Ay, Damian. ¿Que te pasó?
The progressive darling of District 2 — the man who ran on transparency, accountability, and standing up to the political establishment — has started to look a lot like, well, the political establishment. And people are noticing. Loudly.
When Commissioner Damian Pardo was elected in a historic victory almost two years ago, becoming the city’s first openly gay commissioner — which seems like such a nostalgic notation nowadays — over a much better funded, establishment-backed, incumbent-like candidate, he seemed like a breath of fresh air. People thought that sunlight was coming into a dark place.
But he was apparently full of hot air and has seemingly closed the blinds at City Hall.
He said he would bring reform, public engagement, an end to backroom deals. But he’s just brought more of the same.
Okay, he hasn’t been all bad. Pardo helped get rid of former City Attorney Tricky Vicky Mendez and voted against the $10M giveaway to the Miami Freedom Park developers in February. But he has been an enormous disappointment to a lot of people 
who still can’t believe this is the man they supported in 2023, and he’s been on the wrong side of the vote or issue more times than not.
Let’s start with the big one: Pardo sponsored the ordinance to cancel the 2025 mayoral election and push it to 2026, effectively extending everyone’s term by a year, including current Mayor Francis Suarez — the same guy Pardo asked to resign in 2023. Now, he’s carrying the mayor’s water. It was a move that stank of political payoff, not people power. And the worst part? He did it with a straight face while calling it a “cost-saving measure.”
He actually keeps saying that the election wasn’t cancelled — because there are a couple of ballot questions. The election for mayor and two commission seats was definitely cancelled. But this is how Pardo speaks these days. All politician, no activist.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
Come on, Damian. Miami’s voters aren’t stupid. We know the cost of democracy — and it’s a lot higher when you decide it’s too inconvenient to hold an election.
Then there’s the Olympia Theater deal. You’d think the guy who won in large part thanks to preservationists, urbanists, and civic watchdogs would have raised a red flag or two when the city tried to quietly sell off a historic landmark to a charter school for $10. But nope. Pardo didn’t only back the deal, he praised it. He practically lobbied for Sports Leadership Arts Management charter school and Academica, who are stealing the city’s jewel.
A giveaway of public land, no open bid, no community referendum, no long-term vision for cultural use — just a warm handshake with a politically connected charter school empire. What happened to public process, Commissioner? What happened to being the check on the same old politics?
Even his allies are confused. Former supporters have started calling him Disappearing Damian — because apparently once he got elected, access to him vanished. Constituents who once had his ear say now they get silence, staffers who shrug, and very little actual follow-through.
And as one Grove resident told Ladra, “I didn’t vote for him to become Francis Suarez’s wingman.”
In more than a dozen interviews with residents from Coconut Grove to Morningside, Miamians told Political Cortadito that they wouldn’t vote for Pardo again. Some are longtime friends. Others didn’t only vote for him, but wrote him campaign checks.
Now, he doesn’t call them back.
“He doesn’t listen to anyone anymore,” one old friend said.
“He gotten too big for his britches,” said an ex supporter.
“I think he saw how well it’s gone for Mayor Suarez and he wants to do the same thing.”
The list of failures began when he went on vacation and missed a meeting — and Commissioner Joe Carollo got the best of him and put the outdoor gym at Maurice Ferre Park on the citywide ballot, against the wishes of the downtown residents who had complained to the planning and zoning board, which found that the gym was builit. But in addition to that early gaffe and the election year change and the Olympia Theater giveaway, Pardo’s base says he has been on the wrong side of a series of important issues and/or votes, surprising them with his position on:
- The noise ordinance
- The tree ordinance.
- The mess the PAMM billboard, which is still up there, and he’s bending knee.
- The watering down of ‘lifetime’ term limits, which now won’t apply to Carollo or former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. even if they are passed in November by voters.
- Sidewalks in Morningside that many residents say are being forced on them.
- A yes vote on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance, which will upzone certain areas and seems custom written for a large property owner in Little River.
- The abolishment of the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
- The refusal to put the Downtown Development Authority tax on the ballot.
- The move to sell five acres of public land on Watson Island to developers for two condominium towers and a gifted waterfront park.
To make matters worse. He’s not accessible. Not if he doesn’t want to hear what you have to say. He won’t return calls. He won’t give you an appointment. So people can’t tell him what a complete and total tonto util he’s being. He stopped calling Ladra back weeks ago. He doesn’t like anyone to question him or hear a contradicting point of view. He says any critical or opposing voices are limited to a few radical malcontents and troublemakers.
“He has not responded to one email,” said Morningside resident and environmental activist Sandy Moise, who has battled Pardo on the tree ordinance and the 15-foot wide Bay walk he wanted to build in Morningside Park. She believes he is prodevelopment and, honestly, his votes do seem to go that way. Moise didn’t vote for Pardo. But most of the people who spoke to Ladra spoke on background in part because they did vote for him and got others to vote for him — and now they feel guilty.
Read related: Longtime activist Damian Pardo joins Miami District 2 commission race
Damian is a big boy. He wasn’t a total political newbie when he was elected. Pardo had been the co-founder of SAVE, which used to be SAVE Dade, the LGBTQ advocacy group that was able to get the county to pass the first gay rights protection ordinance in the 1990s. He has also been involved in the 4Ward Miami advocacy group and their Gay8 Festival on Calle Ocho, as well as Care Resource and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
That’s why we all thought he would be the perfect public servant. Because he had fought the system before. People always tell Ladra that she has to stop believing there are any good politicians. There are good people who run for office, but once they become politicians, it’s over.
Pardo’s term is only halfway through, however. There’s still time to course-correct. To remember who got him there. To start acting like the reformer he claimed to be — not just another player in the palace drama that is Miami City Hall.
But if Pardo keeps voting with the King-and-Carollo faction, rubber-stamping insider deals, and treating public meetings like formalities instead of the democratic bedrock they are, his progressive base might not wait until 2027 — or 2028 — to get him out.
There has been some talk about a possible recall effort. Pardo’s primary and most persistent critic, Downtown Neighborhood Association President James Torres, — who endorsed Pardo after he lost the D2 in the first round in 2023 — commissioned a survey last month that found more than half the 476 respondents would recall him if they could. Based solely on the cancellation of the election, which didn’t go well with residents.
Turns out, people want to vote on a big thing like that.
This decision is the main one pushed by a mobile phone poll with one question: “Commissioner Damian Pardo voted to cancel the 2025 election for Mayor and Commissioners, giving himself and others an extra year in office — even after Florida’s Attorney General said this ordinance is unconstitutional. Do you support recalling Commissioner Pardo for this overreach?”
The poll of 476 likely voters conducted on July 1 and 2 shows that just over 52% would support recalling Pardo if a recall were 
initiated, while just over 40% would oppose it. The rest are reportedly undecided.
Torres says that Pardo isn’t doing himself any favors by acting like he’s the smartest guy in the room. “The cockiness and arrogance is not the vision he gave us,” Torres told Political Cortadito.
“Damian Pardo has become the face of failure in our local government, pushing flawed policies through broken processes, shutting out the voices of the community, and doing it all with a level of arrogance that insults the very people he was elected to serve,” said Torres, who was on a Zoom call Sunday with about seven people to “explore” the recall.
And, yes, it seems he is campaigning for a rematch already. Thank goodness someone is.
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
The poll’s partisan breakdown of respondents reportedly mirrors the district’s demographic and is a diverse cross-section of the electorate. Democrats accounted for 39.7% of the sample, NPAs (No Party Affiliation) made up 30.8%, and Republicans represented 29.5%. White respondents were 49.4% of the sample, Hispanic accounted for 44.0%, and Black made up 6.6%.
Overall, the results indicate that a recall effort could gain support across political and demographic groups.While there remains a small undecided segment, the existing margin suggests that, if an election were held today, the recall would likely pass.
One might think that Pardo would ease off the gas pedal on moving the election, pero no. Pardo has dug in his heels, supporting the city’s appeal of a court decision earlier this month that invalidated the ordinance changing the election because it’s unconstitutional. He could save face by going along with the judge and putting it on the ballot for voters to decide.
But maybe he is doubling down on that extra year in office because he knows he is a one-and-done commissioner and will not win another election again.
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Personally, I have found Commissioner Pardo’s office to be quite responsive. Of course, I’m not bombarding them with emails on a daily basis, either, and second-guessing every decision he makes. I think we Miamians have such a crisis of confidence in our elected officials – understandably – that we have become incapable of trusting anyone at all. I’m giving Pardo the benefit of the doubt. He has to deal with a lot of shenanigans at city hall and from his fellow commissioners, and he can’t just show up and make an instant enemy of everyone. Instead of getting rid of him, we might be better off focusing on how to unseat Carollo or someone else. Let’s try not to eat one of our own.
The elections were not canceled. There is no provision in the City of Miami charter that allows for a cancellation of the election, and if you believe the elections were canceled, then please cite the provision which reinstates them.
Going to start by saying that Commissioner Pardo is someone who can still accomplish a lot of good for our community. As his constituents, we need to support him in focusing on his better ideas, while constructively criticizing when we think he’s wrong.
Commissioner Pardo’s strength is when he works with people who advocate for the community’s interests. He has shown a lot of leadership by listening to the people most active in City politics and working towards better ends. Because the people who line up 4-5 times a year to public comment have seen the crash landings, we have seen the bad ideas, and we have witnessed the stuff that got rejected or ended in failure.
Can you blame Damian for believing the City of Miami Attorney on the election issue? Yes. But not 100%. We all know he’s going into the Lion’s Den every time he enters City Hall, and unfortunately, sometimes you’re going to get bit. His election idea was well-meaning, of that I have no doubt. But it was not well executed politically, nor legally.
As a voter, changing the charter by ordinance to extend terms is just a moral no-no, but a snap referendum is not a bad idea. Do I wish I had gotten a call from the Commissioner asking, ‘Is this a good idea politically?’ It’s not like I would have needed long to consider the response.
Nonetheless, Damian is still our community’s best hope for strong representation. His alliance on the dais with Commissioner Gabela is the only thing keeping this City from the chaos of the DLP era.
But I will say it; he is moving in the wrong direction right now. He is supporting some bad ideas without clear proposals to trade those political supports with reasonable safeguards for something bigger that makes the greater good happen for the District.
As someone who knows the potential when Flagler Street re-opens, I think it’s essential that the project is bid competitively if the City is to convey its use rights to a new institution.
Fortunately, the Commissioner is also a really intelligent person who is always learning and growing, which is what I expect to see moving forward.
Tearing people down isn’t good politics, because we need each other to make the place we live successful, and we all live here together.
As a longtime D2 voter and resident, my phone call this week got manually sent to voicemail without being returned.
But I’m willing to wait longer if it means that Commissioner Pardo is going to surprise all of us by doing something really good for this City.
I know he’s capable.
@Dylan can you show us what misinformation you are speaking on?
Calling out the receipts-
Damian Pardo has many supporters that consider his actions heroic because he is willing to respectfully disagree at the cost of being a victim of these baseless and defamatory attacks without any kind of retaliation – a class act. Sounds like many should take a lesson from him.
There is much misinformation in this article which can be clarified on Pardo’s Instagram account or through independent sources. It’s a shame this article is full of political hits in the form of lies.
” Damian has lost his way. He’s crossed over to the dark side.”
Lol like first Sith Lord but they are all Sith Lords in Miami regardless of flunky letter in front of their names .
It is like a pack of Sith Lord Palpatine’s in power . We never win in Miami local politics , we can only hope not to lose that badly so we vote on lesser of evils .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_uoXrb-aKg
The fact that Damian Pardo votes to support every piece of crap Request for Up Zoning that Christine King supports tells us everything. King has been bought and paid for since the Hardemon’s gave her the no-show $150,000 per year gig at the Liberty City Trust and as a long time member of the Hardemon Crime Family King takes money from land use attorneys and from developers… Yet Pardo votes Yes to every illegal scheme King supports to ruin Miami’s neighborhoods. Corrupt Pardo.
It certainly seems like Damian Pardo’s staff, especially Anthony Balzebre, are incompetent. But
no surprise as Pardo has never seemed competent. Pardo should have hired smart staffers with City experience instead of using tired has beens.
Pardo and his staff refuse to let constituents meet with him. He rarely visits City Hall, especially now that his office is being renovated, and his staff have always kept his door locked tight. Sometimes, if a constituent shows up, they open it a crack and demand residents “call to make an appointment”. Rude. Just rude. Pardo needs to be removed from office.
This is an opinion piece, clearly, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. HOWEVER, I have had no issues with responsiveness from Pardo or his office. I find him very transparent, perhaps too much so as it seems to give several people carte blanche to rally against him.
I find he is not just talk and he actually gets stuff done whether you like what he is doing or not. Can’t please everyone. And he voted against that stoopid ICE measure, so he gets full credit for that compared to the sycophants around him.
I’m not a developer btw or in real estate or anything related.
Ken Russell = Anthony Balzebre
Sabina Covo = Anthony Balzebre
Damian Pardo = Anthony Balzebre
3 commissioners, 1 Chief of Staff. Figure it out.
Don’t forget Ken Russell voted Yes to kill 125 acres of Melreese Park. Scammer Jorge Mas immediately killed 1,200 trees AND every blade of grass. Ken Russell and then Pardo sponsored items to prevent a serious park on Watson Island. Watch grifters kill trees on Watson Island. Thx Pardo.
Doesn’t Pardo know his office will be moving soon – and why change the office – he never allows people to come in – they crack the door open and tell you to call – and for that kind of money you could buy a house. Wonder where he will be getting his new furniture!
This character should have his boards looked into, all fake, faker than that black color on that tape on your face. I dare anyone to ask and be rewarded with volumes of articles
Clueless
All talk and just finding developer clients for his biz in the gables
Damian Pardo has never changed. His true colors are coming out. With everything he is done, including SAVE, 4Ward advocacy group, Care Resource, and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce has been a self-serving initiative for him. He is a typical democrat exploiting socials issues to enrich himself by gaining notoriety and public trust.
Folks- lets face it. These organizations that claim to have a social cause or purpose are really here to brainwash the young minds in our community and is dividing America. It is time to take notice and start pushing back against these organizations.
Good question. Is Pardo still doing his pre-Commish “job”? Is Pardo doing graft AKA side gigs like Francis Suarez? How much has Pardo made selling his votes to sleazy land use attorneys and their customers? Pardo certainly does NOT seem to be working for Miami taxpayers.
The biggest disappointment in Coconut Grove is called Damian Pardo. I was one of his biggest supporters. I convinced my neighbors to vote for him. I drove people in my golf cart to vote for him. He promised us so much, and then never answered us again. It all happened so fast. As soon as he won, he betrayed us and forgot about us. I agree that they should recall him. I’ll be the first to sign any petition, and I’ll convince my neighbors to do the same. He has become a monster, and I still believe in justice. “RECALL DAMIAN PARDO” The Grove deserve better.
Pardo needs to go now. He is an arrogant liar. I would like to see how his wealth has grown since his election.
Damian Pardo wants to kill trees and reduce the tree canopy in Morningside! What a creep.
Pardo is another egomaniac at City Hall. Worse, he votes to pander to corrupt scammers.
You’re right, Ladra. Pardo has been a huuuuge disappointment. I’d support a recall.
Damian has lost his way. He’s crossed over to the dark side.
Here’s what he wrote in an email to his Morningside neighbors on July 5, 2021, regarding a high-rise height increase proposal that Ken Russell (another big disappointment) had just approved:
= = = = =
“Overly ambitious developers use money and influence to sway politicians, city staff, neighborhood activists and homeowners. Someone standing to make millions has a great deal of motivation to manipulate the outcome, the process and pay off people in the way.
Meanwhile, people’s attention span are filled with work and life. By the time people in the community feel the effects, it’s too late. They would rather believe it won’t affect them – exactly the goal of those developers. Damian”
= = = =
Damian knows right from wrong. Unfortunately, his actions aren’t consistently in the public’s best interest.
I wish he’d come back to the light.
An old political proverb: “Any man can withstand adversity. To truly test a man, give him power.”
Elvis Cruz,
Morningside
Don’t forget Damian Pardo did not think his newly renovated City Hall office was fancy enough so he demanded taxpayers pay $350,000 to renovate his office again. During the 3 month renovation Pardo avoided City Hall. Pardo is a menace to taxpayers.
Hello to all
For me the biggest issue is the election change from odd to even, it should be the voters that decide, he makes claims that he has the support, OK IF you do, place it on the Ballot, if you have such great support. Also, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) question could of been placed on the ballot. he also didn’t support that , its called voter suppression.
Pardo, you really should take a long hard look in the mirror.
James
As a long time supporter of Commissioner Pardo, I too am surprised and disappointed by some of his recent proposals and votes. In fairness, as a resident of 1000 Venetian Way and former president of the Venetian Way Neighborhood Alliance, I would offer this comment on the Watson Island development, the last item on your questionable supportive acts by the Commissioner. Thirteen acres of passive park, in my opinion shared by many of my neighbors, far outweighs the developer’s right to build two tall condo buildings, all replacing our obnoxious neighbor, Joia Bar/ Jungle Island. His staff also appears to be somewhat receptive and helpful regarding our need to control loud encroachment of commercial activities and security improvement by license readers in our residential neighborhood.
Thanks for your coverage of our local government.
Damian Pardo knows almost nothing about Coconut Grove. Worse, Pardo almost never attends meetings in the Grove. Hell, Pardo almost never attends any meetings in any neighborhood. Does Pardo even visit City Hall?
Yup, Pardo acts like just another corrupt Miami politician in the mold of Joe Garcia, Francis Suarez, Marc Sarnoff, Keon Hardemon, Alex DLP, Joe Carollo and Christine King. Former D2 Commish Ken Russell was an idiot who loved attention, photo ops and running for elected office. But Damian Pardo is looking really bad. Yup, he votes for developers and for connected insiders. He loves concrete. He hates grass and trees. Yup, he refuses to talk to constituents most of whom are much better informed than him. He hates free and fair elections. City of Miami taxpayers got screwed, again.