More Issues of Concern

Heard on the Neighborhood Circuit
Voters should get to decide more issues

Denying the voters of Key West the right to decide whether to accept Higgs Beach from
the county is insulting. Note that within the last year referenda have: established our right
to approve annexations; given Truman property to an assisted-living facility; and given
Truman property to the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust [BCCLT].

What sense does it then make to deny us, the voters, the opportunity to decide how to
handle this persisting and painful problem? The well-meaning self-appointed guardians of
the public who oppose giving us the vote apparently think we are not smart enough to
decide whether we, the electorate and our commissioners, can handle this marvelous but
poorly managed park better than the county can.

I say the people and current administration of Key West deserve the chance. What is
proposed is a public-private partnership to improve the park. ...

Key Westers have shown tremendous talent, energy, and generosity to make our town
better. Citizens founded and run the BCCLT, Key West Garden Club, Key West Tropical
Forest & Botanical Garden, the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, Sculpture Key
West, FIRM, Tropic Cinema, Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, Western Union, the dog
park, various pocket parks, The Studios of Key West, the Mohawk, Nancy Forrester's
Secret Garden, Boys & Girls Clubs, SHAL [Southernmost Homeless Assistance League],
and many others.

In the past 10 years, by contrast, former governments have spent more than $100 million
on offices and monuments to themselves: the Harvey Government Center, Gato Building,
Freeman Justice Center, police and fire buildings, Jackson Square renovations, the
McCoy airport, and useless A1A reconstruction. As a city and county taxpayer, I wish we
had been allowed to vote on those.

Now we have a chance to do something for the people of Key West, in particular the
working families. Especially since the current commission has been honestly trying to
work for the people. In addition to the green initiatives, we now have the long-awaited
North Roosevelt Boulevard bike path, a soccer field, skateboard park, and an improved
Bayview Park. And while you may disagree with their interest in supporting the
Vandenberg and annexing Wisteria Island, those both stood the chance of benefiting the
people much more than the $100 million bureaucratic edifices have.

If the voters of Key West get cold feet in November and decide to try half measures to
improve Higgs by working better with the county, I will gladly accept and respect that
decision. But to maintain that the citizens and government of Key West do not deserve
even the chance to decide for ourselves is just not right. We recently stopped Wisteria
development and approved the assisted living facility and BCCLT grant. We have not
become too ignorant since then to decide as a community whether we can make
something good out of what has been one of our most embarrassing and persisting
problems.

Rick Boettger

Key West
Once in a while,
somebody gits it
right!
A great many people think they are
thinking, when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices.
               --William James
Editor's note: We received a couple of
e-mails from folks asking, "Why the big
rush to deep-six the transfer of Higgs
Beach to the City?"
They seemed to think that an opportunity
like that doesn't come around too often.
After all, the current slump (hopefully)
won't go on forever.
We thought that Rick's letter (below)
brought our some good points: food for
thought.
QOTD
Quote of the Day
Key West quality of life is now just a memory

I was born and raised on the Island of Key West. In
2003, I sold my home and moved to Central Florida.
This past May, I moved back to Key West. In May, I
was very excited to return to the Keys — the blue
ocean, the friendly people. I remembered the ease
of obtaining employment without the corporate
way of going to three interviews for the same
company or firm before a decision was made.
Wow, are those really memories.

I have submitted approximately 15 to 20 resumes,
complete with a letter of recommendation from a
prestigious local, and have received zero, zilch,
nothing. I am still unemployed, the rent is way
expensive, the utilities are way high and the
homeless panhandlers are nasty and out of
control.

Additionally, the Keys have a terrible rodent
problem that is out of control. The quality of life
just doesn't exist here anymore.

I am a very qualified college graduate and I have
yet to receive a call back from any of the job
openings that I have applied for. I realize the
economy and job market is bad everywhere, but
why advertise openings for employment if in fact
nobody is really hiring? A response would be a
wonderful thing.

I am heading back to Central Florida ASAP, where
the air doesn't smell like urine in the grocery store
parking lot, fuel and utilities are less expensive,
my mortgage payment is one third of my rent
payment in Key West, rodents are less likely, and
there are some people who aren't either stoned or
drunk. Never thought I would, or could, feel this
way about my beloved island. I am a fourth-
generation Conch, by the way.

Sharon Pierce

Key West
Key West has lost its Conch character

Where did Key West go ?

I graduated from Key West High in 1965 and
attended what was then Monroe County
Junior College. Two years ago, I traveled back
to Key West and it was a sad experience.

What happened to Key West? Where did the
all the old Conchs go?

I looked for familiar names in the phone book
and found very few, if any.

Like so many places I have visited, it seems
that the influx of so many wanna-bes, for lack
of a better term, have taken over.

The downtown district with all its trinket shops
and cheap imports has ruined the old Conch
quaintness of Key West.

The old Royal Castle I worked at while a high
school kid is now a motorcycle shop.

Back in the day we always had winter birds
visiting, but most did not stay. They visited
and moved on, leaving Key West intact as a
unique, close- knit little community.

I have followed a bit of the news in Key West
the last couple of years and read, with
disappointment, issues like the cats at the
Hemingway House and the chickens running
about.

Do you people who have moved in from
foreign countries and other states not grasp
the concept of how your "progress" and
greed for a dollar bill has already ruined Key
West?

Probably not, since most of you never knew
the old Key West in its pristine state.

Property values are off the charts, a testimony
to more greed of the dollar. Lots of them are
no more than over-priced shacks, but I guess
if you have the money and are stupid enough
to pay the price, hooray for you.

I would urge each of you to try and imagine
what Key West used to be like, and make a
conscious effort to try and do your part to
return it to its small- town, quaint, and
uncomplicated state that it once was [in].

Concrete, steel and souvenir shops are not
the answer.

Go to the lighthouse, climb to the top and look
out over that area. That is a glimpse of the old
Conch town that Key West used to be before
all the transplants came in and started
changing things to suit them, rather than work
on retaining the old flavor of a small island
paradise.

Gary M. Adams, Temple, Texas
"Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings...."

Below and to the right are two letters that readers
have sent in to us.

Yes, the Old Key West is gone. Part of the problem is
that the Conchs didn't know what they had until they
gave it away or sold it cheap. Not that they weren't led
down the primrose path by a good number of their own.

Our hope is that the present real estate crisis and the
anti-incumbent sentiment will delay the island's further
ruination for a little while longer. We can only hope...