The two remaining candidates for the City of Miami mayoral race traded insights into how they would tackle some of the city’s most pressing problems in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade last Wednesday night in Little Havana.
Candidate Eileen Higgins took the largest share of votes in the Nov. 4 mayoral election, pulling in nearly 36% of the votes amid 13 candidates. Candidate Emilio Gonzalez came in second place, with 19.5% of the votes, putting him in line for the runoff on Dec. 9.
Affordability and permitting
The evening began with frank talk about affordability issues, as the city has repeatedly been named one of the most unaffordable places in the entire nation in recent years.
Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner until two weeks ago, said she would tackle affordability by overhauling the city’s permitting system. She compared the city’s permitting to the county’s permitting for low-income housing for seniors projects…