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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a0339152e88e.image.png\")
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(Image via MDW Communications.)<\/p>\n
Higgins\u00a0unveiled the plan<\/a>\u00a0last month. It would go before voters if approved by the Miami City Commission on Thursday.<\/p>\n Plantation-based\u00a0MDW Communications<\/a>\u00a0surveyed 410 likely Miami Primary voters May 4-10 in English and Spanish. The poll was weighted by gender, race and ethnicity, party registration, and age to reflect likely 2026 Primary turnout.<\/p>\n It found 57% of voters initially supported the bond before hearing additional details about the proposal. About 21% opposed the plan, while the remaining 22% were undecided.<\/p>\n But support shot up to 67.5% after voters heard more about the plan, the city\u2019s aging emergency response infrastructure, projected improvements to emergency response times and what the survey described as a \u201cmodest cost to the typical household.\u201d<\/p>\n Opposition remained nearly unchanged at 21.9%, though the share of undecided voters fell to 10.6%.<\/p>\n A memo accompanying the survey said the measure achieved more than 60% support in all five City Commission districts and drew bipartisan backing across all party lines in Miami.<\/p>\n Higgins said in a statement that the poll shows Miami residents understand what\u2019s at risk and want to invest in infrastructure that safeguards their homes, families and neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cKeeping our community safe means making sure our first responders have the facilities, technology, and infrastructure they need to do their jobs effectively,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also means more local fire-rescue stations so response times meet national standards in every neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposed bond would fund projects including a modern police headquarters that would replace the existing 50-year-old one, a new 911 call center, a Category 5-ready emergency operations center and various modernization and expansion projects at neighborhood fire-rescue stations.<\/p>\n A City Commission vote on the bond proposal was\u00a0originally scheduled<\/a>\u00a0for April 23, but Higgins asked for the authorizing resolution to be\u00a0deferred three weeks<\/a>\u00a0following impassioned comments by residents and first responders.<\/p>\n Some residents voiced skepticism about the proposal\u2019s cost and whether city officials have provided enough accountability for past borrowing initiatives.<\/p>\n Several speakers pointed to Miami\u2019s\u00a0history of scandals<\/a>\u00a0and questioned whether the city should take on another $450 million in debt\u00a0before fully accounting<\/a>\u00a0for spending tied to the 2017 \u201cMiami Forever<\/a>\u201d bond, which funded flooding, parks and affordable housing projects.<\/p>\n Others questioned whether the proposal\u2019s price tag was justified.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, supporters \u2014 including police and fire rescue personnel \u2014 argued existing conditions are substandard and overdue for improvement.<\/p>\n Higgins said the bond package is intended to address long-standing infrastructure needs while upgrading disaster preparedness and emergency response capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Safe & Ready bond is about life-saving public safety, emergency preparedness, and delivering the infrastructure our growing city deserves,\u201d Higgins said. \u201cThis is a crisis \u2014 residents want a city government that solves long-ignored problems, invests responsibly, and keeps them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n MDW\u2019s survey had a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposal to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars for new emergency response infrastructure in Miami already has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[115227,3674,123,115225,23502,115226,115218,115223,115220,115219,125,124,115221,115217,115216,115224,115228,115222],"class_list":["post-268245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-450-million-miami-bond-proposal","tag-eileen-higgins","tag-miami","tag-miami-911-call-center-project","tag-miami-city-commission","tag-miami-disaster-preparedness-investment","tag-miami-emergency-infrastructure","tag-miami-emergency-response-infrastructure","tag-miami-fire-rescue-stations","tag-miami-general-obligation-bonds","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-police-headquarters-proposal","tag-miami-public-safety-bond","tag-miami-safe-ready-bond","tag-miami-voters-support-bond-measure","tag-polling-shows-support-for-miami-safe-and-ready-bond-initiative","tag-safe-ready-proposal-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}