The District 1 race for the city of Miami commission is getting more interesting every day.
Only hours after Ladra wrote that former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who helped Commissioner Joe Carollo in his comeback, had filed to run for the seat vacated by the termed-out Commissioner Willy Gort, a onetime aide and chief of staff to Commissioner Ken Russell filed to run.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few months,” said Eleazar Melendez, who most recently worked on the campaigns for gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine and former Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson — both of whom lost.
Melendez filed paperwork Jan. 18 indicating he opened a bank account to start fundraising.
The most interesting thing about this is not that it pits a known Democrat Party operative against a veteran GOP political gun. It’s not that Melendez would be the first Puerto Rican elected in Miami since Maurice Ferre. No. What’s most interesting about it is that Melendez and Diaz de la Portilla are neighbors.
Next door neighbors, to be exact.
Read related: Bank forecloses on ADLP, who ‘moves’ to run for Willy Gort seat
Melendez, 33, lives in the same building, on the same floor in unit 1802, the unit next door to where Alex DLP, 54, says he lives in unit 1801 at the Terrazas on SW South River Drive. “I’ve never seen him,” Melendez said. He has seen baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, twice — once in the lobby and once on their shared 18th floor hallway.
He move in in March, which would be about six months before ADLP registered to vote at the address.
“Living in the district, you see the condition of the infrastructure and the services provided versus Ken Russell’s area, which is wealthier. It’s night and day,” Melendez said. “I want the people here to understand these are basic things that we deserve.”
The Miami Freedom Park measure to turn the Mel Reese golf course into a mega retail complex with a soccer stadium passed in District 1 by two thirds, and Melendez said he has to support the people’s will.
“But we need to make sure it’s a good deal, that it’s not a giveaway,” he said, adding that he would like to see some kind of technology incubator incorporated.
Read related: Miami Commission should kick no-bid soccer shopping center out of Melreese
He is optimistic about his chances given the election last year of Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, an underdog who beat two big Cuban American veteran politicians, including ADLP in an overlap district.
“That idea in Miami that you have to vote for a Cuban politico so he can understand your issues, that has been changing,” Melendez said. “Ten months ago, there was a special election here, including areas in this district, and none of the Cuban-Americans running won. They lost against a liberal democrat.”
The other candidates in this race, so far, include Miguel Gabela, right, who came within 10 points of beating Gort last time and has loaned himself $100,000, Horacio Aguirre, who appears to have some of the establishment support, Michael Hepburn, who came in last in the Democratic primary for the 27th Congressional district with 6% of the August vote, and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.

Read Full Story

Hey! Alex Diaz de la Portilla! You just lost two elections, one for Senate and one for county commission, and the Little Havana house you were born in was foreclosed on last week by the bank, which is putting it up for sale because you owe them $638,000. What are you going to do next?
Why, run for city commission, of course!
Four days after Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch Mortgage foreclosed Thursday on his house at 1519 SW 19th Street, Diaz de la Portilla — a political consultant who helped Miami Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo get elected in 2017 — filed paperwork on Monday to run for the seat that will be vacated by Willy Gort this November.
Read related: After loss in Senate, Miami-Dade races, Alex DLP may try Miami
The final judgement on foreclosure is against both him and his ex-wife Claudia Davant, who is also on the hook for the mortgage they apparently got when they were married. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Beatrice Butchko gave them until May 13 to pay the debt or the house will be sold at auction to the highest bidder for cash toward that debt.
Which means Claudia could still be on the hook for the balance.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if ADLP’s poor and mistreated parents and his often neglected dogs Elvis and Priscilla are going to go live in Coral Gables with his big brother, former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, whose campaign for re-election Alex lost in 2016. They’d be much less comfortable in Alex DLP’s new home (on paper), a 967-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 18th floor of the Terrazas Riverpark Village Condo, 1861 NW S River Dr. Especially since his brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, a former School Board member and state rep, is also registered to vote at the riverfront flat; although it’s hard to believe these two could live together.
ADLP’s voter’s registration changed on Sept. 15, which gives him the necessary year he needs before qualifying, which ends this Sept. 21. Ladra reported it in October, predicting that he would run for this very seat.
But he sure is a hypocrite. Because after Carollo’s victory, Diaz de la Portilla went on a crazy rant on the Nextdoor social site, calling Alfie Leon an “interloper” because he had only lived in Little Havana for a year before he almost beat Carollo for Miami City Commission. I guess it’s okay for him to be an interloper himself.
Read related: ADLP hit by attacks in all negative Senate 40 GOP primary campaign
This will be ADLP’s fourth attempt to return to public office, not his third, as most media outlets are reporting. They mention the run for commission last year, where he came in third, and the run for Senate in Westchester/East Kendall, where he lost the primary to State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (who then lost to Democrat Annette Taddeo) despite the help from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and family (that’s CJ Gimenez to his right during early voting in the pic). That race was brutal with negative attacks against him, including one that disclosed his relationship with CJ’s wife, Tania Cruz, and how they cozied up in a Boston hotel room, chain smoking in a non-smoking room late one night and getting belligerent with police after they were called to throw them out.
But the mainstream media forgot his first loss, the run for state rep 112 in his real neighborhood in 2012, which he lost against an up and coming politician named Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is now a state senator. That was gut wrenching and he has struggled to recover from it since.
The Dean, as Ladra likes to call him because he loves to teach — perhaps he should do that and stop running for office — joins four other candidates who have already opened campaign accounts for the District 1 race: Horacio S. Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission; Michael Hepburn, a former University of Miami academic adviser who ran in the Democratic primary for Florida’s 27th Congressional District; Miguel Angel Gabela, a businessman who has twice lost to Gort in past elections but came close once; and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.
Gabela, who is the clear front runner of the bunch and will likely end up in a runoff if ADLP pulls off anything at all, thinks he has Carollo’s support. He told Ladra Thursday that the commissioner told him so as recently as two weeks ago. “I consider him to be a friend,” Gabela said, adding that ADLP “is lying to people con el lio de Carollo.”
Read related: Willy Gort challenger Mike Gabela runs on one issue: Crime
But remember, this is a man who is known for stabbing folks in the back. Carollo did it with Maurice Ferre, at a press conference where he was supposed to endorse him for mayor  and instead turned against him, and he did it again last year, telling former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro that he would support his wife in the county race and then helping ADLP.
Besides, there is still Paella Gate. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has not finished their investigation of Carollo using public money and his taxpayer paid staff to hold Paella parties for ADLP at senior public housing locations during that special election. Carollo can’t turn on ADLP yet, while he could still provide state’s evidence.
Either way, Gabela — who has been campaigning since June and has already run in the same district twice — is confident that his neighbors will realize that Diaz de la Portilla is a narcissistic “career politician” carpetbagger.
“He’s running because he doesn’t have a job,” said Gabela, who has lived in the district for 30 years. “If there’s a dog catcher election, he’ll run for it because he doesn’t care about the people.”
True: Less than a year ago, ADLP was knocking on doors in Westchester and telling voters there that he would represent them in Tallahassee. He abandoned them for the voters of county commission District 5.
“Y a estas alturas he’s interested in this district? You really have to be an ignoramus to believe it,” Gabela said.
Yeah. But, unfortunately, a lot of ignoramuses apparently vote.

Read Full Story

Of course it’s a mega retail shopping complex. You didn’t think it would be just a stadium, did ya? For soccer? Where’s the fun (read: money) in that?
Well kept secret details of the long-awaited plan to turn Melreese Golf Course, the only golf course owned by the city of Miami and a historic gem, into a mega retail destination with shops, offices and restaurants, plus a 700-room hotel, have come out only in recent days, since the item is coming before the Miami Commission Thursday. And people are actually surprised that only a tiny, little bit of the plan includes a 25,000-seat soccer stadium?
This ain’t about a public venue for Kendall families to go to major league soccer games, something we all want. This is about a sweetheart deal public land grab. This is so David Beckham and his new Miami partners, which include Jorge Mas and the Mas family, turn it into a $1 billion, 73-acre complex with 600,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 400,000 square feet of office space and at least 3,700 parking spaces that have a business plan all of their own.
Read related: Lawsuit to shed light on soccer stadium deal, land taken by eminent domain
It’s bigger than Brickell City Center and might have once been deemed the largest shopping complex ever imagined, except for that mega mall in Northwest Dade.
Except that this is smack in the middle of our gridlocked Miami-Dade, right next to Miami International Airport.
That’s only the first reason not to entertain this silly idea — at least for now. Until we have some of the stupid smart plan solutions in place, there is no reason to add this many trips to our already busy 37th Avenue.
But there are other reasons. How about that it’s a no-bid deal given to a bunch of insiders with connections to City Hall? How about the fact that the details about the shopping center on steroids was kept secret from everybody until the last minute? Even Beckham and co — who were just kidding with their plan to build the stadium in Overtown — know it’s a tough sell.
What else do we still not know?
Proponents will say that this is an economic win with a guaranteed paltry $3.5 million a year in rent to the city and $44 million or so a year in tax revenue. All they want is the chance to bring this to voters.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez’s own land for/near new soccer stadium
But that’s not entirely honest. All they really want is a chance to bring a slick, shiny multi-million dollar campaign to convince voters that this is in their best interest. They are going to use words like Freedom to tug at the heart strings and might even conjure Cuban exile royalty ghosts and what their wishes might have been if he was alive today. They are going to go all out, balls to the wall. If you think the FIU campaign to get the Youth Fair land lease referendum passed was something special, get ready for the campaign of your lives.
To them, “taking it to the voters” is basically a yes.
Because the opposition will not have the money that the developers making millions on this sweetheart real estate deal have, so there won’t be a slick campaign for the no vote. That will all be grassroots. And, probably, hopefully, viral. But still, it will be an uphill battle against the better funded side.
The city of Miami is selling itself and its citizens cheap if it allows this to even go to a public vote, knowing full well what that means. This is nothing more than a no-bid contract for a bunch of political insiders who are trying to take advantage of us. The way the development is unfolding, the land is worth way more than $4 or $5 million a year. Which is why some people have urged the commission to open the golf course up to bids — make it a competitive process and see what others might pay to do the same thing.
Read related: King Petty Carlos Gimenez gets goofy over soccer stadium
Beckham et al don’t want that. Because they can’t compete. That’s why they’re flying in all kinds of cheerleaders today and have to plan a tailgate party by soccer fans to try to sway the commission.
Don’t believe the hype. Take a step back and let’s look at this with time and more input from the community.
Ladra has heard that two of the five commissioners are already against the plan. That includes Willy Gort, whose district includes Melreese. Here’s hoping that third vote is off the fence today on the right side.
This is not the plan to take to voters if they ever want to convince us to do anything with public land for a stadium. Keyword: Stadium.

Read Full Story

Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell was not able to get even a second on his motion to fire City Attorney Victoria Mendez Thursday.

Russell had made the move to terminate Mendez because he said she intentionally withheld emails that he had asked her for. He said the 26 emails not provided to him painted a different picture than the ones he got when he made the same request of IT — which was that Mendez was helping a developer get approval for a lot split in Coconut Grove to build five houses on one property. He said he lost trust in the city attorney.

But as if that wasn’t enough, he also mentioned another instance in which Mendez made him uncomfortable — when she advised him to get a cell phone services that would help him avoid having to make his text messages public.

“My very first week in office, in my very first meeting with Ms. Mendez, her first advice to me was which phone company I should use because it erases your text messages sooner,” Russell said at the meeting.

“It’s Sprint by the way.

“And my heart sank because this is not what I wanted to hear from the city attorney,” said Russell, who added that he stuck with AT&T.

Which made Ladra wonder who uses Sprint. So I asked. And the answer is nobody. Unless Commissioner Frank Carollo uses the service provider, because he was the only one that couldn’t be reached over the weekend.

Commissioners Willy Gort, Keon Hardemon and Francis Suarez each said they, too, use AT&T.

Certainly not what Ladra expected.

It seems odd that everybody would ignore the city attorney’s advice, but Suarez — who has been critical of Mendez on other professional issues — also said that the city attorney had never advised him to use a particular cell phone company.

“She’s never said anything remotely similar to me like that,” he said.

He wouldn’t go as far as calling Russell a liar.

“I don’t think he’s a dishonest person. I also don’t think she’s a dishonest person. We get told a lot of things,” Suarez said.

And since he uses AT&T, whatever he gets told in text, stays put for longer.