells fishy
Commissioner Ralph Rosado was the only commissioner to vote no — and he wasn’t being dramatic. He simply asked for a delay until Jan. 22, another independent appraisal, and a better deal for the public.
“This is a really important real estate deal,” Rosado warned his colleagues. “This is historic. And I want to make sure we’re on the right side of history on this.
“I am not a no forever.,” Rosado said, basically pleading for more time. “This is that important, that consequential and that complex.”
History, however, was in a hurry.
None of the other commissioners bit. The deal passed anyway, with commissioners clearly eager to wrap things up before the lights went out on the Suarez-Carollo era.
Commissioner Damian Pardo, the biggest cheerleader, wanted to remind folks that the voters had “approved this by 62%.” But he knows very well that this is not what voters approved when they voted yes last year to sell the land for “fair market value.” He also said that the city would get $2.3 billion in revenue over the next 99 years.
“If we take the present value of that cash flow, it is about $319 million,” Pardo said.
Money mumbo jumbo.
To tamp down concerns about a possible future flip, Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela talked about  an eleventh-hour safeguard: If the developers sell the land to a third party, the city gets 10% of the resale price minus the $38 million total the developers are paying now (that’s $29 million for the land plus a $9 million public benefits contribution).
In other words, if the land gets flipped for $100 million, the city would pocket an additional $6.2 million. Is it ironclad? No. Is it better than nothing? Barely.
But it gave commissioners just enough political cover to say they’ve “protected taxpayers.”
Just $6 million more for a property they can flip
Outgoing Commissioner Joe Carollo, never one to leave quietly, declared the deal a good one. “We were forced to deal with this property not in the normal way we would have,” he said, referring to the flawed lease, which was signed before any of the current commissioners were sitting on the dais. “You’re limited what you can build there.”
“There’s no question in my mind that we have made the right decision by voting for it,” he said.
That is rich coming from a commissioner whose legacy includes lawsuits, vendettas, and a federal jury verdict for abuse of power.
Read related: Miami’s Watson Island liquidation sale to developers for lowball $25 million
Residents and watchdogs have long called the Watson Island sale a “giveaway,” especially after an appraisal suggested the land could be worth between $257 million and $342 million if unrestricted. That number lit up social media and public comment.
But here’s the catch — and it’s a big one: The city says it is shackled by a deeply flawed ground lease signed in 2001, which independent experts agree severely limits the land’s value. The same appraisal that pegged the land north of $300 million also valued that lease at $28.9 million with the current lease restrictions. Another appraisal put it at $27 million.
Translation: the developers already control the site — cheaply — and have for years.
As one expert bluntly told the Miami Herald, it’s “a bad asset.”
City Manager Art Noriega didn’t sugarcoat it.
“The city gave up a lot of financial opportunity when it signed this lease in 2001,” he said, with a symbolic shrug of the shoulders. “There are a lot of restrictions to the city’s ability to monetize this.”
That’s bureaucratic code for: We can’t undo the past, and this is the box we’re stuck in.
The sale, which is still súper sus, follows a November 2024 voter referendum approving the sale of the land at fair market value, with a minimum price of $25 million. The $29 million price tag clears that bar — barely — before the added $9 million in public benefits for affordable housing and infrastructure (which, by the way, will be matched with $9 million from the city’s coffers).
Technically legal. Procedurally sound. Politically uncomfortable.
Read related: Miami City Commission to consider two Watson Island developments
Was this a rushed giveaway? Or was it City Hall finally cutting loose a bad deal it never should have signed?
The answer, like most things in Miami, is probably both.
But what’s undeniable is the optics: a massive waterfront land sale pushed through on the way out, at a farewell meeting for two of the city’s most controversial figures, over the objections of the lone commissioner asking for patience.
A new mayor and new commissioner in District 3 will inherit the consequences. If Mayor Elect Eileen Higgins is sworn in on Dec. 17, then she’ll have three days to veto.
Welcome to Miami, La Alcaldesa Jr.

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Miami’s Mayor-Elect Eileen Higgins has barely picked out her office chair and she’s already doing something unheard of in the Magic City: surrounding herself with grown-ups. Competent ones. With résumés.
On Friday, Higgins announced her incoming chief of staff and the transition team that will guide her first 100 days — and, folks, Ladra did a double take. No campaign cronies, no political strays, no future defendants. Not a primo in sight.
Instead, she’s surrounding herself with people who actually know how to run things. Which, after the Carollo-Sarnoff-Suarez clown car years, feels almost radical.
Read related: Eileen Higgins goes into Miami City Hall with a fire extinguisher and a smile
The new chief of staff is the old chief of staff, Higgins’ longtime right hand at the county, Maggie Fernández, otherwise known as the adult in the room. If you know how the commissioner operated at the county — quietly competent, forward-thinking, very un-Miami — Maggie is a big part of that.
Fernández isn’t just another insider. She’s a fixer, the good kind — the one who makes government work without needing her name on anything.
Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she has nearly 30 years of experience across local government, sustainability, public policy, and community engagement. She knows capital projects. She knows climate resilience. She knows public works. And most importantly in this city, she knows how to wade into the bureaucratic swamp without drowning or coming out smelling like, well, swamp.
Fernández says she plans to bring “energy and joy” to City Hall. Ladra will happily settle for “competence and no FBI raids.” But joy sounds nice, too.
The other big news is that Carlos Migoya will be among her advisors. The head Jackson Health has 40 years of banking experience before that and was the Miami city manager from late 2009 to early 2010, swooping in to fix a major budget crisis, balancing the city’s books by cutting costs and reorganizing. But he is not a hero to labor unions, who have protested his cuts at the nations’s largest public hospital many times.
Migoya, who makes more than $800,000 a year as Jackson’s chief executive office, is coming to help the new mayor for free, as is the rest of the volunteer advisory team.
Higgins has said she wants to do a wide search for the next top dog in Miami, even though las malas lenguas keep saying that Miami-Dade Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales or former transit and public works director Alice Bravo are going to get the post.
Read related: Furloughs proposed, then scrapped at Jackson in the midst of COVID19
The rest of the transition team is not that expected but still very un-Miami-looking. It’s a who’s who of people who make Miami run — not the ones who usually run Miami into the ground.
Let’s look at the roster:

Gepsie Morisset-Metellus — the Haitian community’s North Star, co-founder of Sant La, admired across all neighborhoods and political lines.
Jose Bermudez — business and government affairs pro (lobbyist) with influence across construction, banking, and policy shops. He was also special assistant to Gov. Rick Scott in his first term, special advisor to former Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer. In 2018, he was appointed managing director of Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’ inaugural team. In this role, he organized and executed events in advance of the January 2019 Florida gubernatorial inauguration. He may be the biggest surprise.
Matt Haggman — innovation evangelist, former Knight Foundation Miami director, and one of the people who helped make “tech in Miami” mean more than “a guy on Brickell with a laptop.”
Terry Murphy, Ph.D. — ethics and good-government whisperer and longtime OIG veteran. If Higgins wants to clean up the swamp, Doctor Murphy knows which mop to use where. Alcaldesa, he’s a keeper.
Marta Viciedo — planning, transit, resilience expert and the civic brain who helped create the Better Bus System — which some love and some hate — when nobody else had the guts.
Michele Burger — Miami Beach operative, policy planner, and climate brain who’s worked on everything from culture to infrastructure.
Rebecca Fishman Lipsey — president of The Miami Foundation and philanthropy powerhouse, responsible for shaping half the city’s nonprofit ecosystem.
Tina Brown — Overtown champion and CEO of OYC Miami, who tripled program reach and built a massive community facility without drama, indictments or ribbon-cutting scandals.

This isn’t a political reward board. This is a governance team. Yes, Miami, we are all adjusting. This is a different kind of mayor for a very tired city.
Higgins keeps repeating that her goal is simple: “Get City Hall working for the people of Miami.” Sure, lots of people say that.
But Higgins is backing it up by forming an advisory circle of people who know how to read budgets, manage projects, and look at ethics as something other than a punchline.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
After years of chaos — commissioners screaming at each other, secret deals, FBI subpoenas, public records games, personal vendettas, the whole enchilada — Miami voters finally chose someone who ran on boring competence.
And guess what? She’s delivering boring competence. Miami might not know what to do with this.
Higgins says her transition team will shape a “bold, practical agenda” focused on affordability, public safety, infrastructure that doesn’t crumble in the rain, and a government that’s transparent, ethical, and responsive.
Honestly, the bar is so low at City Hall right now she could trip over it.
But if Higgins pulls this off, Miami might actually see a City Hall that fixes things without drama — instead of breaking things with drama.
With Maggie Fernández as Chief of Staff and this transition crew behind her, Higgins seems poised to run a grown-up operation — the total opposite of the last generation of mayors who treated the city like their personal group chat.
Is Ladra skeptical? Always. It’s part of the charm.
But this lineup is serious. Competent. Not for show.
And maybe — maybe — Miami finally voted in a mayor who intends to govern instead of grandstand.

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Miami’s latest political dust-up has hit a bureaucratic face-plant.
If Miami politics has a recurring theme these days — beyond loud politicians and slow public records — it’s this: the theater of outrage always overloads the technical skillset required to actually accomplish anything.
Case in point: the sham recall campaign against Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava that kicked off with more buzz than a cracked beehive is now basically dead on arrival — and not because voters weighed in at the ballot box yet, or because they couldn’t muster the required number of signatures, but because the paperwork couldn’t pass a basic adult spelling quiz.
Read related: Recall effort vs Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is now on track
Yes, amigos. The recall petition filed by former mayoral candidate Alex Otaola was rejected by the Miami-Dade Clerk’s Office because, get this, it was riddled with formatting errors, typos, and a failure to meet basic legal requirements necessary for circulation.
Doug Hanks of the Miami Herald broke the news on X last week, complete with a screenshot of the formal notice calling out the defects. It reads like the sort of thing you’d get back on a term paper in college with a big red “WTF formatting?!?” slapped across the top.
The recall effort already hit a snag last month when the clerk’s office couldn’t approve what was submitted because the Supervisor of Elections had not provided the form. And, we guess, because the petition form used by the old Miami-Dade elections department wasn’t exactly the same? The county commission had to make it official. Whatever.
La Alcaldesa’s senior political advisor, Christian Ulvert, used the opportunity to take another swipe at what he calls a stunt.
“If Mr. Otaola can’t fill out the forms or follow the most basic rules, it’s hard to see how he expects anyone to trust his sham recall effort — especially after 88% of voters rejected him,” Ulvert said. “This week’s stumble is straight out of the Trump playbook. Miami-Dade residents stand with their County Mayor, and no manufactured political stunt is going to change that. Period.”
Period. For good measure.
Read related: Mayoral wannabe Alex Otaola wants to bring McCarthyism to Miami-Dade
And Ulvert is right — especially the part about 88% of voters who rejected Otaola before he even got this far. Nothing in Miami politics has ever been that unified. And then after he gets solidly repudiated by voters, Otaola’s next political act gets stopped because someone forgot where commas go.
Welcome to Miami politics — where passion often outpaces proficiency.
Nobody is saying recall efforts should be easy — they shouldn’t be. But in a county that has seen more than its fair share of political scandals and fights, the real headline here isn’t another recall. It’s that someone couldn’t fill out a legally required form.
For a political stunt that spent weeks accusing the mayor of lacking discipline and leadership, the recall petition’s rejection turns into poetic irony.
In Miami, we’ve seen recall threats become real fights, legal battles, and full-blown political earthquakes. This one? It’s mostly a comedy of errors. So far.
And if you can’t even get the paperwork right, maybe this wasn’t a recall so much as a reminder that shouting into the void doesn’t count as civic procedure.

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Joe Carollo slipped out of Miami City Hall at 11:59 p.m. Thursday night — and Miami let out a long, exhausted sigh.
End of an era? Por favor. It’s the end of a nightmare. A 40–year Carollo political dynasty, gone like a thief in the night, with El Loco Joe choosing to resign before his successor is even sworn in.
The ever-polemic city commissioner turned in his resignation Thursday, effective at exactly one minute before midnight — which is probably the most dramatic thing he’s done in years that didn’t involve a lawsuit, a meltdown, or screaming at someone from the dais. This is the same Joe Carollo who has spent decades picking fights, making enemies, calling ambulances for imaginary emergencies, and turning City Hall into a circus where he was always the main clown.
And now? Poof. He’s gone.
Read related: Carollo dynasty crumbles in Miami as newbie Rolando Escalona takes D3 seat
Of course, this is Miami, so nothing is ever simple. Why the early resignation? Why leave on Dec. 12 when Rolando Escalona — the political newcomer who crushed brother Frank Carollo in the runoff Tuesday — won’t be sworn in until Dec. 17 at the earliest? The Clerk still has to certify the results. There was absolutely nothing forcing Joe out the door Thursday night.
So everybody is left wondering… and speculating. And Ladra, of course, has collected these theories and now lays them out for you to consider. Please feel free to add any theories of your own in the comments:
#1: More legal issues
Carollo is always entangled in civil litigation. Remember the $63.5 million judgment from the Little Havana business owners he weaponized code enforcement against? You know, the one that made national news and showcased his particular brand of revenge politics? Is he resigning now to avoid some looming legal development? Did his attorneys whisper, “Better to be an ex-commissioner before the next shoe drops”?
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses appeal on $63.5 million jury award
#2: He didn’t want to face the music
It’s amazing enough that Joe Carollo dared to show his face at the last commission meeting of the year Thursday (more on that later), but anybody who expects him to keep doing his job after Frankie’s embarrassing, decisive loss — with staffers whispering and lobbyists pretending not to smirk — doesn’t know Joe. Our beloved former mayor and twice-elected, newly-repudiated commissioner has one weakness: He cares deeply about how he thinks people see him. Leaving Thursday night spares him a week of uncomfortable reality.
#3: One last power move
Leaving in the dead of night is pure Joe. It’s dramatic. It’s theatrical. And it gives him one last chance to control the narrative — or at least pretend he is. Why wait around while Escalona’s win is certified, Frank licks his wounds, and the entire city celebrates the end of Carollo World? Leaving early is his version of dignity. (I know. Ladra laughed too.)
#4: Bypassing term limits
Could he be trying to set up a comeback? Voters in November passed lifetime term limits which would prevent him from running for commissioner again. Unless maybe he didn’t serve an entire term. Like if he left a week early. It’s not beyond Crazy Joe to have thought of this.
#5: Something we don’t know yet
This is Miami. There is always something we don’t know yet. A dropped ethics complaint? A sealed settlement? An FBI interview? A backroom deal? A new gig or radio show? An impending charge?
Things that make you go hmmm: It’s quite possible that, like other city employees, Carollo’s pension and other retirement benefits would be suspended if he were to be charged before he is officially out. And then cancelled if he were to be found guilty. And we know that there was an investigation into his use of the funds as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. That continues even though he’s no longer in office.
There doesn’t even have to be a real charge coming. Just the possibility of one is enough to make him dodge the risk and secure his future at Shangri-La.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses Bayfront Park Trust to Miguel Gabela
On the other hand, there’s that old rumor about him being an informant. Could his resignation be a condition of that?
Either way, Thursday night was not just Joe leaving his office keys on the desk. It was the official collapse of the Carollo dynasty. Frank tried to inherit the throne and voters slammed the door so hard the shock waves are still echoing on Flagler. Escalona’s win wasn’t just a political upset. It was a repudiation — a loud, clear ya basta from District 3. And Miami’s long Carollo chapter has come to an end.
For the first time in nearly half a century, there will be no Carollo on the Miami Commission. Joe leaves with his legacy tarnished, his lawsuits still alive, his enemies plentiful, and his dreams of kingmaking crushed by a 34-year-old newcomer.
But his timing? His reasons? Oh, that remains to be seen.
And if Joe thinks resigning at 11:59 p.m. will stop the chisme mill, he really doesn’t know Miami at all.

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Miami’s new mayor-elect says the circus is over
Miami Mayor-Elect Eileen Higgins held her first post-election press conference Wednesday, and the gist is that La Gringa no vino a jugar.
If Francis Suarez turned City Hall into a political Airbnb — you know, a place where he crashed between photo ops and travel jaunts — Higgins made it clear she’s coming to actually live in the building. Clean the kitchen. Fix the plumbing. Throw out the dead plants. Maybe fumigate.
And above all: turn off the damn reality show.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
“First of all, the temperature on the dais has to go down,” Higgins told reporters at her campaign headquarters — in that measured, school-principal tone she uses right before she assigns homework.  “People must treat each other with respect. The era of commissioners yelling at one another and threatening to punch one another is going to stop.
“We have a new dais. We have new ideas and we certainly have people (who) are quieter and behave, in this case, in a more gentlemanly manner.”
She didn’t say the words Joe Carollo, but it was understood.
In Spanish, Higgins said what everyone has been thinking for years: the city’s meetings have become “más o menos un reality show.”
Honestly, that’s generous. Some meetings make an episode of La Casa de los Famosos look like C-SPAN.
Frankly, she’s got it a lot easier now that Commissioner Carollo has his last meeting Thursday. Joe i the msatch that sparks the fire, the kerosene that feeds it, and the guy running around the chamber tossing lit cigarettes just to watch the flames dance. There’s no way the rest of them, as clownish as they can be in their own right, can live up to the legend. Commissioner Miguel “Tony Soprano” Gabela won’t be goaded into a fist fight with Ralph Rosado or Damian Pardo. Joe Carollo termed out. He has gone to Shangrila. And his brother Frank Carollo lost to Rolando Escalona.
Suddenly the dais looks less like WrestleMania and more like… well, a workplace.
“We have a new dais, new ideas, and certainly people that are quieter and behave in a more gentlemanly manner,” Higgins said.
That kindness should also extend outside of City Hall, with “a government that treats residents as if they are customers,” Higgins added. She mentioned the permitting process nightmare and saying the city has to become more efficient, “has to be more modern in how it embraces technology.”
Higgins, also touched on affordable housing — her bread and butter issue — and the city’s controversial 287g agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which they entered this past summer. Suarez didn’t veto it and never said a thing. Classic Francis. Very on-brand for a mayor who showed up to the border trying to look serious, then ran for president for two weeks.
Read related: Miami could join 250 Florida cities with 287g contract to help ICE vs immigrants
The new mayor, on the other hand, has been a critic of state-level immigrant crackdowns and made it plain on Wednesday: “The city should never have entered into that agreement,” she said.
“This is the first election where when I speak to residents, it’s not just about frustration, it’s also about fear. They’ve never been afraid of their government before. And now they are,” Higgins said.
Can she get Miami out of the agreement? Maybe not. She was honest that the rules are unclear. But she can minimize the involvement “There’s no reason for our police department to be in the job of federal immigration enforcement.
“We are an immigrant city,” she said. “We have always been an immigrant city.”
That sound you hear is half of Miami exhaling in relief.
She also plans to replace City Manager Art Noriega, but not until after the holidays. And she said she would prefer to have a national search to find the best person for the job. What a concept!
Because here’s the thing: unlike half the people who say they want to fix Miami politics, Higgins — ever the note-taking nerd — actually brought a plan. A literal one. According to the Miami Herald, she has a thick, running, 300-item “mayor do” list that Ladra hears she’s been carrying around like a political security blanket.
Three. Hundred. Items.
Suarez didn’t even show up three hundred times.
Read related: Francis Suarez is the absent Mayor VIP of Miami — MIA at the worst time
Higgins says she will attend every commission meeting. Every. Single. One. Not just the morning ceremonial photo ops before slipping out the back for a donor lunch. She’s going to sit there, in the chamber, looking at them like a mom watching her kids take a math test — chancla in hand.
Higgins is not an outsider, which is exactly why the insiders should be nervous.
She’s known for drilling into policy until staffers run out of coffee, asking 20 questions when most politicians ask zero, working to actually fix real problems — like Miami-Dade’s broken suspended-license system — instead of staging them for Instagram.
The soonest Higgins can be sworn in is Dec. 17. Which means Suarez gets one more week to look busy, hand out certificates, and take a few more selfies before he packs up his ring light. He’s leaving office as the city’s first TikTok-flavored mayor, and Higgins is walking in as Miami’s first-ever woman mayor — and the first Democrat in nearly three decades.
It’s going to be a sharp contrast.
Higgins says she’ll be in the room. She’ll be hands-on. She’ll be focused. And she has — and this is the wild part — a fully organized punch list for her first 100 days.
Not a slogan. Not a podcast. Not a crypto pitch. An actual to-do list. A Miami mayor with a plan. Dios mío.
Eileen Higgins promised to “stop the chaos.” But turning off Miami’s political reality show won’t be easy. Chaos has been profitable for some people. Entertaining for others. And it has been normalized for way too long.
If Higgins can pull this off — even halfway — it won’t just be a new era. It’ll be another miracle.
The first one? The Carollos are gone.

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