On Tuesday, voters in Miami Beach will be deciding who sits in the mayor's seat and lifetime beach resident David Wieder thinks he can do a better job than the current mayor.
"I'm against more development, I'm against up-zoning anywhere in the city, we have tremendous congestion problems, we need new methods of rapid transit," the mayoral candidate said Friday.
Mayor Philip Levine is running a slick reelection campaign, with his commercials touting progress, from eliminating corruption to fixing infrastructure to dealing with massive floods. During Levine's tenure pumping stations have been installed in some of the low lying areas to help tackle the problem.
Levine, traveling and not available for an interview, recently said on NBC 6's "Impact with Jackie Nespral" that he addressed climate change before it was popular.
"Miami Beach is now becoming a model for sea level rise. We are not the only one experiencing, but we're one of the few cities that's actually taking action," Levine said.
A controversial political action committee connected to Levine raised more than $1 million from developers and city vendors.
"That's pay to play politics and I don't in any way do that, we have very small contributors, very grass roots campaign," Wieder said.
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To Wieder's criticisms, Levine, in a statement said: "Unlike my opponent who has yet to offer a vision for Miami Beach, I am focused on continuing the progress we’ve made in tackling critical issues like transit mobility and sea level rise."
Because there are only two candidates in the race a run-off election will not be needed. The person who receives 50 percent plus one vote will be the city's next mayor.
