Don’t worry, Brickell scooter jockeys. The ban on electric scooters in the city of Miami is temporary and about to end soon. And not because Mayor Francis Suarez is your hero or anything like that.
Yes, Suarez praised scooters while on some junket in Las Vegas on the same day the commission voted to shut the pilot program down, as Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla said.
And now there’s a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday to consider restarting the program with some conditional safety measures added.
But this was always going to be a short term ban to use as leverage. It’s a quid pro quo thing. Just look at how it happened:
The Dean, who had originally supported the pilot scooter program, was the one who put it back on the agena. He deferred it the first time last month — like a cat plays with a wounded lizard before the kill. And then he stomped on it last week, joining Commissioners Joe Carollo and Manolo Reyes in their honest, if misguided, campaign against the micro mobility trend. He brought his brand new puppet, the just-elected Commissioner Christine King, with him for a 4-1 vote.
But it was a flex. He wanted to show who has the power back now. And he can do that again Monday.
Because the city is still looking at a request for proposals from companies to run electric scooter programs. The idea is to choose just three from the nine or so that currently operate in the city’s urban core pilot program. Or operated until a little more than a week ago, when the companies were told to come and pick up their scooters or lose them.
A City Hall source told Ladra that ADLP has ties to or is in negotiations with one of these companies.
¡Pero por supuesto! This is what he does.
And a quick search of the firms on the city’s registration database shows that Elnatan Rudolph, the commissioner’s oldest business partner with whom he has run multiple campaigns, is a registered lobbyist for Spin. He was registered last year for Lyft, another one of the companies, but not anymore.
So, the reasoning is that if Spin is one of the three companies chosen (and it is likely that it will be), then Diaz de la Portilla will vote to reinstall the program with some regulations and conditions, bringing King with him. Commissioner Ken Russell is already in favor.
Read related: Can’t get to the polls? Lime provides scooters for voters in Miami election
But if his preferred firm is not among the three chosen, he will kill the program again. Because he can.
Nevermind the hundreds of jobs it provides. Nevermind the $2.4 million generated by the program for bike lanes. This is not about policy or increasing mobility options for people. There is enough of a market in Miami to support at least 3,957 scooters, so far.
This is about what Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla can get out of it for himself. Maybe he can get one of his brothers to represent another scooter firm.
This is what makes the scooter program a moving target.
Miami’s ban on scooters is temporary and part of ADLP’s political playbook added by Ladra on
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