There will be a Staples Avenue bicycle bridge—it is only a matter of time. Perhaps, a long time. It seemed Tuesday night as if time is what the City Commission has the most.
We are talking, of course, about the planned bicycle bridge which would allow non-motorized traffic to navigate between Old Town and New Town on a road parallel to Flagler Avenue, without exposing riders to Flagler traffic hazards.
The Commissioners—except for May Jimmy Weekley, and Harry Bethel—could have simply said, "I'm voting for the bridge and I don't care about the neighbors who oppose it. They are not in my district and can't vote against me, can't vote for me. I don't have to care what they want. I only have to care about the wants of the (maybe tops) two thousand active voters in my home district."
You got a problem with this? You probably voted this system into place. It's called single-member districting. Single-member districting could be our friend. The bridge could have been approved for once and all, and the Commission could have adjourned a half-hour earlier.
Before single-member districting, all five Commissioners (there were only five back then) were elected by all Key West voters. The redistricting plan was initiated to put a black face on the City Commission (it was not supposed to be Carmen Turner's black face, ironically enough), and it wound up requiring the addition of two districts. The mayor is still elected at large, by residents of all districts.
Harry Bethel of course said he would fight any disruption in that neighborhood. He is elected by those Staple Avenue constituents, and they can "de-elect" him. He said, in a nutshell, that when forced to vote for this bridge for safety's sake, he would vote for the smallest, least obtrusive, skinniest possible bridge. (This prompted one resident to dub it the "tight-rope style" bridge.)
Mayor Weekley is elected at large, so he has to care about all the districts. He pointed out that he cared so much, he put Staples Bridge on the agenda.
The other Commissioners did not have to, but they wasted a lot of time saying how much they cared about all Key Westers, even those who will never be voting for them (unless they change district or run for mayor).
Jeremy Anthony rededicated himself to public biking safety, and said the bridge, already approved in concept in 1996, had been on the back burner long enough. He also offered to go along if the rest of the Commission was willing to spend half a million buck to bike-laning Flagler Avenue, a less satisfactory option that would leave Staples Avenue untouched. He said he would rather see an eight-foot-wide bridge than a tight-rope.
Carmen Turner liked eight feet, too, and reiterated the safety issue, adding that it was "especially important with a school nearby."
Tom Oosterhoudt, Percy Curry and Merili McCoy also voted for Safety (have all the Commissioners been listening to their constituents on this one?)
Oosterhoudt, as ever fascinated with the police, said he would ask that the new bridge be policed "24 hours a day" if necessary to satisfy the concerns of neighbors. McCoy said she favored building "the biggest bridge" they could put there, because "I'll bet you a Cuban cookie that all the kids in the neighborhood will be fishing off it in no time."
(Stipulated, that all the Commission is for Safety, and against Anarchy, Wife Beating and Arson! There were 2000 people who petitioned the Commission for the bridge, and 171 who signed up in opposition. Still, we must go through the whole song and dance, and listen to the grandstanding.)
We could have been out of chambers a half-hour earlier, with a firm commitment to an eight-foot bridge. As it is, the final approval is delayed to another meeting, which will take place after giving 171 bridge opponents the illusion that they can change the outcome.
The seven votes are there—the Staple Avenue Bridge is going to be built—but I don't know how many more meetings it will take, whether lives will be lost before then, and how much more grandstanding it is going to take, before the City Manager can turn heave a big sigh, turn to his troops, and say, "Make it so."