Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes offends Brickell neighborhood, people

Someone get Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes a map to the city, please. And pronto!

Reyes went on Channel 7 News over the weekend from a COVID19 relief food distribution event at Miami City Casino — which he recently voted to settle a lawsuit with — and pretty much dissed the entire Brickell neighborhood, an area he is supposed to represent as chairman of the Downtown Development Authority.

“Miami is not Ocean Drive. Miami is not South Beach. Miami is not Brickell Avenue,” Reyes said, on camera. “Miami is this — working people that now have a huge need. And it is our duty as elected officials to try to help those people.”

Some Brickell residents went nuts. They live in Miami. I mean, isn’t it his duty as an elected official to help them, too?

“We are a great part of the city of Miami. We work hard to be a part of Miami, and we also work and fight hard for our city,” said Julie Santos. “We, as part of Brickell, feel offended.”

That’s just one of the text messages and phone calls received by Chilean Cremata Duran, the president of the Brickell Bay Homeowner Association and the Brickell Shores Association for more than 10 years. She sent the commissioner an email.

“I want to inform you that it is shameful that you represent the DDA, which is part of Brickell, and that you are not informed that Brickell is a district of hard ‘working people,'” wrote Duran, a 40-year resident who Ladra knows is a political influencer because she drums up votes. People trust her. They ask her who to vote for.

“Here, we have banks from all over the world, companies from all parts of the country. It is the most commercial and hard working zone in the city of Miami,” she wrote.

“In the name of our residents, they have asked me to tell you that you have no idea of the necessities of the city of Miami. You don’t correctly represent us and we ask you to please get informed before you talk or, if not, then don’t talk,” wrote Duran, one of the District 2 residents who has threatened to recall Reyes after his power grab of the DDA.

“Or better yet, it would give us great pleasure if you resigned from everything relating to Brickell. We don’t want you here. We elected and have pride in Ken Russell,” she added, referring to the commissioner who was stripped of his DDA and Omni CRA chairmanships when the new majority, with the election of former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in November, took over.

“We don’t want you here! You were not elected in this district. We expect you to do the decent thing and resign and go to your Shenandoah neighborhood that there are plenty of problems there!”

Ouch. But part of it is true.

Reyes represents District 4, which does not include Brickell. Those people don’t vote for him so what does he care what they think about what he says about them or what he does with the DDA? Reyes has always been all about his district, which does have it’s own share of problems that he could maybe better spend his time on. After all, those people did vote for him.

How can he objectively represent Brickell at the DDA when he obviously disdains the neighborhood as a glamorous place, without hard-working people, that is not reflective of the real Miami?

Reyes defended his statement and said he was misunderstood. “The perception is that Miami is a glamorous place,” he told Ladra late Sunday. “You can’t deny that South Beach is glamorous. You can’t deny that Brickell is glamorous.

“But Miami is about people who don’t always have what they need,” he said, at the same time as he admitted that some of the people who got food at the Saturday event probably don’t really need it. Farm Share events, which are always turned political when they don’t have to be — even Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who doesn’t represent that district but is running for mayor, was there — are often taken advantage of by residents who really should leave those resources for others. But, Reyes said, they don’t let him decide who gets the bag of produce and who doesn’t.

Still, he wasn’t so concerned about the people who don’t always have what they need at the last commission meeting when he tried to support a move by Diaz de la Portilla to defer giving COVID19 relief meals to people under 65 living paycheck to paycheck and who may be suddenly without work and with no clue as to what they’ll eat when their groceries run out. The Three Amigos tried to stop commissioners Russell and Keon Hardemon from earmarking another $1 million for needy families and Reyes said children in public schools already had breakfast and dinner. It’s probably not his fault that he doesn’t realize that some of those kids’ parents may not have cars to get to the schools to pick up the grab-and-go meals. But doesn’t he think they deserve dinner, too?

He also summarily dismissed Duran and other Brickell activists as a handful of malcontents who are mad at him for his vote to up zone a property from eight to 24 stories. Well, duh! When you do that, how can they think you have their interests at heart? Besides, they are also mad at the power grab because they don’t feel represented by Reyes. And why should they? He showed on Sunday that he doesn’t really consider them the hard working people of Miami.

Jabier Arbeloa, another Brickell resident, also took issue with what Reyes said and sent him an email that Ladra got a copy of.

“I heard today your interview in which you said that ‘Miami is not Brickell’ and implied that people in Brickell are not hardworking. I found your comments inappropriate and offensive,” Arbeloa wrote. “I was disgusted, but coming from you, I was not surprised.

“Like myself, my neighbors are hardworking, honest citizens who pay taxes and fulfill their duties. We do not need nor deserve that treatment from a supposed public servant that doesn’t even represent our district. It looks like your interest in Brickell is limited to serving the agenda of your shady campaign donors,” Arbeloa continued. “As a citizen, I would ask you to show the decency and respect expected from a public servant in your position, but since you keep demonstrating that you are unwilling and unable to do it, I will only demand one thing: KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT OF BRICKELL.”

Ladra couldn’t reach the board members of the DDA on Sunday to see what they thought of their new chairman’s choice words. I reached out to the two whose contact information I have, but they did not respond. Commissioner Russell did get back to me.

“I don’t have a response and would never speak poorly of the residents of another part of the city,” Russell texted Ladra Sunday. “If the current crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we’re all in this together. We don’t need to put down one part of the city in order to support another.”

Steven Ferreiro, Reyes’ chief of staff, told Ladra late Sunday that 500 cars pulled up to the Magic City Casino parking lot Saturday and each got 25 pounds of food through Farm Share and Helping Others and Giving Hope. He took these photos of the event that he shared with Political Cortadito:

Brickell, COVID19, Farm Share, Manolo Reyes

Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes offends Brickell neighborhood, people added by Ladra on April 5, 2020
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