Talking to an X-Man
Some Perspective on Miami’s Current State of Affairs From Former Mayor Xavier Suarez

He left office in 1993 and had he left it at that, history might have been kind.

By Rebecca Wakefield

I’m enjoying the outrage over the fire fee fiasco in the city of Miami. I’m disappointed at Mayor Manny Diaz and Commissioner Johnny Winton for buying property together, not long before Winton voted to suddenly raise the mayor’s salary. That’s just stupid, at best. A vigilant citizen sent me a copy of the most recent Coconut Grove and Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association newsletter, which includes a notice of a city-funded drainage project soon to commence at the intersection of Battersea and Douglas roads. The property Diaz and Winton bought together is at 3615 Battersea Road, basically right at that intersection. They bought the property in May. I’m not sure when or how the city decided to ease flooding in that particular neighborhood; if the two actions are related or merely coincidence. Doesn’t look good, though.

But perspective is always good. It’s been a little while since the city had a hullabaloo like this. We haven’t had a really good angry burn going down at City Hall since the tenure of the last mayor, Joe Carollo. For my money, however, the best time for fans of good old-fashioned Miami insanity came during the tumultuous 111-day tenure of Xavier Suarez.

Suarez was the golden boy when first elected mayor in 1985. He was a young, Harvard-educated, progressive Cuban-American who basically came across as sane. Author T.D. Allman called him an “urban technocrat,” back in 1987.

He left office in 1993 and had he left it at that, history might have been kind, even considering his support of the manager (Cesar Odio) who ran the city into bankruptcy (circa 1996) while taking bribes on the side. But Suarez ran again against his arch-nemesis, Carollo, in 1997, to regain an office now granted “strong mayor” powers. In the short span between election victory and being judiciously kicked out of office after it was discovered that a few too many nonresidents and/or dead people had voted for him, Suarez appeared to have gone nuts. Miamians know all the stories. There’s Xavier in the bathrobe at the Miami Herald building and writing letters critiquing reporting coverage. Xavier dropped in late at night at the home of an old lady who’d written a letter of complaint. There was Xavier claiming the city wasn’t in financial crisis and calling a state legislator Senator Cabbage. More destructive than these bizarre incidents was Suarez’s penchant for firing people seemingly every 10 minutes.

I mentioned Suarez in a recent column about Miami’s political past, not by name, but by the appellation bestowed on him by Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen – Mayor Loco. Suarez hates this and feels it is an unfair characterization. He asked for an opportunity to explain his side, and I suggested lunch. We met at Vieja Habana, a popular Cuban restaurant on 37th Avenue, in the Shenandoah neighborhood. When I arrived, Suarez was reading a book. I glanced at the title and laughed. Suarez gently closed the cover of The Sociopath Next Door and extended his hand. “Xavier,” I said, “you’re making this far too easy.”

I had breaded chicken and maduros. Suarez picked at his usual, a chicken salad with crackers. The book he explained as a recommendation from a colleague who knew of his interest in psychology. He said he didn’t want to go into the past too much, but then proceeded to demonstrate that he still lives there. “It was a new bathrobe,” he explained of one of the more famous stories about him. “It was three in the morning and I put on this new bathrobe that made me feel like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, and probably some jeans and went to get the paper. Nobody was out to see me.”

I glimpsed the reason why Suarez still has a small following, even though he has lost every election bid he’s tried since 1998. He’s a smart guy, and very well read. He is gracious at times and always searching to connect with people. I was interested in his take on the current city administration. Much like another political ghost, Richard Dunn, Suarez has begun to connect with the growing number of activists angry at Manny Diaz and his commission allies for what they view as an unresponsive and arrogant city government bent on burying Miami’s ills beneath legions of condos and McMansions.

In typical, frustrating Suarez style, the ex-mayor revealed that reflection has benefited his perspective not at all when it comes to himself (i.e., “One of my pet peeves was the whole thing about the city being bankrupt, for God’s sake. Yeah, we had a couple of years with deficits, and they changed the accounting. Yes, there was a lot of tumultuousness. I like to think it was caused by Carollo or whoever.”) But, like many fractured visionaries, he makes a couple of good points. For instance, Miami never really evolves so much as it recycles. “I’m feeling a little bit like it’s 1985,” Suarez said. “The [feeling then was that] neighborhood associations were not being listened to, the politicians were not accessible, and that what counts is if you’re a major developer.”

Suarez characterizes the activists as a melding of new and old, from e-mail- blasting parks aficionado Steve Hagen to Arsenio Milian, a Silver Bluffs resident concerned about the rapidly changing character of his neighborhood. “The house next door to where his parents live, they just approved a building to be built and it literally looks like the building is going to fall on top of the house,” Suarez said. “Arsenio was telling me all the special concessions they got for that building. We would not allow any of that [in my day]. We shouldn’t have variances. We have a zoning code. There should be no ands, ifs or buts.”

I asked him what he thought of the Diaz administration. Suarez offered a mixed assessment, peppered with reminiscences of his own tenure. He doesn’t like how Diaz’s salary got raised to $150,000 without public notice and he thinks the police should be paid more. “Police work is very high-level activity,” he said, adding with a laugh, “You may have to arrest the mayor.” He feels Diaz has done well in terms of raising the city’s profile. “In that sense, I think Manny has done a good job,” he said. “But you have to have the follow-through and when something goes wrong in your city, you have to be there. These people want to be heard.”

As for City Manager Joe Arriola, well, he “is really a piece of work.” Suarez worries that the manager’s mouth cost Miami the Marlins, for instance. “You have this sort of strange-acting city manager,” Suarez said. “It’s probably a little bit like Dick Cheney shooting his hunting buddy. Some of those antics are not as big a deal as they might seem to be, but they do give a feeling of someone who is difficult to deal with. He may be good in other ways, bringing business sense to the city, but with a guy that is that abrasive … he shouldn’t be leading discussions.”

I asked Suarez how the gentrification trend would affect city politics. “We have a nice reverse migration going on right now of yuppies and wealthy people coming back into the city,” he said. “To the extent that people have more leisure time and professional backgrounds, the level of scrutiny is higher. Certainly, I would not want to be in the shoes of a certain commissioner [Joe Sanchez] who represents where I live. There will be a movement to unseat him if he shows his face in the [next] election.”

Might you be interested in running for office again, Mr. Suarez? He shrugs noncommittally, but his eyes spark just a little bit.

Comments? E-mail wakefield@miamisunpost.com.