Miami’s Mamdani? Higgins’ Transit-Housing Vision Sparks Debate in Mayoral Runoff

As Miami heads toward its December mayoral runoff, a once-technical zoning concept — the Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) — has emerged as a defining fault line between candidates. 

The RTZ places land near rail stations under county zoning control, often allowing significantly taller and denser construction than surrounding neighborhoods. With transit corridors reshaping Miami’s skyline, the question of who benefits most — residents or developers — has become central to the race.

No candidate has tied herself more closely to transit-linked development than Eileen Higgins, who frames the housing crisis around a need for density near transit. On the Because Miami podcast, she was explicit:

“I will never ever believe we should have low density near a transit station… In order to get our housing affordability crisis [solved], we do have to build.”

She also argued that Miami-Dade is dramatically undersupplied:

“…this county is almost 300,000 units short of housing.”

Though they come from different political traditions, Higgins’ transit-driven growth philosophy closely mirrors the TOD (transit-oriented development) approach championed by New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, one of the country’s best-known proponents of building dense, mixed-income housing around transit.

Mamdani has publicly advocated for increasing density near subway stations to expand housing supply and reduce reliance on cars — a platform widely covered and summarized in housing policy analysis.

Similarly, Higgins argues that affordability requires building more housing near transit, making almost the exact same case but through Miami-Dade’s unique RTZ system. 

While Mamdani’s model emphasizes deep affordability and tenant protections, and Higgins’ model relies on incentive zoning, both share the foundational principle that transportation infrastructure should anchor housing strategy. In short, both believe major cities must cluster more people around transit to solve affordability and mobility crises.

Her record reflects this philosophy. In 2025, Higgins sponsored an ordinance to expand the Metromover subzone of the Rapid Transit Zone to include additional privately owned property in the Brickell area, placing those parcels under Miami-Dade County’s zoning jurisdiction. Her campaign highlights nearly 7,000 affordable and workforce units she says she helped facilitate while on the county commission.

On permitting delays — another central theme of her campaign — Higgins again cited her own experience on Because Miami:

“I was able to permit a twelve-story affordable housing building… in 107 days,” she said of a county project, while a comparable city project took 15 months. “Time keeps people out of housing.”

But critics say the RTZ’s affordability framework — which trades density for a small number of discounted units — is a structural giveaway to developers. Statewide, Florida’s Live Local Act has been criticized for enabling luxury towers with minimal affordable units, and many Miami activists see RTZ operating similarly.

One of the loudest critics is longtime neighborhood advocate Bob Powers, who said Miami’s entire “affordable” pipeline is structured to benefit builders, not lower income residents.

“It’s the fakeness of all this so-called affordable housing,” he said. “They’re up for 10 or 15 years, and then they’re all remodeled and go right to current rent amounts… Most people living there now could never afford to live in it five years from now.”

RTZ-enabled projects have drawn neighborhood and municipal pushback. Around the Vizcaya Metrorail Station, residents and commentators have argued that proposed transit-area upzoning is out of scale with nearby single-family neighborhoods. Officials in Miami and Coral Gables have likewise objected that RTZ rules allow the county to bypass city zoning and design review, shifting control over height and density from municipalities to Miami-Dade County.

Local criticism of Higgins extends beyond policy. Multiple neighborhood leaders have complained that she seems closely aligned with land-use attorneys and unresponsive to residents. Powers described a pattern:

“Everybody in the Upper East Side has called this woman. Nobody’s gotten a return phone call. Not nobody.”

He went further, criticizing her fundraising choices:

“She went to a fundraiser… that was every land-use attorney in the City of Miami — and this person doesn’t even need more money. Like why would you do that?”

This perception has fueled commentary portraying Higgins as aligned with development interests, including a Political Cortadito column branding her a “developer darling”.

Her opponent, Emilio González — a former City Manager of Miami and retired U.S. Army Colonel — is campaigning on a sharply different message. He emphasizes cleaning up corruption, restoring competence and trust in city government, and launching a deregulation/streamlining initiative to overhaul permitting and licensing so that residents and small businesses are treated fairly rather than facing politically-influenced decisions.”

González also gained early traction by suing Miami commissioners after they attempted to delay the 2025 election — a move that was ultimately reversed after legal action. His policy platform centers on fiscal discipline and relief for homeowners — including eliminating property taxes on homesteaded homes as outlined in his affordability agenda — rather than expanding zoning incentives.

The contrast between the candidates is stark. Higgins embraces transit-linked density, aggressive RTZ expansion, and rapid construction to address Miami’s housing pressures. González touts a governance-first framework focused on accountability and consistency, with skepticism toward developer-driven models.

Powers’ blunt summary captures the broader frustration many residents feel:

“If you made this up and put it in a book, nobody would believe it… That’s Miami politics.”