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 For
Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, the refrain from voters was:
Four more years.
Spence-Jones,
41, easily won a second term to represent voters in the city’s District 5. She
received 82.71 percent of the vote, the highest percentage among candidates for
seats on the Miami City Commission. She received 3,947 votes.
In
the race for Miami mayor, City Commissioner Tomas Regalado handily defeated
fellow Commissioner Joe Sanchez. Regalado will succeed Mayor Manny Diaz, who
could not run again because of term limits.
Spence-Jones,
first elected to the commission in 2005, ran against David Chiverton, the chief
executive officer of Miami/Miami-Dade Weed and Seed, and Jeff Torain, vice
president and chief operating officer at Deco International Security
Corporation in Miami Beach.
Chiverton
received 10.04 percent, with 479 votes. Torain received 7.25 percent, with 346
votes.
District
5 includes Overtown, Lemon City, Model City, Buena Vista, Spring Garden, Little
Haiti, Wynwood and Liberty City. Almost 4,800 district voters made their
choices, not only on Election Day, but also through absentee ballots and early
voting.
Across
Miami-Dade County, where elections were taking place in Miami, Hialeah, Miami
Beach and Homestead, voter turnout exceeded 20 percent.
On
Election Day, different issues took priority across District 5. While
Spence-Jones’ margin of victory was very large, voters are challenging her to
address more pressing matters during her second term.
“What
we’ve mostly been talking to voters about is the renter issue,” said Shannan
Reaze, organizer of the Renter Majority Project for Power U Center for Social
Change in Overtown. She said about 40,000 people rent residences in the
district, and that they pay the majority of district taxes.
Tuesday,
Reaze stopped at various polling places in the district to talk to voters.
“Folks
are out. Folks are feeling energized [to vote],” she said. “There’s no
jobs….The rent is too darn high. Folks are, ‘That’s what we need to be dealing
with.’”
Reaze
said voters hope Spence-Jones focuses on “what does it mean to actually have
good housing….How is the city protecting renters during this crisis?”
In
Liberty City, Alison Austin, chief executive officer of the Belafonte Tacolcy
Center, had a different perspective. The center is a non-profit facility for
children and families.
“There
doesn’t seem to be a lot of energy around the election, and there certainly
hasn’t been a lot of outreach from either of the mayoral candidates,” she said.
Austin
said the reaction was better from District 5 candidates.
“All
three of them have at least recognized the constituents that Tacolcy serves and
have been through here,” she said. But she added that Liberty City had seen
little economic or other progress.
Spence-Jones
will also need to pay more attention to Little Haiti, Fred St. Amand believes.
“The
business people are also complaining,” said St. Amand, chairman of Citizens on
Patrol and a member of the Civilian Investigative Panel. “They said, ‘Where is
the commissioner in District 5?’….Who are we? Are we invisible?”
All
three candidates generally agreed on many of the district’s high-priority
issues, including community improvements and fighting crime. The candidates’
biggest difference was on the issue of financing for the Florida Marlins
ballpark project. Spence-Jones voted to approve it; Chiverton and Torain
opposed it.
For
full election results, visit http://www.miamidade.gov/elections/home.asp.
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and the people that gave there life for that flag.
what is the differents between NAACP nd the panther movment not a thing they are just a bunch of racist's them self's
and as for banning the flag from the parade well you all should be ashamed of your self's take pride in your heritage and listen to public opinion not just a bunch of biggots and racist officials.
here in england we have lost the right to fly the union jack flag.
cos it might offend some immigrant racist.
even i know that against popular opinion the flag was and is not all about racisom read ya history books....