Victor Diaz: Point of View

Victor Diaz is a longtime,  high-profile Miami Beach community activist who earned his reputation a decade ago when he spearheaded a two-year effort to prevent the Florida Department of Transportation from demolishing the series of historic bridges known as the Venetian Causeway. Since then, he has served in numerous of capacities on a number of boards, from the Hispanic Affairs Board to the Historic Preservation Board. Today, he sits as a member of the powerful Miami Beach Planning Board.

When he is not out fighting for a newly discovered cause in his much beloved home town, the boyishly handsome Diaz is a tough and successful civil litigator with the prestigious Miami law firm Podhurst, Orseck, Josefsberg.

Born in Camanguey, Cuba, Diaz emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 18 months. He attended Miami Coral Park public high school in Miami, then attended Duke University, where he pursued a double major in accounting and management sciences. Upon his graduation in 1978, he attended Yale Law School, earning a law degree in 1982.

Immediately upon graduation from law school, he took a full-time position at his present firm, where he had worked as a summer employee during law school. At the same time, he took up the first two interests that stirred his civic passions --Miami City Ballet and Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., a provider of legal services to the poor.

Diaz spoke with us recently and the topic of conversation was, as always, the future of Miami Beach...

Your current interest in the question of Ocean Drive is directly related to your responsibilities on the Planning Board at the moment?
It's directly related to the fact that I live in Miami Beach and I care about the historic district, but it's also part of our responsibility at the Planning Board because we keep seeing issues relating to our jurisdiction over the use of conditional use permits that are issued to entertainment establishments on Ocean Drive. And we see consistent issues come back before the Board in terms of problems and complaints.

What kinds of complaints are you seeing?
Equal enforcement complaints - in the course of seeing three or four of those, I've been outspoken about what I think needs to be done in order to clarify the vision for Ocean Drive.

Let's start with a general question - how would you presently assess Miami Beach as a community, and why?
I think Miami Beach is one of the greatest cities around to live in. Why? Number one, it's an extremely progressive and tolerant city, with a progressive, well-educated voting public. It's extremely diverse, ethnically and socio-economically, and in many other ways. It has a large Hispanic community, a large Jewish community, a large gay community. And even within the Hispanic community, there is tremendous diversity, people from all over Latin America. And there's the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. There's also an age diversity. We have a huge youth population but we also have a lot of older people.

You like diversity?
I love diversity. I also like a casual lifestyle. We also have wonderful resources, from the beaches and the historic district, a wonderful residential core, particularly with the potential in the North Beach area. I also love the free-spirited nature of Miami Beach. It's one of the few areas in Florida that is a truly urban area, where you can actually live and not won a car. You walk to work or recreate or shop without needing a vehicle.

What's your present assessment of Miami Beach as a tourist resort?
I think that it suffers from a schizophrenic personality. Miami Beach would do better if it would just develop a clear vision of what it wants to be as a tourism destination. There are those who view the Beach in the traditional conventioneer-type of destination, those who view it as a cutting-edge, trendy area to vacation in, those who view it as a historic tourism destination, and those who view it as the hip hop capital of the United States.

We have all these competing visions and they all make different demands and suggest different directions for the city. I think that the city is suffering - beyond this normal economic downturn - the statistics indicate the city is suffering a decrease in tourist tax revenue, and I think that decrease in a function of this schizophrenia we have about what kind of tourist destination we want to be.

And there's no doubt about the decline, because you can track it by the city's collection of resort taxes on hotel rooms, food and beverage, right?
Right. And if you look at the trend, long before the September 11 attacks, resort taxes were on the way down significantly enough to see that it's not just a result of September 11.

Do you share the concern that this is going to be a pivotal tourist season and that there's reason to have concerns about whether it's going to be an acceptable season?
Absolutely. Tourism remains the number one industry of Miami Beach and it is absolutely essential to have a vital tourist industry. So, if tourism fails on the Beach, a lot of people will suffer, and most of them are Beach residents.

How much do you think tourism is down this year from last year?
I don't have the statistics off the top of my head, so I wouldn't even venture a guess. I'm a lawyer by trade and I'm very precise where I attach my name to a fact. But I know tourism is down, we are hurting. The statistics are clear.

What do you think has caused the problem?
One of the things we suffer from in Miami Beach is greed. Everybody wants to cash in and they want to cash in now. There are very few people who are truly invested for the long term. You see that in the escalating rents, and in the property owners in North Beach who have their properties in a dilapidated condition but refuse to lower their prices to a level where it could create an incentive for redevelopment. So, greed is a big problem.

What do you think is the most critical single issue facing the city right now and why?
(...long pause...)  I think - it sounds general - but I think it's the vision thing. I think we've had an embarrassment of riches. Lightning struck. There was a time where you didn't have to be too smart for the city to prosper. It was just dumb luck, and some vision on the part of the preservationists. But magic happened. South Beach became red hot and led to the revitalization of the City of Miami Beach. It led to the greatest infusion of development dollars that any community has seen in a short period of time in recent history.

Now, the buzz is a little off. It's not the next "hot" destination. And that's natural. So, the challenge is to find a sustainable vision for the community, both in terms of the people who live here year-round as well as the tourism economy. And I don't see anyone articulating a clearly well set forth vision of what community we want to be that is sustainable.

Do you buy into the premise that because of the real estate boom and all the expensive new condominiums that that sort of seasonal residential community will replace the old high-end tourism revenue? Is that possible?
I don't think so. I think what we're going to have is a horrible crash of the luxury real estate market, because I think they're overbuilding it. I don't know where all those people are going to come from to populate million dollar condos that are popping up all over the Beach and I think we're going to have projects fail. The ones that came on line early are going to be fine, but the ones coming on toward the end of the cycle are going to be in trouble.

What do you think the real impact of the condo development has been?
I think we're experiencing a little bit of the Atlantic City syndrome, not as bad as Atlantic City, but you have million dollar condos being built five blocks away from $150, dilapidated, substandard units. One of the little-known facts about Miami Beach is that it was built up as a seasonal recreational resort. Therefore, there are approximately 36,000 substandard living units in the city that were not designed for year-round living, they were designed for two or three month seasonal living. They're either studio apartments or inadequate one bedrooms, meaning they have inadequate kitchens or closets or very small bathrooms. They weren't designed for people to live in year-round, they were designed for people who come down with a couple of pairs of shorts and some T-shirts. And it's that substandard housing stock that has created and dictated the cycles of boom and bust in Miami Beach. When you have that many units, what happens historically is that when it stopped being a seasonal town, it became a way to warehouse the elderly in the 1980's. It became God's waiting room. And with the situation now, the same apartments are filled with young people. Either way, you can't have a sustainable population for the long term for a community.

What is the practical effect on Miami Beach for the future?
The city can't attract the population base and economic base that it wants because when a young person gets married and wants to stay in Miami Beach and have a child, the reality is that once you leave that inventory of substandard housing, you jump into very expensive homes that are not starter homes, and million dollar condos. So these people have to leave the Beach to get their starter homes, so you see a migration now off the Beach to Miami neighborhoods like Belle Meade and Morningside.

So you have a different view of how Miami Beach should be developed?
People say, "Are you pro-development or anti-development?" I'm all for development, but what I would like to see is the development directed toward revitalizing that substandard housing stock so you don't have million dollar condos going up next to Section 8 housing. That's not a good model for a community. You want housing in all price ranges. And when the boat floats, you want everybody to float with it, not for some to sink while others rise.

How is it that we got into that situation over the years?
Because of a lack of vision on the part of elected officials, who felt that the way to promote reinvestment in Miami Beach was to come up with the most permissible zoning laws available, which made the land very valuable, because if you can build a 68-story building on a 10,000-square-foot lot because the floor-area-ratios permitted by the city are so generous, then there's a great incentive, but at the same time, we never addressed the existing housing stock because it wasn't sexy.

Did the city have the opportunity to buy the South Pointe Alaska property, next to Portofino Tower, from Thomas Kramer—and should the city have done so as a way of preserving open spaces?
Yes, the city had the opportunity to buy the land, twice, at a price of about $7 million. But they said it was overpriced. And now you realize it would have been the best bargain in the world. It was a great deal for a very important piece of land. But the reason the city didn't do it was because of Thomas Kramer. Everybody hated him at the time, and the city said there's no way we're going to put $7 million in Thomas Kramer's pocket.

Was it an honest message being sent about Thomas Kramer, or was there some kind of ulterior motive about wanting to get it developed?
I think it was a little bit of both, but I think Thomas Kramer made himself public enemy number one with his tactics.

Despite the politics, you would have been in favor of buying the land an opening it as an open space or park?
Yes, and I'd be in favor of the city buying more available land and creating more open spaces and parks. Instead, what we're doing in Miami Beach is giving land away to private developers in these so-called joint public-private partnerships, which in reality end up being all for the developer and nothing at all for the public. So, the bottom line is that we're ceding land, our scarcest resource on Miami Beach, out of public control, instead of bringing it into public control.

So what is the solution to the problem?
I think we need a really gutsy politician who appears on the scene on Miami Beach and says "No, I'm simply going to say no. No, we don't want more development, and Yes, we are willing to go to court to fight the fight." I'd like to see us put as much time and resources as we do into negotiating contracts with private developers into fighting for the best, most progressive, most restrictive land use regulations we can come up with. And I don't mean to turn off investment, but to redirect it. We have to say, "sorry, we're not going to let you build a 50-story tower, but if you want to take these 10,000 substandard apartments and renovate them into livable units suitable for families, the city will be your partner. We will bend over backwards to help you do it.

Is there anyone from the city pitching that to developers now?
I don't think so. I don't think there's anyone presenting a clear, comprehensive vision of what the city needs to do to jump-start itself.

Why do you focus so much of your energy and interest on Ocean Drive now? What is it about Ocean Drive that makes it an issue?
I'm interested in everything. Maybe my opinions about Ocean Drive are what you hear about, but I'm interested in many topics having to do with the city.

What is it about Ocean Drive at the moment that makes you so vocal?
It's the crown jewel of the historic district. It's on every postcard. It's the signature of our city, whether we like it or not.

Then what is the issue on Ocean Drive as you see it?
I don't think it's thriving, and the numbers show it's not thriving. Resort tax revenues collected on Ocean Drive are on the way down and have been for quite some time, even before September 11.

To what do you attribute that?
 All I hear from all the Beach residents I talk to is, "I'd never go down to Ocean Drive and I'd never take anybody down there." It's the pits. Well, I don't give up that easily. It may be that we want to decide that Ocean Drive is not a street for local residents, that it's for tourists who wear black sandals with white socks. Or it can be the wildest, craziest, 24-hour a day party place, to walk through the streets drunk to rock 'n' roll music. Maybe that's what we want to say, that Ocean Drive is the "entertainment" street, the anything-goes street in Miami Beach. And if that's what the majority wants to see, then we should develop a series of regulations to promote that. But if your vision of Ocean Drive is that it should be a beautiful street like in the south of France, where you can stroll around and where you have entertainment, but with moderation. We need to decide what Ocean Drive is going to be.

Do you think Ocean Drive should be shut down from car traffic as a pedestrian mall like Lincoln Road?
There are issues with that, but I would seriously look at it.

Do you think the Ocean Drive issue is finally coming to a head now?
Oh, it's coming to a head, but unfortunately I think I've created a monster. I think it's going in the opposite direction. I think the direction it's heading in is not the one I'd like to see, which is bringing back that south of France ambience that we had early on in the development of the district. To be casual, relaxed, Bohemian, artsy, chic, trendy. But I think it's headed in the direction of becoming a mainstream, mass-market entertainment district, like a Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The problem with that approach is that you'll see throngs of people, but they won't be throngs of people with money.

What are your other major concerns about the condition of Ocean Drive?
I don't see that Ocean Drive has the finest restaurants in Miami Beach, I don't see people citing Ocean Drive for the best service in Miami Beach. I even hear from my friends, when they come here as tourists, that Ocean Drive has some of the worst service they've ever seen.

How do you clean that up? What specific changes would be required to get back to the "south of France" ambience?
I think that a serious look has to be taken at the outdoor entertainment establishments. I think that section that was created needs to be regulated. There's nothing wrong with entertainment, but the hours and types of entertainment have to be controlled. Number two, there needs to be very strict enforcement of the regulations that require property owners to clean up the streets around their establishments. It's on the books, it's just not enforced.

How does a municipality, either the government or the private sector, actually control that sort of thing?
Through land use regulations. You can regulate the hours of operation and the conditions of operation. And the city can provide additional infrastructural resources, like additional sanitation crews, additional police protection, better lighting. The goose that lays the golden egg has to be nurtured.

But in the Miami Beach of today, isn't Lincoln Road, an internationally acclaimed pedestrian mall for dining and shopping, more likely to lay the golden egg than Ocean Drive?
That question goes to the issue of what is the wisdom of certain land use regulations? You're not allowed to have open air entertainment on Lincoln Road, and there are much more severe restrictions. But I think there's also some validity to the claim that Lincoln Road is different from Ocean Drive and that it should be different.

Besides, it's not a matter of Lincoln Road versus Ocean Drive. That's not the goose that's laying the golden egg. The goose laying the golden egg in Miami Beach is and will always be the unique mix of the people who live there, and that's what people don't understand. If we lose the gay community or the youth community or the modeling industry, if we lose the Bohemian edge, if we lose the character of our neighborhoods, we lose everything.

The reason is that the thing that most people are most interested in is other people. And the thing that brought the world to Miami Beach was the interesting people that early visitors found when they came here in the late 1980's, because the physical community back then consisted mostly of dilapidated, run-down buildings. Now, those same interesting people are leaving and we need to address why they're leaving.

What about the historic influence of the gay community?
I think the gay community is as influential as it ever was in the evolution of the Beach, but I do think there has been a decline in gay tourism. What I hear is that the edge is off and there's a been-there, done-that kind of feeling about Miami Beach among gay tourists now. Other than coming to look at beautiful boys, there aren't that many things here that cater directly to gay tourism on Miami Beach. And now we're going from a seasonal gay population to a population of year-round gay residents.

Well, you've certainly touched upon the big three influences - the gay community, the modeling industry and the Bohemian ambience. And the consensus seems to be that all three are on the decline and that therein lies the basis for the identity problem the Beach is having. Do you agree?
I think the identity problem is causing the decline, and not the other way around. If you want to attract those kinds of people over the long term, you've got to design the kind of community they want to live in. And if you want to attract conventioneers from Duluth, Minnesota, then you design the kind of city that they want to come to. But I don't think we're planning for the kind of city that these people that made Miami Beach - we're not giving them the kind of community they want. The traffic is awful, there's no place to go and nothing to do, and we're pricing them out of the market. There are just a lot of things we're doing wrong. We're surrounding them with high-rises. If you want to live surrounded by high-rises, there's a million places you can live.

If we're doing all these things wrong, why are we doing them?
A lack of political vision is number one. Number two is the inordinate influence that money has on Miami Beach politics to this very day. It's the eight thousand pound gorilla.

Do you ever see a situation where that really has been reigned in?
I think that some people are trying now, like Commissioner Matti Bower. And Don Peebles, the developer of the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza, recently stood before the city commission and called a spade a spade. He told it like it is. I just think there's a disconnect on the Beach. I think the citizens of Miami Beach would vote the right way every single time.

I am burned out on Beach politics. I've given 10 years of my life and a lot of energy to Beach politics. But I think that if I go nuts because I can't take it any more and the pendulum continues to swing the other way, then I think that the best thing that could happen is that someone like me is going to get pissed off and start putting Voter Initiated Referendums on the ballot, one at a time. And they're going to pass.

What's the first one you would do?
Development. I'd slap a couple of regulations in about growth management and public financing of development projects.

Are you hopeful?
I want to be, but there is a big decrease in grass roots politics on Miami Beach. People either became cynical and gave up, or they're partying their brains out on South Beach and having a good time. I don't really know.

How do you actually initiate a Voter Referendum?
You decide what you want to change about city government, you draft your resolution, and you send it to the city attorney's office for review and approval of the legality of the referendum. And you collect the number of signatures you need to put it on the ballot, which is not really that many. It's not that hard to do. And it's literally grass roots democracy.

But you have no direct political ambitions for yourself?
At one time I came close to thinking about running for office. I'd love to run for office. I would love to conduct a campaign that stated exactly what I believe, because I'd like to find out whether I'm insane and represent the views of no one, or whether I represent the views of a large number of people on Miami Beach. But in any case, I would love to put it to a test, but quite frankly, I'm tired and I've seen good people ruined, so I'd rather support and continue to support other candidates and do whatever I can to help in my own way.