Where does all the time go? Nobody I know is really enjoying life in the Keys anymore. People tell me they won't put my "I Love Key West and its chickens" bumper stickers on their cars . . . because they choke so bad on the "I Love Key West" portion of it.
We residents have too much on our plate. Home, health, affordability— and now, how to finish the Buquebus terminal, whether the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust should meet in the sunshine, who should do what in the Salt Ponds, what exactly is going to be done with the Truman Waterfront . . . and whether Higgs Beach is profitable.
Why should we have to spend our time thinking about these things? Because our tax dollars are at stake. We have so darn much City property. And we are still looking to buy more: Commissioner Jeremy Anthony apparently thinks the City could make money if we bought Higgs Beach from the county! If our money is going to be used, we have to be concerned about how it is spent.
Where will it end? Will Key West Bight income pay to finish the Buquebus terminal? Has Mallory paid for itself? Will a Key West ferry service to Naples or Cuba, work better than a Key West bus service from Downtown to New Town? I doubt it.
Yet the City must be making good money at the Bight, because we hear Duval merchants complaining bitterly how tourist traffic was stolen from them by that redevelopment project and its parking. "Using City money to compete against us, the City taxpayers," they say.
We now also must consider whether the speed limit here should be lowered to 20 miles per hour. But we will have help on this. The City Commission is calling for a feasibility study. (Your bill is in the mail.)
True, we came here for the "laid-back" atmosphere. But must it be mandated under penalty of law? (Our main thoroughfares— Flagler Ave., North and South Roosevelt Boulevards and portions of other streets— are county or state roads and would still not be subject to the 20-mile speed limit.)
"Safety" is often cited by Commissioners as the operative reason for legislation. Safety seems to often preclude animals, trees, old-fashioned ways of doing things, spontaneity, and picturesque views.
When safety measures are not sufficient to eliminate all hazards for the rest of time, grim-faced victims of circumstance plead to Commissioners to tighten the laws, put "teeth" in the code, and further restrict us.
People petition the Commission non-stop for less freedom, less noise, less tourism, more limits, more zoning, more safety, and more conformity with the rest of the USA! Sometimes they even tell us how much better it is in Europe.
Most Commissioners seem very much impressed and intimidated by this, and usually give these whiners what they want. The residents who are content with Key West only show their faces when all that they love is about to be sacrificed for the whiners.
We could save a lot of public money if instead, we set up a "Victims in Paradise" fund to handle people who gripe to their Commissioners more than three times in a year. They would be taken seriously twice, but the third time they would be simply offered a free ride out.
A plane ticket would cost a whole lot less than a Higgs Beach purchase, a stormwater contract with CH2M Hill— or Operation Chicken Snatch (last estimated at $10,000 to $15,000; never even voted by the Commission.) We could give malcontents what they want— the safety, conformity and quiet of a Century Village, where only the creaking of wheelchairs breaks the silence, where untamed foliage, tourism and loud music is banned.
And the rest of us could sell off all this crummy excess City property that is supposed to pay for all the "improvements" demanded by them, turn the proceeds into affordable rent vouchers for underpaid working stiffs, and get back to our own concerns.