One-on-One: Jim Gardner interviews AC mayor Don Guardian

ATLANTIC CITY (WPVI) -- We continue our One on One series, this time with a man who is very much in the news and who has an enormous challenge. He is Don Guardian, the Mayor of Atlantic City.

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He is amiable, he seems confident, and tells me he sleeps well at night - all this even though others see the sky falling on Guardian's city.

By the middle of September, Atlantic City will have lost four casinos and about 8,000 jobs.

I asked, "What is the one key thing that Don Guardian can do as mayor of Atlantic City to shepherd the city through this very difficult time?"

The mayor replied, "Help to transition our city from simply a gambling town to something that's a whole lot more."

The huge but now shuttered Revel Casino Hotel lords over Atlantic City as a monument to these desperate times and people want to know what will happen to the enormous building.

Guardian won't make guarantees, but he told me he's confident it will reopen as another casino hotel.

"There's only three or four major operators out there that could come in, slap their brand on that building, change some of the features inside, and run it. That should be a very successful casino and it will be one day," Guardian said.

Guardian starts each day with a bicycle up and down the boardwalk.

"The job I had before this was with the Business Improvement District, now as mayor I do the same thing," Guardian said.

The mayor says he begins his bike ride at 6:30 a.m., rides the whole boardwalk, sees the conditions of the beaches.

"I have a real good feel of what my beach and my boardwalk look like before I show up at work at 9:00 a.m.," Guardian said.