Street Mag. Interview On Tony Guerra For Commissioner

[eddyguerra305]

MEET...TONY GUERRA / Commission candidate

By Jessica Sick

He's all about customer service. He's all about less regulation of nightclubs. He's all about walking and talking. He's club industry fixture Tony ''No Tracks'' Guerra, and he's running for Miami Beach Commissioner.

Why are you running for the Miami Beach City Commission?

I felt that there was a need for change in government in the City of Miami Beach. I love this beautiful town, and I felt there needed to be a voice in the government that really cares about the people -- the working class, the small business owners and people in the entertainment industry; someone young, who can represent the youth of this town. Recently they've tried to depict me as a ''special interest'' candidate because I come from the nightclub industry and recently there have been regulations, laws that they've tried to pass that were going to restrict certain clubs -- whether it be operating hours, outdoor venues causing too much noise for certain residents, certain restaurants having DJ booths. You know, that was the trigger that started making me go to city meetings to see what was going on.

But you're not a ''special interest'' candidate?

I care about the police, I care about street safety, the education system. I also love the night life, the retail industry. I shop and eat on Lincoln Road. People in our city want to put in a high-speed transportation system; tracks throughout our community. I'm against that. We have to preserve this town. That is why I decided to say, ''You know what, ladies and gentleman? We are Miami Beach, we created it. It's become so real estate and high-rise-oriented -- buildings and buildings,and a lot of them aren't even full. We have the largest empty square footage of office space of anywhere in the city.'' So, yeah, I'm a nightclub personality, but I do have other issues. Let them think I'm a nightclub personality, though, because when I get up there and I give my speech and I start my campaign, they're going to realize my needs are not just nightclubs. Because the nightclub issues are going to be solved in a matter of months.

What can you bring to the table?

I believe in customer service, and I feel that someone from our industry has to represent how important our industry is. We are entertainers. We sell this town. The government, the entertainment industry and the residents of Miami Beach can all coexist, but regulations and laws aren't the way to solve problems. Having meetings, roundtable discussions: that's how to solve them. We don't need any more laws. That's what is going to kill our wonderful town. In our industry, there's one thing we all learn, and that's customer service. We need better customer service in the government. What makes the customer happy? What are they looking for? And how can you provide that service? The government needs to be that receptive to the needs of their residents and business owners.

What's your campaign strategy?

My plan is very simple -- walk and talk. To hear what people have to say, and also to get people to register to vote. My message to the youth of Miami Beach is that the one right given to us as citizens is the right to vote, and we should take advantage of it. So, my goal is to do registration drives, registration drives and more registration drives. I want to make 2003 the year in which the working class gets involved in government.

Got a slogan?

I have various slogans. But for this campaign I'm just using: ''Friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor.'' This is about people to people, and I want to keep this a people's campaign. They asked me the other day, ''Mr. Tony Guerra, you have to raise thousands of dollars?'' I see that the goal of a lot of people in the political world is to raise capital. You know what? And I'll tell this to the world: It's better to be wealthy in friends than in dollars. Because, in the end, all that matters is the vote. It's all about people to people. If you walk, and you talk, that's what wins a campaign.

Who's your opponent? And what have you got that they don't?

Simon Cruz. He is going to try to discredit me by saying I'm a nightclub personality. He apparently doesn't know my campaign. My advantage over him is that I am more sensitive to the common issues of the everyday street walker, pedestrian, and the small business owner. He is for the overdevelopment of real estate projects; he was in favor of giving away public property on 72nd Street -- taxpayer property -- to a developer; and recently, regarding the Bay Link, he was in favor of the ''track system.'' I don't want the tracks. I don't believe in the tracks. Miami Beach is a beautiful, Art Deco neighborhood. It's about bicycles, Rollerblades, foot traffic. You want to just run a track along Washington Avenue and all over the Beach like in San Francisco or Portland? The tracks are an invasion of Miami Beach. I am Tony ''No Tracks.'' You know what? Quote me on that one -- I'm Tony ''No Tracks'' Guerra.

So you think the whole Miami-Miami Beach connection is a bad idea?

Miami Beach is spending over $100,000 for consultants to come in here to see how the tracks should be laid. You know what? It's very simple -- the residents don't want the tracks. They want better transportation, and I believe in better transportation, but you can't bring a transportation system to the Beach that's on a rail. It's going to slow down traffic even more when there's an accident or a light goes out. Also, Miami Beach spent over $20,000 to fly commissioners out to Portland and other areas to see their transportation systems. You spent $20,000 of taxpayer money to see someone else's transportation system? For a quarter, you could've gone over the bridge and ridden the Metrorail.

Nikki Beach and Opium Garden are being threatened by Portofino Towers because of late-night noise. What would you say to the condo folks if you had the chance?

We've been working well with them, trying to find a middle-ground. What I would like to say to them is that we were here before those buildings were here. Maybe if Miami Beach was at the top of its game, and we were rockin' in tourism, and someone said, ''These two clubs are bothering me,'' you might say ''OK, let's talk about it.'' But when the economy is at a low, and we're down in tourism, we need these few nightclubs. So I would ask, ''Mr. John Doe, before you purchased your condominium, didn't you not know where you were buying your condominium? Didn't you not know that one block away you had not just a night club, but the number one club, Opium Garden, and the number one European-style, San Tropez-type beach resort club, Nikki Beach? Didn't somebody tell you these locations existed? Didn't you walk around the neighborhood?'' If I could afford a million-dollar apartment, I would do my research.

You're not a politician. How will you fit into the political arena?

We can all learn from each other. I can learn a lot from them and they can learn a lot from me. I can be a voice for this industry, and I can say, ''Please, let's open our minds together and let's talk about this, like civil human beings.'' They can look at me and ask, ''Tony Guerra, how does it really work? What is this nightlife? You're there all day. You're there at night. You live and breath nightlife. What is it all about? Tony Guerra, when people walk into a club, what are they thinking, what are they looking for?'' Maybe I can be that voice, to show them the light, and tell them really what it's all about. And together we can work symbiotically.

-- BY JESSICA SICK

[tranzwhore]

oh la la ... commissioner guerra!

[spacious]

GO TONY!

[djniko27]

yeah, go tony go !!!!!!!!!!!!

[klubveteran]

Originally posted by tranzwhore

oh la la ... commissioner guerra!

AND YOU THOUGHT HAVING BILL CLINTON IN OFFICE WAS FUN.

OH YEAH!

:laugh:

CITY FUNDED -FREE BIKINI CAR WASHES AS FIRST NEW ORDINANCE:idea:

[Guest saleen351]

Hes way off on the special interest thing..

Take Gordon Geckos famous speach in Wall Street, and hes right.. Greed is good, and Adam Smith (which is the basis for the movie Beautiful Mind or at least his theorys) was right as well, when he said:

The notion that buyers and sellers, consumers and producers, households and businesses, pursuing their own self-interests, do what's best for the economy--automatically, without any government intervention, as if guided by an invisible hand.

This invisible hand was essential to the economic analysis of markets in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. It has continued to be cornerstone in conservative economic policies that call for limits on government intervention in the economy.

What i'm saying is special interest is what keeps american properous.... But it doesn't look good on a campaign speech.

I understand what he means by saying it, that hes just not gonna look out for his own industry, but adam smith prooved hundreds of years ago, he will, and so will his opponet...

Next point, and maybe Mac can help me out, there was a famous case out in I think Arizona or New Mexico. There was a plant that produced bricks. So one day they decided to build a development next to it. The residents took the plant to court saying there was too much smog and pollution. But the plant was there for 50 years!!!! The residents won, and the plant shut down. Just because Opium was there first, doesn't mean they are right...

Though there is a easier way of dealing with it, have the French guys who own it hire a bunch of nj/nyc italians, and trust me, no resident will complain!!!!

I think he should ATTACK the quality of life issues... But he won't as of now, cause they are directly related to the club industry...

Just my 2 cents....

Though I'd go hear him speak, even though I still vote in NJ...

[pod]

My only complaint so far is that he's seemingly opposed to an efficient implementation of the Baylink project....besides rails, what else is there? How else can people be efficiently transported from Miami to Miami Beach, and vice versa? Unless he's splitting hairs here, and would actually support a non-rail, yet railed system like the Metromover...

I'm not suggesting they tear up Collins or Washington for it...ain't gonna work, to advance up the 15 blocks of clubland would take years, and business would suffer....send it up Alton, prop it up on pylons, and you're set.

It's my pet project around here...I'm a bad driver, people around here are bad drivers...I hate driving, and I'm lazy...I want an efficient way to get to South Beach, besides the C bus which gets mired in traffic all the time.

But I'd still vote for the man

[macboy]

Never mind about that - how about that picture of Julissa from the Roof.

Nice pic Dan.

Anyway, back to this topic. I'm keeping an open mind and I like some of the things Tony has said so far. I just need to know that he cares about the issues that extend beyond the two square miles of South Beach.

Also, I can see why Jessica Sick writes for Street instead of a real newspaper. That was not an interview. That was a PR puff piece. What bothers me is that a number of people covering nightlife in this area constantly refer to Portofino Towers when the noise issue is discussed. They want to make it sound as if it's these high priced interests that are trying to kill nightlife. Portofino Towers is just one of MANY buildings south of fifth that are having problems with noise. As I stated in the past, many of the residents are fixed income tenants who live in low-rise buildings in that area. They all just want to be able to sleep at night.

Looking forward to hear more from Tony. He may just get my vote after all.

[vipnerd]

Originally posted by macboy

Also, I can see why Jessica Sick writes for Street instead of a real newspaper. That was not an interview. That was a PR puff piece. ...

... Looking forward to hear more from Tony. He may just get my vote after all.

You are right with your impression on the interview ... only thing I can add is that yes ... the intention she had was to "PRESENT" Tony to the masses that go beyond the nitelife industry ... so the medium to do so was a PR style interview ...

He will get my vote ... I'm sure ...

What brought 5 rich europeans to purchase real state in South Beach was the quality of the "Entertainment Industry" ... it wasn't the views nor the luxury of the property ... for that you could buy further north ...

The enchant of South Beach is the "Entertainment Industry" ... so hard hitten by the lack of tourism after 911 ... and the economy ... which also was affected by it (in less scale but affected) ...

Tony is right with the issues he brings up to the table ... you don't need more laws to control the "Entertainment Industry" ... you need laws to incentivate it and reactivate it ...

More parking (give tax incentives) ... more patrolling of the streets ... operating hours for clubs ... those are issues that will add ...

And for gods sake ... remeber Ocean Drive? ... lets stop thinking of Lincoln Road only ... the early 90s saw an abandoned Miami Beach ... OD did the overhaul ... the beach is really depressing nowadays ... get the city involved in a re-emergence plan for it ... find "that" project that will bring back national exposure to OD ... and forget about those latin music festivals and free concerts ... they attract the wrong "business" to the beach ...

Think of uniqueness ... not "malls" ...

Vip

[pod]

damn the board is slow as death...it took 20 seconds to load this page.

An interesting side-note, I was reading the sunpost tonite, and it actually mentioned an alternative to the rail system...a bloody water taxi fleet like Sydney does. Yeah, that's gonna work...drunks puking all over Biscayne Bay, crackheads taking a swim all the time...plus, where the hell are they gonna dock? I'll still have to hoof it a mile and a half to get to say, crobar or Maze.

And you know at one point one of the boats is gonna sink or get boarded by pirates or something (well, maybe not the pirates...but that'd be cool, actually...)

I bet if you corner one of the anti-baylink project folk, and give them a few drinks, the words 'degenerates', and 'miami' will occur in the same sentence...you know for a fact that some of these people are borderline racist and don't want "those people" coming over by the trainload...to that I say, well, that's why they invented the police, and security...plus, you'll still have to scrounge up a pass or a buck twenty-five to get on it. Besides, I'm one of those people, and if you don't want me on "your" beach, let me introduce you to my monopod as it descends on your skull.

I'm glad Tony's for an improved transit option, I just disagree with him on the method...more buses aren't gonna work. What will work is an elevated Mover extension, or get a research grant and deploy a maglev system. Hell, it's only a 5-6 mile run...if the communist bastards in Shanghai can do it (5 mile run from the airport to the city...), we can certainly.

But that's off the beaten path, but TG did mention it, so I'm glad to see he's concerned about it.

It all seems to tie into his goal of representing the younger generation of people living on the beach...I don't live there, but 90 percent of my business is done there, so it affects me...hell, I pretty much just sleep on this side of the water...I'm glad he's taking a stand for the majority of the population down there though...The Beach is no longer "God's Waiting Room", where rows and rows of geriatrics rotted in the July sun, waiting to croak, and then for some bored coroner to come by and scoop 'em up for organ harvesting...The Beach is a lively community oriented towards the young and young at heart...(I say that because when I'm 50, I'll be acting like a 22 year old...)...people need to realise that it is not a bedroom community, and if they want peace and quiet, they can buy a house in bloody Kendall, or some other godawfully boring suburb.

Hell, rent an apartment at dPlace, tell 'em Dan sent ya...

BTW, what party is he running under, or is he a independent (hopefully!)?