The Miami-Dade County commissioner is pushing a reform agenda in her bid to become Miami’s next mayor.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins says Coconut Grove residents should support her for mayor if they want to bring trust and efficiency back to City Hall.
Higgins, who was re-elected as the county’s District 5 commissioner in 2024, opened a campaign account to run for Miami mayor on April 2.
Although much of her district falls within the city, Higgins says she would be more effective at pushing her reform agenda as Miami’s top elected official instead of serving as one of 13 county commissioners.
“I am a Miami resident. I live in the city. I love the city. That is why I am running for mayor. I want our city government to get back to working for the residents. To get things done,” she said. Higgins, 60, is a resident of downtown Miami.
Higgins says she can use her seven years of experience at the county and her background as an engineer to effect change, despite the limited powers of Miami’s mayor. As mayor, Higgins would have veto power, but not a vote on the commission.
“I have proven on the county commission that I can lead with integrity,” Higgins said. “My goal is to restore trust in City Hall by delivering results for its residents. That is what I intend to do every day when I am mayor.”
Born in Ohio and raised in New Mexico, Higgins worked as an engineer in a manufacturing plant after graduating from the University of New Mexico, according to her county bio.
She became a marketing executive for corporate brands after receiving an MBA from Cornell University, and went on to serve as a Peace Corps director in Belize. Between 2009 and 2012 Higgins was a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.
Besides Higgins, six other people have filed to replace term-limited Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Among them is former Miami District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell, (who has so far raised $52,972) and former City Manager Emilio T. Gonzlez (who registered his own campaign account on April 9).
And while they have not filed as of yet, former Miami District 1 Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and current District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo are reportedly considering running for mayor in the November 4 election.
Higgins has not yet reported any contributions in her campaign account. Still, she has access to about $480,000 in funds from Rebranding Politics, a political committee run by Higgins’ campaign manager, Christian Ulvert.
And while Higgins’ commission district doesn’t include Coconut Grove, she said it does incorporate a third of the City of Miami and covers several single-family neighborhoods that “have a lot in common with the Grove,” including parts of South Beach, Shenandoah, The Roads, and Silver Bluff.
“Those folks want to feel safe by having appropriate police and fire response from the city. They want drainage projects so their streets are not flooding. And they want their tree canopy maintained,” she said.
Trees and Crosswalks
Compared to other major cities, Miami is “at the bottom of the list” when it comes to both park space and tree canopy, Higgins said. As mayor, Higgins said she will make sure there are proper protections for trees, speed up permitting for tree plantings, and even create a proper tree trust fund.
“There are neighborhoods that have a lovely tree canopy like Coconut Grove, but there are other neighborhoods like Little Havana where the tree canopy is very small,” she said. “We are facing a period where heat is going to be worse than it is now. And trees are part of that solution. Trees are part of what keeps us cool.”
Pedestrian safety is top issue for Higgins as well. She noted that despite new developments in Coconut Grove, there has not been a lot of upgrades to the area’s crosswalk infrastructure.
As a county commissioner, Higgins said she spearheaded efforts to create more crosswalks in Brickell and protected bike lanes along the Venetian Causeway.
Similar bike lanes are slated to appear in The Roads, she added, and she can use her experiences to push for protected bike lanes in Coconut Grove and along the Commodore Trail.
“It’s very important, if we can, to make sure there’s a place for walkers and there is a place for cyclists,” Higgins said.
Development
Higgins is a proponent of Miami-Dade’s rapid transit zone code, which allows extra height and density near county-owned Metrorail stations, especially if those projects include some workforce and affordable housing.
Although projects like the proposed 20-story Gallery in the Grove highrise at Douglas Road and Day Avenue are opposed by some residents for being out of scale, Higgins said mixed-income projects near transit hubs reduce the cost of living in a region where housing and transportation costs are rising. In addition, Higgins asserts that building near transit stations encourages the use of mass transit, which helps to ease traffic.
“You are housing people, not creating traffic, [and] solving a real societal issue,” she said. “The people’s land must be used for the people’s purpose, and the top people’s purpose is housing, and we have to be creative about it and innovative about it.”
As for the future of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, that “issue has been debated, litigated, and… the decision has been made,” Higgins said. The county is now pursuing its plans to demolish a portion of the landmark theater and transform it into a commercial plaza with a smaller 300-seat theater.
If elected, Higgins said she would seek to preserve as much of the playhouse’s “unique and beautiful façade” as possible. But she also said the county’s redevelopment plans for the playhouse will revitalize a place that has been empty for 20 years.
“When the playhouse reopens, it is going to bring a beautiful space for the arts that matches the beauty of the neighborhood,” she said.
Reforms and Engagement
Higgins also said she is running for mayor to reform how Miami operates by fixing its cumbersome bureaucracy. It currently can take about a year for homeowners to obtain needed permits for home improvements, for developers to break ground on new affordable housing projects, or for business owners to open shop. In some instances, restaurants and shops went out of business before they even opened because the permitting process took so long, Higgins said.
If elected, Higgins said she would do a thorough review of the city’s permitting process within her first 90 days. To assist, Higgins would convene a group of entrepreneurs who opened their businesses in the last 45 days to get a “deep dive of all their experiences: the good, the bad, the challenging, and put forward a blueprint on how we can cut unnecessary bureaucracy.”
Listening to residents and stakeholders will be how she intends to improve other aspects of Miami government, she added.
“We need to have conversations with residents about reforms to City Hall that bring power to the people and renewed accountability,” Higgins said.
Case in point, Higgins said it is “absolutely worth having a discussion” on increasing the number of seats on the City Commission from its present five to seven or nine to make sure neighborhoods such as Coconut Grove are properly represented.
Higgins also said she is “happy to support” Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo’s proposed lifetime term-limit charter amendment if it is supported by voters, too.
The initiative, which is now before the City Commission, would bar anyone elected or appointed two times to the office of mayor or the commission from serving in that capacity again. If passed by voters, the measure would apply retroactively.
Pardo’s proposal has been criticized by Carollo (who has served two terms as commissioner and was mayor for two terms in the late 1990s and early 2000s), but Higgins said term limits allow for “new ideas and experiences.”
“Miami Beach passed this reform [lifetime term limits] many years ago, and they seem to be able to function just fine,” Higgins said, “[And] we know it works well at the level of president. [There is] a limit of two terms, and we move on.”
As Higgins pursues her candidacy, under the state’s resign-to-run law, she will have to submit her resignation as county commissioner at least ten days prior to September 5, the start of the city’s qualifying period. (The resignation can be effective the first day the new mayor takes office.)
