MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and her predecessor Rep. Carlos Gimenez were caught in a blaming game about the troubling condition of the Miami International Airport.
After Levine Cava said she “saw the problems” at MIA after she became Miami-Dade’s first woman to serve as mayor in 2020, Gimenez said he perceived it as a personal attack.
“She said it was a decade-worth of neglect from previous administrations and I just so happen to be the previous administration,” Gimenez said.
Levine Cava said $7 billion in capital improvements and $1.7 billion in maintenance upgrades are pending to solve the maintenance problems at MIA.
“Unfortunately this airport did not have that level of investment for too many years,” Levine Cava said.
Gimenez said the previous administrations invested billions of dollars in MIA, and the projects included the south terminal, the north terminal, and the expansion of runways.
“All of that was done before me, during me, but I’m not so sure after me,” Gimenez said adding that his administration did not neglect MIA. “Was it all perfect, no! But to say that we somehow neglected it, that’s ludicrous.”
Levine Cava said the work at the terminals and parking garages was a top priority for her administration and the Skytrain, which hasn’t been in service since September, should be back online by April.
“It took us two years to change out the contract and get a contract that could work weekends 24/7 to move forward aggressively,” Levine Cava said later adding, “We are within industry norms on the number of elevators out of service, which is about 8% of the total.”
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