ABSTRACT
The small city of Opa-Locka is located 72 miles south of Palm Beach Gardens and just north of downtown Miami. With a population of 16,463, the city is the lowest income case of this study with a median household income of $22,494 and a median home value of $169,900. With a majority black population (58.5%), the city also enjoys a large Hispanic community (40.9%), with a white population of 32.4%. The city utilizes a council-manager style of government that includes a mayor, vice mayor, and three at-large commissioners on the city commission. As the final case of this section, Opa-Locka brings several unique narratives to this study, as the story of term limits in Opa-Locka is full of political twists and turns, perhaps the strangest of all 20 cases.
