Miami’s newest city commissioner, Rolando Escalona, has spent his first months in office sprinting to restore both pride and foot traffic on Little Havana’s iconic Calle Ocho. His early agenda mixes hands-on cleanups and zoning proposals with a push to return cultural programming and building management to local control.
Escalona, who won the District 3 runoff on Dec. 9, 2025, represents Little Havana, Shenandoah and parts of Brickell, and campaigned as a political newcomer promising neighborhood cleanup and economic revival, according to the City of Miami. Since taking office, he has treated neighborhood beautification and cultural programming as core priorities rather than side projects.
What Escalona Is Proposing
In recent weeks Escalona has rolled out a multi-pronged plan to “beautify” Calle Ocho. That plan includes buying a fleet of trucks dedicated to trash rounds, proposing façade-repair grants for homeowners, and pushing a zoning overlay designed to keep new development in scale with the existing neighborhood.
At a Feb. 12 meeting, commissioners approved a resolution he sponsored to begin the process of creating a Calle Ocho Business Improvement District that would fund extra cleaning, security and marketing. The city administration is now preparing the documentation needed to formally establish a BID, and Escalona told WLRN that “I’m gonna bring back that pride that people should have of living not only in Little Havana, but in District 3 and also in the city of Miami.”
Culture And Control
One of Escalona’s first formal moves was to return management of the historic Tower Theater to Miami Dade College. That change, approved at a commission meeting in early January, drew both cheers and criticism. Business owners and neighbors welcomed the shift, while some local actors argued that programming decisions should include community input, according to the Miami New Times…