The hottest ticket in Miami Tuesday seems to be the circus, er, Miami mayoral debate hosted by the Downtown Neighbors Alliance. The show is sold out. All 350 seats at the Hyatt Regency venue have been reserved. Walk-ins are not allowed due to “security reasons,” (more on that later). So it’s an exclusive gig.
And this show — broadcast live on CBS News Miami — promises more drama than a telenovela marathon.
But don’t expect to see all 13 candidates on stage. Nope. The Downtown Neighbors Alliance (DNA) and CBS Miami decided to whittle the field down to the six who hit at least 5% in a poll of likely voters. So only the “frontrunners” made the cut. Nobody really needed a poll for this, but the debate stage is set for:

Joe Carollo – Known as “Crazy Joe,” or “Loco Pollo Carollo,” the master of vendettas and late-night commission meltdowns will be the first to watch. He talks slow, so it might be difficult for him to get his thoughts out in 30-second shifts. Expect him to bellow. He loves the sound of his own voice.
Alex Díaz de la Portilla – Let’s call him “Cara Dura.” Suspended from office by the guv after he was arrested in September 2023 on 14 felonies, including money laundering and bribery — charges that were dropped late last year —  than election wins in the last decade. He’s still betting Miami voters have short memories. Expect him to blame the radical left and their agenda for his arrest and persecution.
Emilio González – The former city manager is the one who went to court and got the election back on the ballot after city commissioners moved the election and basically cancelled the Nov. 4 mayoral race. He’s been aggressive on the campaign and has a platform of policy that sounds like it should be delivered in PowerPoint. Expect him to focus on efficiency and rooting out corruption and he’ll try to sound like the only adult in the room.
Eileen Higgins – Known as “La Gringa,” mostly because she carved out her county district base in Little Havana, she will try to sound like the smartest person in the room. She has to convince Miamians she’s got citywide appeal and will probably throw in some Spanish because she can.
Ken Russell – You probably know him from TikTok. Mr. Nice Guy, who’s been running for something nonstop since he discovered politics, is going to try to keep things cool and collected. But he also has an impeccable memory of Miami’s reality and could be the only one who brings us back there from time to time.
Xavier Suárez – Miami’s first Cuban mayor and the original “Commissioner Loco,” who now everyone considers their professor, now in comeback mode, trying to look like the elder statesman instead of the throwback candidate, despite the fact that he is the father of current Mayor Francis Suarez. When they talk about dynasty politics, this is a classic case.

All candidates are confirmed, said DNA President James Torres, who told Political Cortadito that this is not a typical kumbaya forum. “This is a real debate. This is not softball,” Torres said. “We are going to be asking the questions the voters want to ask.”
The candidates will each draw a number out of a basket to get a seat and then have a minute to introduce themselves before CBS Miami anchor and moderator Eliott Rodriguez starts the questions. They’ll have one minute to answer and 30 seconds to rebut if their name is said by another candidate. They will also be allowed a two minute conclusion, which Ladra thinks is a mistake. The last time Carollo got two minutes at a Downtown Development Authority meeting, he took six.
This beautiful opportunity presents us with a bunch of possible fireworks displays and other exciting would-be scenarios and, yes, Ladra is salivating.
Carollo and Díaz de la Portilla on the same stage? The DNA should have charged admission to raise funds to fight the DDA (more on that later). Because people would pay to see that. Ladra wonders if Crazy Joe will call ADLP “the mamey king,” as he’s done on his morning radio show, because Alex keeps handing the fruit out as he knocks on doors.
Then there is the Higgins and Gonzalez dynamic. A poll when had those two in a runoff after the clusterbunch Nov. 4, and their respective camps have already attacked each other on a partisan level. It will be interesting (read: awkward) to see them standing together. Ladra hopes the draw numbers to stand side by side.
“I plan to not be part of any dysfunction,” Gonzalez told Ladra Monday.
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
Higgins is brave if she shows up. First, because she is likely thinking she doesn’t have to, as one of the two frontrunners in that poll, and secondly because this is not her audience. The DNA has been hard on Higgins inaction and lack of engagement on the issue of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, of which she is the vice chair, which has come under fire from the DNA.
Ladra hopes Suarez doesn’t look too lost and Russell doesn’t stay too nice.
All in all, it could be un arroz con mango. Because arroz con mamey just sounds gross.
There are seven other candidates left out in the cold, even though their names will still be on the ballot. Because apparently, democracy has a minimum entry fee now: 5% in somebody’s poll.
Ladra understands the limitation. You cannot have a serious debate with 13 people on the stage and there are some who aren’t serious contenders at all, so why give them the time and space that would be taken away from viable candidates?
The benched wannabes are:

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While there is a new chairman at the Miami Downtown Development Authority in freshly minted City Commissioner Ralph Rosado, it looks like the 58-year-old agency, which is tasked with assisting and incentivizing business in the urban core — hasn’t exactly shaken off the stink of recent scrutiny, with legit questions still swirling around its bloated budget and some very curious decision-making.
New face, same ol’ funk.
A number of Brickell and downtown condo dwellers have been complaining to the city commission and the administration about the DDA since the 15-member board voted earlier this year to give $100,000 to the UFC, a sports organization worth an estimated $12 billion. A closer look revealed that the agency had also given $450,000 — $150K a year for three years — to woo the FC Barcelona soccer club headquarters from New York to Miami, and $175,000 to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship host committee for, well, good measure maybe.
And, to boot, there are a lot of well-paid and overlapping staff positions with bloated salaries.
Some residents say they don’t want a 15-member board of insiders spending their tax dollars on things like trolley paint jobs and soccer club wooing while residents juggle $20 million assessments and skyrocketing insurance bills.
Read related: Ka-ching! Miami DDA is doling out more checks to billionaire companies
Leading the charge is James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance and an unofficial spokesperson for fed-up condo owners. “We want a divorce,” Torres said. “They’re double taxing us.”
““This is about fairness and democracy,” Torres said. “All we’re asking is for the City to give residents the opportunity to decide for themselves whether this additional tax should continue. No other community is forced to pay this surcharge, and it’s time to ask: should we?”
Torres has tried to engage the city in finding a solution. He has suggested the city change the structure and make the DDA more like a business improvement district, taxing only the commercial property owners and businesses — not the residents. And if the city doesn’t want to do that, then he wants them to put the future of the DDA on the ballot.
At the last commission meeting, Commissioner Joe Carollo moved to put a nonbonding question about the DDA on the November ballot. But it died for lack of a second.
Rosado, who was quick to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust, has said that the budget was possibly bloated and that there needed to be reform, including more residents on the 15-member board.
Brickell’s not happy either.
“Brickell is not downtown. Downtown is not Brickell,” said Ernesto Cuesta, president of the Brickell Homeowners’ Association. “This is taxation without representation. We don’t see the services.”
Ladra gets it. Condo life ain’t cheap. Especially if you’re getting hit with a $12,000 special assessment and a bonus tax for a group that, according to many residents, does nada for their quality of life.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
The DDA is made up of 15 hand-picked board members tasked with “economic development” in downtown. But more than half of its funding — 58 percent — comes from residential property owners. You know, the folks who actually live here. The same folks who are footing the bill for DDA pet projects like the $450K to FC Barcelona to move their U.S. office here and open a souvenir shop on Flagler. Because apparently what Miami really needed was another overpriced jersey store.
But wait, the DDA says, it’s all for the greater good: economic development, business grants, license plate readers, and a free trolley that still somehow manages to pass you by. And the agency does have its champions. But most of the people who spoke in favor of keeping the DDA at last week’s commission meeting — and every meeting where this has come up — are board members or employees or businesses that have benefitted from their grants. In what looked like a desperate PR campaign, former homeless people who are now employed by the DDA — known as “yellow shirts” because of their uniform — were paraded before the commissioners, pleading to save their jobs.
The DDA partners with Camillus House to provide economically disadvantaged and formerly homeless individuals opportunities for employment in what they call “the Downtown Enhancement Team,” so they get training and experience to reenter the workforce. Among the jobs they do: Street sweeping, litter and illegal dumping removal, graffiti abatement, sidewalk power washing and landscape installation and maintenance.
Oh, and serving as props for the DDA’s advocacy at commission meetings.
In reality, the DDA allocates just 1.25% of its $22 million budget to address the homelessness crisis that residents face every day. And that $22 million budget has grown from $13.5 million last year. That is more than a 50% increase. Some of this is given back to the city, for enhanced police patrols as one example.
Meanwhile, downtown residents are still feeling less safe, the historic Olympia Theater is on the auction block, and the Miami DDA is celebrating the long-overdue reopening of — wait for it — two whole blocks of Flager Street.
This is the Flagler Street promised in 2019. It doesn’t look like that, yet.
Yes, two. After three years of construction hell — that’s 40 months of barricades, bulldozers, broken promises and busted businessess — City Hall, the DDA and the Flagler Business Improvement District want a pat on the back for reopening a fraction of what was supposed to be a full five-block transformation project originally launched in 2019.
Leaders blame the delays partly on the COVID pandemic. “There have been a few issues with getting the contractor to stay on schedule,” Terrell Fritz, the director of the Flagler BID, told CBS News Miami in a story aired Wednesday.
Ladra’s not saying a makeover wasn’t needed. The new look — with its fancy brick pavers, outdoor café space, and what they’re calling a “festival streetscape” — does add a little Paris flair to the gritty downtown core. And yes, it’s great that Bespoke Barber Pub owner Clara Henao got to hang a liquor license next to the clippers thanks to some DDA assistance. Cheers to that.
But while the DDA touts this reopening as a “success story,” three blocks remain a construction zone. Officials say the dominoes will fall faster now — but after 40 months, Ladra’s not holding her breath.
Behind closed doors, the story is different. “We’ve put in millions and millions of dollars,” a resident said at the most recent DDA board meeting. The video was posted on Twitter by Torres.
“We’ve put in street furniture and every single piece of street furniture is either damaged, scratched, has huge chunks taken out of it.” By the time all of Flagler Street is open, “the assets we invested all these million of dollars on are already going to be 25 or 50% into their lifespan.”
Read related: Op Ed by DNA President James Torres: Miami doesn’t need a DDA anymore
If this is what the added DDA tax buys, it’s no wonder Brickell and Edgewater residents want out. They should demand a refund.
Because when you can’t get five blocks of downtown paved in under half a decade, it gets a little harder to sell the story that the DDA is “enhancing quality of life.”
Unless, of course, your idea of “quality” is dodging scaffolding while waiting for a trolley.
Still, Torres and other residents aren’t buying it. In a recent survey by the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance, about 56% of the 850 respondents said the DDA hasn’t made life better. Maybe because the DDA’s idea of improving safety is buying more cameras while sidewalks crumble and scooters fly like weapons of war.
He and those who think like him say that if the DDA truly stands behind its value to the community, it should welcome this opportunity to let taxpayers decide. “Let our people vote. It’s fair, democratic, and long overdue,” Torres said.
While the commission took no action on Thursday, the DDA opponents in Brickell and Edgewater and downtown still want some relief. Not more red tape. Not more marketing gimmicks.
And definitely not more soccer swag.
The post Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Months before the Miami Downtown Development Authority approved a controversial $100,000 gift to the UFC, an organization worth around $12 billion, the agency — funded through a special taxing district of downtown, Brickell and Edgewater property owners — gave more than four times as much to one of the wealthiest sports franchises in the world.
Last December, the DDA voted to give $450,000 — or $150,000 a year for three consecutive years — to FC Barcelona, a global brand that is valued at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes, to support moving their U.S. office from New York to Miami.
But they’re not done. On Tuesday, the DDA’s Economic Development Committee will consider giving $175,000 to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship host committee. That makes a total of $725,000 in gifts to sports entities in just the last five months.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
Proponents will say that the these funds are incentives to bring these events here. That the economic impact they are a huge return on investment and that Miami’s image continues to be broadcast to the world as an iconic location for events. The UFC Village on Flager, for instance, drew thousands of people downtown that might not otherwise have gone there. And so what that one of the events organized was at a downtown spot owned by one of the board members? It’s just a coincidence.
The college national championship is expected to have at least a $275 million impact on the community. But it is sponsored already by huge billion dollar corporations like Nike, Amazon, Royal Caribbean and AT&T. Why does it need $175K that can be better spent elsewhere?
Plus, it will already be here. It was announced last month that the title game would be played at the Hard Rock Stadium.
“They’re already coming here. They already have the hotels booked,” said James Torres, the president of the Downtown Neighbors Association, who has been pressing to adjust or eliminate the DDA for month, citing bloated salaries and these “incentive” grants that he says are bogus.
“We are not the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau,” Torres told Political Cortadito. He calls it “another slap in the face.”
He said the money should be spent on the real issues that face downtown daily — the garbage on the street, the homelessness, the street lights that need repair. “They are supposed to combat blight,” he said of the DDA.
Torres, who ran unsuccessfully or commission in district 2, has asked to be given more than three minutes at the next commission meeting so he can make his presentation for removing homeowners from the taxing district to make the DDA more like a business improvement district — currently, residential property owners pay 58% of the annual $13.5 million budget — or eliminating it altogether. He has proposed putting a question on the ballot in November to let voters decide if it should be changed or dissolved.
A line of homeless individual forms under the expressway for the distribution of aid or services.
“Downtown Miami families are being crushed by rising crime, a worsening condo crisis, homelessness, and double taxation,” Torres wrote in a letter to Mayor Francis Suarez earlier this month, before he even learned about the college championship check the DDA might be writing this week.
“This is not economic development. It is exploitation — not by the brands themselves, but by the DDA, which continues to operate as a taxpayer-funded slush fund, ignoring the needs of the people it taxes,” Torres wrote. “FC Barcelona is not a struggling local business or a neighborhood nonprofit organization. It is a multi-billion-dollar entertainment empire. And yet, while residents walk past graffiti-covered sidewalks, homeless encampments, and shuttered storefronts, City officials have joined the DDA in celebrating this latest handout — as if it were some major community victory. It is not.
“Mayor Suarez, you do not pay into the DDA taxing district, yet you’ve aligned yourself with the PR fanfare while remaining silent as Downtown residents plead for fairness. To your credit, you have worked hard to elevate Miami’s global profile — Ultra, Formula One, international marathons, and much more. That work has helped position our city as a world-class destination,” he continued.
“But here is the truth: Miami doesn’t need to buy prestige. Global brands want to be here.
Read related: Miami DDA gives UFC $100K for event, despite protest from downtowners
“We should not be paying them to show up — especially not with money taken from residents who are already stretched thin in the very neighborhoods being exploited,” he added.
Torres told Political Cortadito that the burden adds to an already crushing condo crisis. His own building has had a $21 million assessment. His piece of that is about $12,000, he says. The DDA already takes about $1,200 of his annual tax bill, he said.
Ernesto Cuesta, the longtime president of the Brickell Homeowners Association, has also asked for Brickell to be taken 0ut of the DDA taxing boundaries. He says the DDA stands for “Don’t Do Anything” for Brickell.
Both men were interviewed in a segment last week for CBS4 News — and that was before they learned of the college football championship giveaway that will be considered Tuesday. But it was within days of the announcement that FC Barcelona would be relocating here “with the support” of the DDA and Mayor Suarez attended the celebration.
In his letter, Torres asks Suarez to support putting the DDA’s future on the November ballot. “So the broader community can decide whether this agency still has a place in our city. Every day you remain silent is another day our communities are forced to fund a system they didn’t ask for, cannot afford, and no longer believe in.
“How much longer will you allow Downtown and Brickell residents to be held hostage by a bloated bureaucracy that continues to put image over impact?”
The DDA Economic Development Committee meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. and can be viewed via zoom here.
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The Downtown Neighbors Association will have a public safety town hall Wednesday with Miami Police Chief Manny Morales to discuss some “recent high profile incidents” in the urban core, talk about the homeless crisis and look at the 2025 downtown public safety action plan.
DNA President James Torres has been very vocal recently about what he says are a series of failures by the city to provide services to the downtown. He has also been critical of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, which has a $13.5 million annual budget — through a special levy on properties within its district boundaries in downtown, Brickell and Edgewater — and recently gifted $100,000 to the UFC for its events at the Kaseya Center. The UFC is worth about $12 billion, according to Forbes.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
“We’ve seen the videos. We’ve felt the concern in our community. It’s time to come together and talk about what really matters: feeling safe where we live,” Torres posted on social media Monday. “That recent assault in Brickell wasn’t just a headline — it was a wake-up call. Let’s make sure our voices are heard!”
Torres, who has called for a ballot question on the dissolution of the DDA, was referring to a video posted by Only In Dade of a woman who said she was physically assaulted on a walk to Brickell Key. “Bring pepper spray with you at all times no matter if it’s sunny, daylight, in the middle of the week,” the woman says in the video, calling it a public service announcement. “I was literally chased down the street and there was a ton of people around and I was screaming for help.
Since her first video was posted, she recorded a second one about “an outrageous amount of people come forward who have experienced the exact same thing, with the exact same guy.”
The same day the DDA granted the UFC that $100K, the 15-member board also voted to allocate $550,000 for additional police services in the Central Business District and Brickell areas. According to their social media statement, the board plans to fund expanded, additional police patrol services to Edgewater and has committed $1.2 million to this effort.
The town hall from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at 50 Biscayne Boulevard will also be shared on Zoom.

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The Miami Downtown Development Authority, an entity that was formed in 1967 to promote the urban core and bring development, has a budget of $13.5 million through a special tax levy on properties within its district boundaries in downtown, Brickell and Edgewater. About a quarter of that is on salaries, some of which seem excessive and redundant.
This has some people talking about dissolving the agency and one downtown activist calling for a November referendum if the city commission won’t do it.
One example of redundant salaries cited is a total of six people working in-house marketing and public relations functions for a total of more than $640,000 in salaries and benefits:

Head of marketing and communications — $157,091
Marketing advisor — $123,203
Marketing department “collaborator” — $53,539
Content contributor — $82,195
Public information officer — 91,957
Brand integrity expert — $134,662

And the DDA also has one of the state’s top public relations firms on retainer for another $175K a year.
Isn’t that a little redundant?
Read related: Miami DDA gives UFC $100K for event, despite protest from downtowners
That’s more than $800,000 on marketing and communications, a lot of investment in PR. And, yet, Ladra has never seen any promotion to bring suburbanites downtown, which seems like low-hanging fruit.
What’s a “brand integrity expert” anyway? Why is that needed for downtown redevelopment advocacy?
The redundancy seems to be a theme.
There is a head of urban planning pulling in $177,143 and an urban planning strategist making $107,261. But all urban planning and zoning decisions are made by the city commission through the planning and zoning board. And there are two “enhanced services coordinator” positions — one at $100,692 and another at $89,787 — as well as a head of enhanced services and government affairs making $116,711. There is also a business and grants expert ($104,425), an “office and finance expert” ($106,137), a business development advisor ($107132), a “strategic partnership specialist” ($121,567) and a chief of economic and development strategy ($205,326).
These seemingly redundant salaries are one of the arguments being made by Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, who did a public records request for the budget and salaries (posted above) after the agency gave $100,000 to the UFC for events at the Kaseya Center next month. The taxpayer giveaway is what set Torres off and led to his push to dissolve the agency he says is taking advantage of downtown property owners.
At the very least, Torres says, the residents should stop being taxed. The city commission could establish a business district, like in Wynwood, where only the commercial property owners would be taxed for the DDA services. “The residents are paying 58% of this tax,” Torres told Political Cortadito. “If it was truly for the benefit of residents, okay. But there are no discount cards. We have to hire a third party contract for our trash pick up.
“Residents want a divorce,” Torres said.
Read related: Op Ed by DNA President James Torres: Miami doesn’t need a DDA anymore
But DDA Director Christina Crespi says the marriage is strong and that the DDA has evolved over the years.
Fresh from a meeting to discuss efforts to mitigate the upcoming Ultra musical festival — coordination of traffic, communication to residents, working with the county to have the MetroMover open later — Crespi told Political Cortadito that the agency does a lot for the residents and businesses of the area. She cited the freebie circulator, the permit clinic, the downtown enhancement team of former homeless individuals staffing bathrooms at the park, the graffiti clean up (850 incidents of graffiti just this month, she added), the landscaping additions, pressure washing, the urban planning on Flagler Street, which included getting the law changed so bars could stay open longer, and a host of events.
They raise federal dollars, she said, adding that they secured $31 million for the Flagler Street project. And the agency is about to propose a design for a pedestrian bridge under I-95 to connect the the museum park to the north side, the former Miami Herald property. They’ve launched a 3D development pipeline interactive map on their website to keep people informed of construction projects in real time, Crespi said.
But “the real focus is economic development,” she added, justifying the large PR staff and outside contract. “We are marketing downtown globally,” Crespi told Ladra, adding that there are 65,000 followers on their Instagram account. “We provide day-to-day info to residents, create content to promote businesses, incentivize new businesses,” she said.
Of course, she gets paid $265,150 in salary and benefits to say that.

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It’s time to dissolve the Miami Downtown Development Authority
Op-Ed by James Torres, President, Downtown Neighbors Alliance
The Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) was established 58 years ago in 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson was president and Robert King High was Miami’s mayor. That’s right—this agency was created before Miami even had air conditioning in most buildings, let alone the skyline we have today. Back then, Downtown Miami was struggling with urban decay, and the DDA was pitched as a way to breathe life into a fading city core.
Now, it’s 2025, and Downtown Miami is booming—not because of the DDA, but in spite of it. Yet this outdated agency insists it’s still needed to “attract businesses,” “bring in events,” and “support economic development.”
Read related: Miami DDA gives UFC $100K for event, despite protest from downtowners
Let’s be real—Miami sells itself. We already host Ultra Music Festival, Formula One, world-class concerts, major marathons, and international conventions without the DDA cutting corporate welfare checks. Businesses and investors aren’t choosing Miami because of the DDA’s bloated budget—they’re coming here because Miami is one of the most desirable destinations in the world.
Yet instead of shutting down after long outliving its purpose, the DDA has become an expensive, wasteful bureaucracy, taxing residents to fund itself and hand out corporate welfare to billion-dollar companies.

We have long been sounding the alarm about the DDA’s reckless spending, but their latest move—a $100,000 taxpayer handout to a $12 BILLION corporation, UFC—was the final straw.
A Pattern of Waste and Exploitation
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to step up and fight against the DDA’s blatant disregard for downtown taxpayers. Last year, we successfully led the effort to stop their tax increase, forcing them to reduce their budget by $1.2 million and lower the millage rate. This victory came despite the DDA’s attempts to downplay their $13.5 million tax extraction, with Commissioner Damian Pardo shamelessly dismissing it as “just $2-$6 per household”— a tone-deaf and dishonest attempt to minimize the real burden on our community.
Where Is Our Money Really Going?
Downtown, Brickell and Edgewater residents pay over $13.5 million in additional taxes each year to fund the DDA. Yet instead of prioritizing real issues like crime, homelessness, and cleanliness, the DDA squanders our money on luxuries for itself and unnecessary corporate handouts.
According to the DDA’s own financial disclosures from its February 28, 2025, Board Meeting Package, this is how our money is being spent:

$3.85 million is spent annually on salaries and benefits.
Over $566,000 on office rent and parking.
$425,000 on “communications and promotion” instead of actual services.
$1.19 million on sponsorships that do little for residents.
$3.35 million on vague “special initiatives” with no clear benefit.

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