Miami-Dade County approves Donald J. Trump Avenue, with help from Democrats

Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald on Dec 3, 2024

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MIAMI — Miami-Dade will honor President-elect Donald J. Trump by adding his name to an avenue in Hialeah, a tribute that Democratic members of the county board declined to block.

The County Commission voted 9-1 on Tuesday to approve Hialeah’s request for county recognition of the city adding Trump’s name to Palm Avenue.

Democrats on the County Commission could have blocked Tuesday’s approval because Democratic commissioners hold seven of the officially nonpartisan board’s 13 seats. But only one chose to vote against: Marleine Bastien, a Haitian American who represents areas in northern Miami and nearby communities.

“I respect the fact that President Trump won the popular vote, the Electoral College and Miami-Dade County,” Bastien said in a statement after the vote. “However, his victory does not erase the collective trauma that immigrants and citizens alike felt during this election cycle.”

She pointed to “falsehoods about Haitians eating cats and dogs in Ohio” and “derogatory comments about Haiti, Mexico, and some African countries in the past.”

According to the commission clerk, four Democrats voted for the renaming: Oliver Gilbert, Danielle Cohen Higgins, Kionne McGhee and Micky Steinberg, who were joined by five Republicans: Chair Anthony Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Bermudez, Raquel Regalado, Roberto Rodriguez and the item’s sponsor, Kevin Cabrera.

Cohen Higgins and Steinberg were not at their seats for the vote, but a clerk said the commissioners were nearby and voted yes on the measure that passed the Trump Avenue item. Because no commissioner requested a separate vote, the Trump Avenue item passed with other uncontested items on the agenda. Bastien asked to have her no vote recorded solely on the Trump Avenue legislation rather than the slate of uncontested items as a whole.

A fifth Democrat, Eileen Higgins, was recorded as missing the vote on the uncontested items but returned for the rest of the meeting. A sixth Democrat, Keon Hardemon, was not at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, and a Republican commissioner, René Garcia, was absent.

Hialeah — which Trump won by 53 points in November— voted to add Trump’s name to Palm Avenue last year during the presidential campaign. The city waited until after the election to request the county approval needed to give the new “Trump Avenue” name more prominence.

With the county vote, Hialeah can hang “President Donald J. Trump Avenue” signs on county infrastructure, including under Miami-Dade traffic lights along the city-maintained roadway.

Cabrera, a Republican who hopes to land a position with the second Trump administration, said before the meeting that the renaming legislation shouldn’t be controversial because other politicians get street namings, too.

The County Commission granted a request from Miami Gardens in 2016 to recognize “President Barack and Michelle Obama Boulevard” in that Democratic city, which Harris won by 51 points, and commissioners on Tuesday passed without debate legislation urging Florida to recognize a Democratic congresswoman from Miami-Dade, Rep. Frederica Wilson, with her name on a state-maintained road in Miami Gardens, too.

Trump’s political standing in Miami-Dade has never been stronger. While he lost the longtime Democratic stronghold in 2016 and 2020, he won Miami-Dade by 11 points in November. While President Joe Biden won all seven of the commission districts held by Democrats in 2020, Vice President Kamala Harris only won three of the Democratic districts in 2024.

Commission rules require background reports for people nominated for street renamings, but the board waived that requirement for Trump. That meant no report from commission auditors outlining the president-elect’s criminal conviction in New York earlier in the year on charges related to hush-money allegations. Cabrera’s legislation included the waiver, which the commission approved in voting for the item.

In a statement after the vote, Cabrera said: “President Donald J. Trump Avenue is a meaningful tribute to Miami-Dade’s values of freedom and opportunity, reflecting a community that appreciates strong leadership.”