Miami-Dade’s nonprofit industrial complex took another bow this week, and — ay, Dios mío — County Hall is starting to look less like a government building and more like the green room for a very special episode of The Price Is Right.
Because once again, commissioners were asked to sign off on a brand-new pot of money for their favorite nonprofits. And once again, the numbers didn’t add up. And once again, the appropriations committee did what Miami-Dade commissioners do best when they don’t want to say “no” — they kicked the can down the road so hard it bounced into the next fiscal year.
The pitch this time? A so-called CBO Trust Fund for “community-based organizations,” or non-profits that fill the gaps of service where the county can’t. But let’s not pretend it’s anything other than a slush fund starter kit.
Read related: Miami-Dade might skim a little off the top of contracts — for the nonprofits
The grand idea was dreamed up by none other than Commissioner Kionne McGhee, patron saint of Miami-Dade’s nonprofit class has had four of his own non-profit organizations and still has one, Conquering Hope Blueprint, with his whole family.
McGhee also works for Children of Inmates, a group that got $250,000 from the county just this year. About half of that will cover his salary and benefits.
It looks like that’s the formula at Miami-Dade: Kristi House, an advocacy center to prevent child sexual abuse and trafficking that serves as the central hub in Miami-Dade County for coordinating legal, medical, and social services for child victims and their families, was scheduled to get $450,000 in county grants this year. Executive Director Amanda Altman, makes a salary of just over half at $266,038.
McGhee’s proposal would have the county scrape a teeny-tiny 2% off county vendor contracts and redirect it into grants for nonprofits. A permanent revenue stream! A fountain of taxpayer love! A bottomless mimosa brunch for the advocacy class!
Except, well, the math ain’t mathing.
County budget staff estimated the plan, which would not apply to proprietary funds like the airport and seaport, would generate maybe $4 to $5 million, tops. A rounding error, considering nonprofits raked in about $80 million last year alone.
Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins cut through the fog quickly: “Not even a Band-Aid,” she said. And she was right. More like putting a Hello Kitty sticker on a gunshot wound.
But McGhee wasn’t giving up. He pushed staff — hard — to promise that vendors wouldn’t pass the cost onto taxpayers. Budget Chief David Clodfelter gave him a polite but firm “No puedo.” So McGhee turned to another senior staffer, Chief Administrative Officer Carladenise Edwards, who wisely refused to touch that political live wire.
Read related: Kionne McGhee has own Miami-Dade budget town hall to focus on non-profits
And then, because the drama levels were still too low, McGhee tried to float the idea of putting the whole thing on the ballot. On the ballot, after everyone in the room had already agreed the trust fund wouldn’t actually raise enough money to solve the problem it claimed to solve.
This is where Ladra had to resist the urge to throw a chancleta at the dais. It happens more often than you think.
Why the desperation? Why the insistence on pumping public dollars into nonprofit pipelines that clearly can’t sustain themselves without government sugar?
Well, let’s take a look at the Form 6 filings, hall we?
McGhee, who never met a nonprofit he didn’t want to sponsor, has been collecting $99,416.18 every year — down to the last penny — from Children of Inmates, a nonprofit that just so happens to have a long and cozy relationship with Miami-Dade’s budget process. That’s not consulting. That’s not occasional work. That’s a salary. A salary funded indirectly by the same ecosystem he is now trying to give a permanent revenue stream to.
If you thought McGhee was the only one auditioning for the role of “Nonprofit Whisperer,” surprise! Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, once the fiscal conservative watchdog who barked at every penny misspent, has now curled up in McGhee’s lap like a new rescue pup. The two have been showing up to each other’s events like they’re running a buddy-cop campaign, not a county government. Insiders in the Stephen P. Clark Center say the quiet part out loud: the two have struck a mutual-support pact for chair and vice chair of the commission (more on that later).
And because nothing screams “transparency” like a backroom alliance, they’ve scheduled a Sunshine Meeting to “flush out” questions about nonprofits and the trust fund.
Ladra translation: They want to get their story straight before the rest of Miami-Dade sees the receipts.
Now, we’re heading toward the big Sunshine Meeting, which, let’s be honest, will be a carefully scripted performance dressed up as transparency. Expect glossy charts. Expect solemn speeches. Expect a whole lot of “we hear the concerns” without actually addressing who benefits from this convoluted tangle of nonprofit funding, political ambition, and personal ties.
Read related: Miami-Dade budget restores 100% funds to non-profits = self preservation
But the real questions are no longer whisper-level inside County Hall. They’re out here with the taxpayers:

Why is a commissioner who earns nearly $100K a year from a nonprofit also the architect of a permanent funding scheme for nonprofits?
Why has a former fiscal conservative suddenly become his number-one hype man?
Why are county employees raising red flags about management hires (more on that later) tied to the same nonprofit world driving this debate?
And why are taxpayers expected to foot this bill, while nobody acknowledges the conflicts staring us all in the face?

Nonprofits do important work. Ladra knows that. But they are not required parts of government. They do not have a constitutional right to taxpayer money. And Miami-Dade residents should not have to support a growing cottage industry of politically favored organizations whose leaders have one hand on the microphone and the other in the county budget.
The fact that some commissioners balked should tell you everything.
The trust fund doesn’t work. The numbers don’t work. The alliances don’t smell right. And the nonprofit industrial complex may  finally face the kind of scrutiny it has dodged for years.

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Only in Miami do we have a full-blown political race underway for a Florida House special election that the governor hasn’t even bothered to call yet.
But that hasn’t stopped the early birds — or the opportunists — from flocking to District 113, which State Rep. Vicki López just abandoned mid-term to keep Eileen Higgins’ old seat warm on the County Commission.
And oh, she left a parting gift on her way out: an endorsement for the guy she wants to keep her seat warm in Tallahassee.
Surprise! It’s not the guy who applied for her Commission seat two days earlier.
It’s Republican businessman and FIU-grown urban planner Frank Lago — a one-time chief of staff to Sweetwater Mayor Manny Marono, who lost a 2011 council run in Hialeah after losing a different state house race to replace Esteban “Stevie” Bovo when he left to go to the Miami-Dade Commission  — has filed for HD 113 as the apparent heir apparent to López, who called him “dedicated,” “trustworthy,” and possessing a “true servant’s heart.”
Which is Miami political code for: “He’s my pick, don’t screw this up.”
Frank Lago, left, with former Hialeah Councilman Luis Gonzalez and land use lobbyist Alejandro Arias in 2019
Lago, bless his heart, called López’s endorsement “deeply grateful” and thanked her for her “leadership.” It was all very sweet, very wholesome, very press-release-polished. The kind of thing that confirms what everyone had been whispering for days: Lago is the GOP’s pick. Make no mistake — Frank Lago is entering this race as the GOP establishment favorite.
Urban planning background (read: land use/zoning lobbying)? Check. Nonprofits on the résumé? Check. Chair of the Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board? Check. Ready-made talking points about prosperity, innovation, and the American Dream? Check, check and triple check.
And with HD 113 red-trending in recent cycles — Republicans now slightly outnumber Democrats in registration — the party bigs are licking their chops to keep this in the red.
But Lago might be cast as a carpetbagger. A Mike Redondo 2.0. Everything we know about him is Hialeah. Not only did he run for office there, he was entrenched: Lago supported former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina‘s county mayoral bid against now Congressman Carlos Gimenez. He doesn’t live in the district.
And Tony Diaz, who announced hours after Lopez was appointed, has lived in the district his entire life. Well, after being born at Palmetto Hospital, that is. He went home to an apartment in Little Havana and grew up in Silver Bluff, where he has lived in the same house for 20 years. Diaz, 31, is raising his daughter there after his parents moved to Coral Gables. “I didn’t want to leave Miami. I like it here. It’s five blocks from Publix and CVS and I have a Casola’s and a Pekin Palace five blocks away. What more do you want?
“I’m literally a part of the district, to because I moved or have a rent like some of these guys. I have just created my happy little life here and I don’t want to go anywhere else,” Diaz told Political Cortadito.
Read related: Tony Diaz doesn’t waste a minute – files for House seat vacated by Vicki Lopez
He went with his family to the St. Peter and Paul Catholic School Carnival this weekend. Diaz, 31, went there; class of 2008. He graduated from La Salle High School. He knows the city issues and he knows the county issues, which is why he flirted with a run for Miami District 4 and then applied for the appointment to Miami-Dade’s District 3.
Diaz, who owns a small printing shop and has just started a fruit-tree grafting business, lost that sweepstakes Tuesday, as expected. And by Wednesday he was running for HD 113. It’s like musical chairs but with campaign signs.
Diaz, who has now filed for the seat, positions himself as a Republican who wants to “work across the aisle” and “reject divisive rhetoric.” He talks earnestly about “growing pains” facing Florida, which is objectively hilarious coming from a man who literally grows grafted mango trees for a living.
His big pitch is Florida is not for sale.
“Florida is in the clutches of special interests. All around us lobbyists and irresponsible political players sell out your voice and prey on our busy life to line their own pockets,” Diaz says on his website. “I will be a watchdog that you can depend on. Constantly searching for ways to help the everyday Floridian to again enjoy life in their state. I will also work to ensure that elections are as clean as can be by proposing laws that help Supervisors of Election across Florida to reign in questionable activity.”
On the other side of the primary, we only have one Democrat in the room so far: Justin Mendoza Routt, a polished, true-believer candidate who checked all the other Miami boxes.
Colombian-American? Check. Lifelong Miamian? Check. Civic engagement? Check. Grew up everywhere from Hialeah Gardens to Overtown and then worked in finance in New York? Check, check and triple check.
It is unlikely that Mendoza, who is president of both the Historic Bayside Civic Association and the Miami-Dade Young Democrats — who really should call themselves the middle-aged Democrats, but more on that later — will have a primary opponent. He has political consultant Christian Ulvert on his side, which basically means the Florida Democratic Party. He’s also a member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee, representing District 11.
And Democrats — still high on the national and state wins Nov. 4 — are already calling HD 113 “flippable.” Oh, and that’s not just whistling a Shakira tune. HD 113 went for Biden by 12 points in 2020. DeSantis only won it by 2. And Democrats say it’s still a D+4 seat on paper.
Mendoza is positioning himself as the candidate for people who can no longer afford their rent, their groceries, or their ZIP code. His announcement reads like a love letter to Miami’s working families.
“Our democracy is at its best when everyday people – those who understand just how impossible it has become to get by in our city – step up to run for office and fight for our community.
I love our community because it gave me the chance to grow and overcome childhood challenges, with love, grit and determination. Like many of us here, I grew up facing poverty, hunger, and housing insecurity. Today, as we all know too well, the crisis of affordability in this state is making the path to prosperity more difficult for all Floridians.
Together, I know we can create a Florida where residents have a chance to own a home, to address poverty and the rising cost of living, and to strengthen local public schools, because every child deserves the right to a strong education.”
He’s talking affordability, environment, schools, safety — the classic Democratic Greatest Hits album, remastered for 2025.
But the race will likely be in 2026.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commissioners silence voters, appoint District 5 replacement
At this very moment, three candidates are campaigning for a race that doesn’t officially exist yet because Florida’s Governor won’t say when the special election is happening.
But that’s not stopping anyone. Republicans smell an easy hold. Democrats smell a surprise flip. And activists smell the chance to annoy Tallahassee for three more months.
What does Ladra smell? Opportunity. Drama. A little self-interest. And a hint of desperation. It’s a delicious aroma.
The district is a weird, beautiful Miami stew — Key Biscayne, the Roads, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, and more — and voters there know how to keep things interesting.
So, grab your popcorn. Or your mangos, if you’re Tony Diaz. Because HD 113 is about to be the hottest special election in town — whenever the governor finally decides to calendar it.

If you want more independent, watchdog reporting of county government and local elections, help Ladra with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support.

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Turns out City Hall didn’t have the votes tied up with a bow Thursday for that $29 million Watson Island liquidation sale after all. So instead of losing outright, the Miami Commission did what Miami politicians do best: They punted.
They punted so hard the can may have landed in Biscayne Bay.
The highly-hyped vote to hand over 3.2 acres of prime waterfront to BH3 Merrimac for what they call Watson Harbour and what critics call “a massive land giveaway” was suddenly postponed Thursday after commissioner Damian Pardo, who sponsored it, realized the math wasn’t mathing. He  needed four out of five votes to approve the sale. They did not have four. They barely had two.
So, the commission killed the engines and pretended it was about “needing more information.”
What really shook the dais? Probably the fresh appraisal that just dropped, valuing the land between $257 million and $342 million — yes, million with an “M” — depending on development restrictions. Compare that to the $29 million offer, which developers swear is generous because it “buys out the lease,” not the land. Cute. The same appraisal, delivered this week but begun in March, values the lease at $28.9 million. Turns out, it was a terrible lease to begin with.
After the state gets $4 million to lift restrictions keeping it public, that’s $25 million for a piece of land worth at least 10 times that. After you deduct the $20 million the city already paid in a settlement fee to the last lease-holder, that’s $5 million for a piece of waterfront property like no other in Miami.
Read related: Miami’s Watson Island liquidation sale to developers for lowball $25 million
Resident after resident begged commissioners not to approve what one called “the biggest sellout in city history.” And Ladra sees why: Miami voters did approve the sale in concept in a referendum last year that passed with 62% of the vote. But the ballot language said they approved a sale at fair market value, not a clearance rack special.
Specifically it said: “Shall City Charter be amended to revise existing leases at 888 MacArthur Causeway, sell 3.2 acres of leased property to tenant for fair market value of not less than $25,000,000, reduce overall development, extend term 24 years, waive bidding and authorize, at no cost to City: $9,000,000 contribution to affordable housing plus infrastructure improvements; timeshare units become condominiums; mixed-uses to include office; and expanded public waterfront and pedestrian promenade along Biscayne Bay?”
Somehow, it strikes Ladra as very strange that the price tag is the exact $25 million floor, plus the $4 million that goes to the state. That can’t be a coincidence.
Outgoing Commissioner Joe Carollo, who has exactly one meeting left before he’s termed out forever, shocked half the room by becoming the loudest voice pumping the brakes. Carollo? Defender of the public purse? Please. The man can smell leverage like a shark smells blood.
But he wasn’t wrong when he called Watson Island “the most valuable piece of property anywhere in the city limits.”
Miami finally has an appraisal that says so too.
Developer Nitin Motwani complained from the podium that Watson Island feels cursed. Every time they take “two steps forward,” they get knocked “three steps back,” he said.
Ladra’s translation: “Why won’t the city just give us this land already?”
Read related: Miami City Commission to consider two Watson Island developments
Motwani and partner Greg Freedman insist the $29 million price tag is totally fair because the existing lease “encumbers” the site. They claim they’ll have invested $150 million by the time this is approved, including more than $100 million to buy out the lease. But wait, wasn’t the lease worth $29 million? It seems to be at least worth $100M.
City Manager Art Noriega acted more like a lobbyist for the developers than a steward for the city. Of course he did — it’s his deal, too. And las malas lenguas say he’s angling for a job because he won’t be the city manager much longer after the mayoral runoff Dec. 9.
Noriega explained that the lease agreement was still in play and that the developers were limited to 105 condo units and 80 hotel rooms. But nobody explained why that lease can’t be changed. Or revised. And that is the problem.
Commissioner Miguel Gabela said the numbers felt fuzzy. And Commissioner Ralph Rosado asked for a one-page summary, aka a cheat sheet for the biggest land transaction in city history. Only Commission Chair Christine King seemed keen to push it through now, invoking the voter referendum like a shield. As if the words “fair market value” mean nothing.
Pardo — the financial guy on the dais who should know the deal stinks — knew he didn’t have the four votes needed and backed away quietly, deferring the first reading on Dec. 11, which is Carollo’s farewell performance (and possibly Noriega’s swan song) before the new mayor and a new District 3 commissioner are sworn in. That means there will be a different commissioner on the dais for the second reading — remember, it needs four votes — and the very real possibility of a fresh mayoral veto.
The next mayor might not be as friendly to Noriega or this rushed waterfront swap as outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez, who needs a new side gig, too.
The real conundrum is this: Is this deal a smart exit from a bad lease? Or is the city about to sell oceanfront gold for pawnshop prices?
This curse on the island? Maybe it’s not the island. Maybe it’s on City Hall.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

The post Miami blinks on Watson Island deal — kicks can, saves face, still smells fishy appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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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.
Sí, it’s true. The DNC has decided it is “all in” for former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins in a municipal race that is officially nonpartisan but has now become a national proxy war between the MAGA machine and the MSNBC dream.
Somewhere, the old Miami-Dade Elections Department is weeping. The new supervisor of elections is making popcorn.
Let’s remember: Ladra already told you back in the general that this thing was turning into a hyper partisan tug of war. Politico has now finally reached the same conclusion — bless their hearts — reporting that the race has become “nationalized.”
Read related: Eileen Higgins heads into partisan Miami mayoral runoff with momentum
Yeah, we noticed. The minute Trump hit “post” on that endorsement for González, half of Miami screamed “¿Qué carajo?” and the other half immediately requested yard signs. So is it really a shock that the national Democrats — who usually treat Florida like a cursed amulet — suddenly want to play here?
Higgins said from Day 1 she’d be the Democrat in the race, even when there were 13 candidates and half of Coconut Grove was still working on their petitions. And that might have been the right message. Because the turnout among Democrats was 5.5% higher than Republican voters, according to data nerd Matthew Isbell, who runs MCI Maps and Data Consulting. But maybe that’s because Trump wasn’t on the ticket. Because last year, Republicans outperformed Democrats by 8%.
This big, fat, very public DNC bear hug the week before the runoff could help drive that turnout even bluer.
The DNC is rolling out a giant, bilingual “GOTV organizing blitz” with phone banks, volunteers from around the country, training sessions for boots on the ground — everything short of parachuting in Rachel Maddow to knock on doors in Shenandoah.
“While Higgins is running a campaign focused on lowering costs for Miami families, her opponent, Emilio Gonzalez, is a former Trump transition team staffer who supports Trump’s toxic agenda that is raising costs and ripping away health care from 1.5 million Floridians,” reads a statement from the DNC War Room.
“Gonzalez represents more of the same Republican aligned leadership that has failed Miami for nearly 30 years.”
Building Democratic power through the Southeast is a top priority for the DNC, particularly on the heels of 90% success rate in national races Nov. 4. That is why Chair Ken Martin announced a historic increase in the national investment in state parties, including $270,000 a year to traditionally GOP states through what it calls its “Red State Fund.” And it is why he visited Florida in March to campaign for Josh Weil in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, where Weil and fellow Democrat Gail Valimont in Florida’s 1st Congressional District overperformed 2024 margins by over double digits.
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
“When you organize everywhere, you can win anywhere — including here in Florida, where Democrats are fighting to flip Miami’s mayorship for the first time in nearly 30 years,” Martin said in a statement. “Between now and Election Day, the DNC is all-in to elect Eileen Higgins and ensure Miami families have a champion who is fighting for them, not Donald Trump.”
Ah, yes. Because that’s how the abuelas on Flagler like their mayoral contests: framed as a showdown between a local transit nerd and a former president with 91 indictments, a plane donated by Qatar and a golf cart.
Thanks, Washington.
Donna Deegan was elected the first woman mayor of Jacksonville in 2023.
National Democrats are treating this like a chance to prove they still have a pulse in Florida — which, to be fair, has been questionable since 2016. They see a chance to flip a mayor’s office that hasn’t gone blue in three decades and make history with the first woman to ever hold the job.
They see her as the Donna Deegan of Miami, pero with more cafecito and more corruption.
Of course the DNC also loves Higgins porque her campaign is being run by Christian Ulvert, who used to be the political director of the Florida Democratic Party. State and national Democrats love themselves some Christian Ulvert. They think he’s the Florida vote whisperer.
Ulvert says Team Eileen will “welcome all support,” which is consultant for: Yes, please keep dumping money and volunteers into my campaign. Gracias.
Read related: Emilio Gonzalez will ‘clean up’ Miami — but he was there when it got dirty
Meanwhile, Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” of González managed to do something unusual: annoy Miami Republicans. Not all of them — the county GOP chair practically did a conga line in response — but enough rank-and-file GOPers are whispering that Trump sticking his giant orange thumb on the scale wasn’t helpful.
The González camp says they never asked for Trump’s endorsement, but they are leaning hard into it anyway — like it’s a life raft. The retired Army colonel, who has the backing of a lot of our local law enforcement, thanked the POTUS on social media.
“Thank you President @realDonaldTrump, for your endorsement. Miami’s future is on the line, and your support sends a powerful message that our city deserves strong, common-sense leadership.” He also thanked Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez and Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar — two Republicans known for tossing the red meat — on subsequent posts.
González has also collected endorsements like Pokémon cards: Gov. Ron DeSantis,  Sens. Rick Scott, Ashley Moody, Ted Cruz and Byron Donalds. It’s basically the Avengers of Florida conservatism (plus Cruz) — if the Avengers fought mask mandates and drag queens.
Gonzalez has called Higgins a “soft socialist” — because she rides the bus voluntarily? — and has said that she will use the mayor’s office to oppose Donald Trump’s agenda. He said before the Nov. 4 election that the other choices were all “crooks or commies” and that he won’t let Miami turn into New York or Seattle or Portland. He told the Miami-Dade GOP that “we are all MAGA,” which is a bold claim considering that while Trump won Miami-Dade last year, he lost the city of Miami narrowly to Kamala Harris.
We are not all MAGA.
Both candidates swear they’re not running as partisans and will represent all Miamians. They have focused their campaign points on the things people care about — affordability, flooding, transportation, and housing.
Read related: Eileen Higgins: An engineer who wants to run Miami like a well-oiled machine
But try telling that to the DNC, which is salivating at the chance to notch a win in Florida, or to Trump, who sees González as the next MAGA mayor and a chance to flex in a county he believes he has single-handedly turned red.
This is no longer a Miami mayor’s race. This is a proxy battle in a national divorce.
And Ladra, sitting here with her cortadito, is just wondering whether all this outside meddling will turn off the independents, the moderates, and the Miamians who just want their garbage picked up on time.
The truth this race was winnable on good local politics — reform, transparency, bringing trust back to City Hall — until the national parties stuck their big, sweaty noses in.
Now? It’s anyone’s game. And Miami, as usual, is the playground.
You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
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Builders get a BOGO special and Miami gets… flooded
Miami commissioners are set to vote Thursday on yet another Damian Pardo special. The Miami commissioners has proposed a shiny new ordinance that would let developers double the allowable density in some of the most flood-prone, overdeveloped corners of the city — as long as they drop a little something into a new “Resilience Trust Fund.”
Because nothing says climate adaptation like building twice as much in an area already underwater.
The plan, which the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board already waved through in October, would let developers buy their way into supersized projects by paying into a city-managed fund for pump stations, seawalls, raised roads and other resiliency window dressing. Think of it as Miami’s first-ever Build-and-Flood program — the more you build, the more we promise to spend trying to keep it from flooding.
And of course, the first two “Resilience Fund Areas” just happen to be… both in Edgewater. You know, the neighborhood where a regular afternoon rain can stall your BMW for the day.We need more condo towers there.
Oh, and Watson Island, too. Because why stop at Edgewater when you can add incentives right where two mega-developments just happen to be waiting? It’s like playing a game of follow the bouncing bulldozers.
The proposal claims to be targeted at “high-demand areas,” but as usual, Miami’s definition of “targeted” is suspiciously specific. Both RFAs slice through Edgewater from the Julia Tuttle to NE 8th Street — an area already plastered with cranes and high-rise renderings.
Read related: Miami’s Watson Island liquidation sale to developers for lowball $25 million
Just last month, the Urban Development Review Board stamped its approval on a 47-story tower with nearly 500 apartments on Biscayne Boulevard. And Sam Nazarian’s crew is cooking up a branded condo tower down on 29th Street. Miami’s Edgewater is undergoing significant development with numerous residential, mixed-use, and commercial high-rise projects. Major developments include a large-scale Edgewater Collective project, the Braman Motors mixed use campus, the ELLE Residences and Edge House Miami — a 57-story monolith (rendering right) — all contributing already to the area’s transformation into a denser neighborhood. 
Now the city wants to sweeten the deal even more, with a zoning BOGO: Buy one density, get a second one free when you help pay for the pumps.
Developers can even get a 15% discount if they tug on their green cap and offer to do some of the infrastructure work themselves. What could possibly go wrong?
Even the chair of the city’s Climate Resilience Committee, Aaron DeMayo, couldn’t help pointing out the obvious last month. “Somewhat ironic that we’re incentivizing additional development capacity in an area that is already flooding significantly,” he is quoted as saying in the Coconut Grove Spotlight.
Somewhat ironic? It’s Miami. It’s perfectly on brand.
Still, the committee voted to support it. Because of course it did.
Neighbors and urbanists are warning that doubling density — especially in neighborhoods already bursting at the seams — will overwhelm Miami’s already-limping infrastructure and speed up gentrification. If history is a guide: sí, claro.
The ordinance also allows new RFAs to be created at any time by, you guessed it, another ordinance. In Miami language, that’s a standing invitation: If developers want a new hotspot, we’ll draw them a new map.
As usual, Pardo declined to talk about it. But a canned statement in his District 2 newsletter insisted the ordinance will “only apply to a portion of Edgewater.”
Sure. Today. But like every other “only here, for now” zoning gift, it can grow legs at any future meeting when nobody’s watching — or when the right lobbyist is. Las malas lenguas say city staffers have already said they plan to expand to the Transit Oriented Development overlays commissioners approved earlier this year that already jack up building heights and densities around rail corridors. Layer this onto that, and Miami’s development map is starting to look like SimCity played by a teenager with unlimited cheat codes.
Read related: Miami approves TSND zones to bring ‘affordable’ housing to transit hubs
Naturally, neighbors are concerned. A flurry of emails to the commissioner’s office was answered by his community liaison for Edgewater and Morningside, Bradley Mills, who sounded more like a lobbyist than a public servant.
“The proposed legislation…involves the creation of an Edgewater Resilience Trust Fund with the use of density bonuses. This legislation is the culmination of several meetings over many months and comes as a direct response to the request from Edgewater property owners and resident groups,” Mills wrote in an email Wednesday, adding that the climate resilience committee and the planning and zoning board both support the measure.
“The legislation does not double the density in the City of Miami. The double density is already in the city’s comprehensive plan and was adopted in 2017. Applicants can already achieve density increases through the City’s TDR and TDD programs and through our Public Benefits Program. Density can already be increased in certain transects across the city to the same threshold; this program merely offers an additional way to achieve the same density increases allowed in the Comprehensive Plan.”
So, nothing new to see here, folks. Just a little something extra.
Mills says the ordinance simply “unlocks a tool under the Miami 21 Zoning Code for the Edgewater area that builds infrastructure, provides home ownership opportunities, and funds public benefits important to the neighborhood.” There’s that lobbyist speak. He also raised the Live Local Act boogeyman saying it negates “these public benefit opportunities.
“In short, this legislation offers options for the Edgewater community that are important to the area and no other area.”
Not yet.
The commission will likely pass this on first reading — because they almost always do — and kick it to a second reading where developers will show up with glossy renderings and commissioners will congratulate themselves for “addressing climate resilience.”
Meanwhile Edgewater will still flood if someone sneezes on Biscayne Boulevard.
And Miamians will be left wondering: Are we really building resilience? Or are we building the problem faster than the pumps can catch up?
Ladra knows the answer. So do you. So does Pardo.
The city commission meeting starts at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be seen online on the city’s website and its YouTube channel. The full agenda can be viewed here.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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Rolando Escalona, who got into the runoff for the Miami District 3 seat with former Commissioner Frank Carollo, didn’t just get two new endorsements this week. He got two full-throated “por favor, anyone but a Carollo” testimonials wrapped in veteran creds and political déjà vu.
Both Rob Piper and Oscar Elio Alejandro — the two guys who finished right behind Escalona in the Nov. 4 free-for-all — have climbed aboard the rookie’s runoff campaign. And while they’re saying nice things about Escalona, make no mistake: These endorsements are really aimed squarely at the House of Carollo, where political dynasties go to fester.
Alejandro, who nabbed 12% of the vote, didn’t even try to sugarcoat it. He backed Escalona because he wants to “put an end to political dynasties controlling our local government.”
Translation: Miami has had enough of the Carollo brothers’ time-share on District 3.
He had even tried to sue to block Frank Carollo from the ballot because of the city charter amendment voters passed that implement lifetime term limits for anybody who has already served two terms in any seat. Frank Carollo was commissioner before his brother was, from 2009 to 2017. But a judge denied that motion last week. Frank Carollo stays on the ballot because it would disenfranchise the voters who chose him on Nov. 4.
Read related: Judge lets Frank Carollo stay on the ballot — for now — and voters cry foul
What about disenfranchising the voters who overwhelmingly approved the lifetime term limits with almost 80% of the vote. It’s possible that after almost two decades of one Carollo or the other haunting the dais, they may be ready to change the locks.
And then there’s Piper — a Marine Corps vet who once led a recall effort against big bro Joe Carollo and now gets to oppose Frank Carollo. That’s full-circle Miami politics, gente. Piper said voters spoke “loud and clear against recycled politicians.” Translation: He’s tired of reheated Carollo, too.
So, here we are, heading into a Dec. 9 runoff where Escalona — a restaurant manager turned political hopeful who worked his way from busboy to boss — is up against another carbon copy Miami career politician, complete with family franchise.
And now the two men who finished behind Escalona — who took 17% to Carollo’s 38% in the general — are saying he’s the guy to break the mold.
The candidate says he’s building a “coalition” for integrity, accountability and basic city services that actually work. Imagine that! He’s going to need boots on the ground because Frank Carollo is outraising and outspending him about 3 to 1, according to the last campaign finance reports, with transactions through Nov. 7.
He also keeps saying the election is “about people, not politics,” which is adorable in a place where politics is a full-contact sport often fought with subpoenas and secret recordings.
Read related: Miami voters sue to keep Frank Carollo off the runoff ballot after term-limit win
Still, his story resonates. Eleven years ago, he arrived from Cuba with nothing but ganas and worked his way up to managing 150 employees and earning a political science degree at FIU. Now he wants to overthrow the Carollo regime in Little Havana, East Shenandoah, West Brickell, Silver Bluff and parts of the Roads. Ambitious, sí. But not impossible.
And with Piper and Alejandro — both Democrats — now endorsing a Republican, in a supposedly “nonpartisan” Miami election, you can feel the anti-Carollo coalition forming like a tropical storm.
This isn’t just about Escalona gaining support. It’s about a district that is tired. Tired of drama. Tired of dynasty. Tired of the same last name on the ballot.
District 3 voters get another say on Dec. 9.
And if these endorsements mean anything, Ladra wouldn’t be surprised if what they say is: “Basta ya. Time for something — and someone — new.”

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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