Last Saturday volunteers spent some time at the Southernmost Point gathering baseline information for the tour bus committee. The City Commission appointed the tour bus committee to make recommendations for an ordinance to manage tour busses that visit Key West.
In the two hours I was there we didn't see any tour busses, but there was plenty going on to keep things interesting. A constantly changing throng of people of all ages and descriptions dodged various modes of transportation in a dangerous situation. It's a high traffic area for cars and other large vehicles and on the average a conch train or trolley went by every seven or eight minutes. People have to stand in the street to get a photograph of the monument and while looking through the lens they are not paying attention to their surroundings.
The situation was rendered every more dangerous by the rising tide that flooded the intersection leaving pedestrians and cars to compete for a dry strip about five feet wide in the center of the paved road. As the waves washed cross the street, four-foot-wide puddles formed on both sides of the intersection. A woman kept the water at bay with a broom so people could get to the shell stand. People were having a great time waiting their turn to take photos with the buoy and laughed when waves splashed up through the hole in the seawall near the old cable hut and gave them a good soaking. The surf was just one more distraction that made the people filling the intersection forget that they were standing in a street.
The situation claimed one casualty when a woman fell as she tried to cross the huge puddle to get from the street to the sidewalk. Fortunately, she was fine when we went to help her up.
The chaotic situation presented another potential threat to the occupants of a van that pulled up and stopped at the yellow curb directly in front of us. Two people assisted the group of young people with disabilities out of the van where they stood unable to cross the street because of the constant stream of cars. I had to stop traffic from driving around the corner so they could cross the street to pose for a group photo.
From what I witnessed, it's a miracle that someone isn't hurt every day. We can't expect to avoid injury or loss of life if this dangerous mix of people, vehicles and woefully inadequate infrastructure is allowed to continue.
This situation is a perfect example of a project carried out with a total lack of planning on the part of city officials. Another demonstration of city government creating an attractive nuisance and then taking no responsibility for its actions, leaving people in the neighborhood to deal with the noise, traffic and other negative effects on their quality of life.
The city has two viable alternatives to solve this problem. First, the city could move the southernmost point monument to a better location, such as the end of the White Street Pier, which is further south anyway. There is plenty of parking and public bathrooms at Sonny McCoy Indigenous Park. The pier is handicapped accessible. People would have an opportunity to see the AIDS Memorial and would discover another great place to spend some time with their families.
A second alternative is to make the corner where the monument is into a pedestrian plaza without blocking the driveways of neighbors. The plaza could be raised so it would be less prone to flooding and be handicapped accessible. It probably wouldn't hurt merchants sales either if people weren't dodging traffic and water to look at the merchandise.
Of course the city has a third option which is to continue to do nothing. Unfortunately this is the choice that has been made not only at Southernmost Point but many other places in the city where there are inadequate sidewalks and street flooding is a regular occurrence.
It's time for city officials to develop the vision and take action to make our island a safer and more enjoyable place for both locals and visitors.