Last week our Report dealt with the haphazard manner in which the city supervises how sidewalks are built, maintained, cleaned, and finally, accessed by the general public. It appears that everything is allowed to inhabit the right of ways specifically reserved for people. The article attempted to warn our sleepy building officials that we are in violation of ADA legislation that prohibits any obstacle from appearing on a public way that will mitigate against accessibility.
Mess #2 has to deal with the ever-increasing numbers of back-lit soda machines appearing around town, especially in the historic old town district. Wherever you may meander on a balmy star-lit evening, you are bound to meet up with an over colorful, over-sized, disturbingly bright and outrageously exposed soft-drink machine.
Luckily, the City had the good conscience to remove the shining pop machine that found a home, for a while, in the Key West Cemetery. But certainly there is someone at City Hall who has noticed the piercing bright soda advertisements appearing all over the island.
Someone should be changing the code to exclude back-lit, plastic-type signs in the historic district. Just to make sure our smart-guy marketers get the point, all back-lit machines and product dispensers should be outlawed within the same areas.
When I was a child I did not need a light bulb or fluorescent tube to find a soda machine. As an adult I still find I am pretty savvy at finding all types of stores, at all hours of the day or night, where I can buy a can of soda. It is a mystery why anyone would be wandering around the city of Key West at 2:30 a.m. looking for a soda machine. Why the need for lights?
Why have the American soft-drink corporations found it necessary to electrify their dispensers to get the attention of kids and adults? Over 20 years ago, my hometown waged a battle with vending operators who wished to saturate elementary and high schools with soda machines. Our local school board found that an exorbitant amount of sugar consumed during school hours was probably not a good idea for children— or teachers.
Now the brightly-lit vampires of the night are sucking coins from our pockets and inserting a burst of sugar in our veins. It really doesn't matter what time of the day or what section of town you are from— these machines are in your face.
This writer does not particularly care if the soda companies are making big bucks— in fact, I honestly feel they are welcome to every dollar they make. I still like an occasional Coke or Pepsi. It is also none of my concern if kids can drink sugar at school, on the way home from school, or at three o'clock in the morning. I don't tell vampires how to run their businesses or raise their kids.
But this writer does get a little upset when the soft drink barons try to ruin my community. Back-lit soda machines on porches, on side walks, staring out of main street windows and doors, are ruining the serenity, beauty and charm of Key West. It does not have to be this way. You don't have to let anyone make a mess of your town.