Excellent news from the Citizen newspaper. Republican voters have ousted Dixie Spehar and Sonny McCoy from the Monroe County Board of Commissioners (BOCC). These two officials along with the Mayor Di Gennaro have been an absolute plague on the county and our public treasury. This was only a primary vote but it was sufficient to get these clowns out of office, and as far as I, a Democrat, am concered this result spells victory for all of us. The county budget is a mess, all reserves spent and still ten million dollars to cut, but with any luck things may start to improve now that the dreaded "Gang of Three" is broken up. Di Gennaro was appointed to his job by former Governor Jeb Bush and one can only hope he will be ousted the same way when he faces the voters for the first time. Him and his plans to inflict county airports in Marathon and Key West.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Goodbye Gustav
Well, that was easy. Checking the national Hurricane Center we find a new path for Hurricane Gustav currently pillaging the Greater Antilles and now apparently projected to roll along Cuba's south coast doing them endless harm and eventually popping out into the Gulf of Mexico. All of which is bad for them and good for us. That's the thing about hurricane season, with which one cannot reason as the singer/songwriter noted, and one finds oneself hoping not to get hit at the expense of some other poor unfortunate. I'm sure the people in Haiti aren't enjoying it and even though Cuba has excellent civil defense and evacuation procedures it doesn't do Cubans any good to get drowned. It's looking good on this storm remembering Gustav is still traveling and there are more orange splotches of disturbed weather in the Atlantic so there will probably be plenty more to come. My link Hurricane Center takes you right there if you care to do your own hurricane prediction.
Ann Street
Ann Street is a modest little block barely noticed by busy people swarming around Lower Duval. Ann cuts between Greene Street (named for one of the four founders of the city) and Caroline Street (named for someone else). The landmark that pins Ann Street down is Old City Hall:
And Old City Hall dominates Green Street as well:
Ann Street is just another of the myriad Key West streets named for women, for some reason I can't fathom. Boats get female names usually so perhaps there was just a huge number of remarkable boats that deserved streets naming after them . I don't know and as usual I am digressing. Here's the 200 Block of Ann Street, the only block in fact:
The homes along Ann are not very numerous, there's an empty lot, and how rare is that in Key West? Not as rare as you might think, and frequently they seem to be hardly used at all:
Spare ground, as it were with a dead tree standing tall like a piece of sculpture. There are the conch cottages of course, and ample palm fronds too:
Ann Street seems to rejoice in an unusually large proportion of large buildings:
Including this one with spectacular examples of fine Bahama shutters. A friend who has this type of window covering disappointed me before Tropical Storm Fay hit. She said the shutters seem nearly useless banging loudly and shaking in the winds. I always thought that in addition to looking good they made good hurricane shutters:
Perhaps others have better luck with them. I hope so because I like seeing them around town. The Curry Mansion is huge of course, it wouldn't be a mansion otherwise:
And the small houses are nestled in their foliage:
Both inside the trash cans and out of them. Joh McClane of Scooter in Turkey fame has made his disdain for bougainvillea known so I took a picture of something that isn't. I have no clue what this pink flowered arrangement is called:
The bare tree to the right is a telephone pole. I do know that. I also came across another classic car that looked to me vaguely like a Corsair though I'm probably wrong on that too:
Valuable off street parking collecting dust and cobwebs, which seems like a waste to me. And there is the distance, grilling in the August sun, lies Caroline Street:
But it's Old City Hall with its bulk that dominates Ann Street, looking back towards Greene Street:
I have noted elsewhere on the offices underneath the building undergoing renovation. The work viewed from the exterior seems extensive:
But these are beautiful and impressive doorways, suitable for such a building as this:
The city is talking about moving the current city hall from Angela Street and building something new elsewhere. This place looks big enough surely?
And one could sit and contemplate its proportions from a comfortable table across the street on Greene:
And Old City Hall dominates Green Street as well:Ann Street is just another of the myriad Key West streets named for women, for some reason I can't fathom. Boats get female names usually so perhaps there was just a huge number of remarkable boats that deserved streets naming after them . I don't know and as usual I am digressing. Here's the 200 Block of Ann Street, the only block in fact:The homes along Ann are not very numerous, there's an empty lot, and how rare is that in Key West? Not as rare as you might think, and frequently they seem to be hardly used at all:Spare ground, as it were with a dead tree standing tall like a piece of sculpture. There are the conch cottages of course, and ample palm fronds too:Ann Street seems to rejoice in an unusually large proportion of large buildings:Including this one with spectacular examples of fine Bahama shutters. A friend who has this type of window covering disappointed me before Tropical Storm Fay hit. She said the shutters seem nearly useless banging loudly and shaking in the winds. I always thought that in addition to looking good they made good hurricane shutters:Perhaps others have better luck with them. I hope so because I like seeing them around town. The Curry Mansion is huge of course, it wouldn't be a mansion otherwise:And the small houses are nestled in their foliage:Both inside the trash cans and out of them. Joh McClane of Scooter in Turkey fame has made his disdain for bougainvillea known so I took a picture of something that isn't. I have no clue what this pink flowered arrangement is called:The bare tree to the right is a telephone pole. I do know that. I also came across another classic car that looked to me vaguely like a Corsair though I'm probably wrong on that too:Valuable off street parking collecting dust and cobwebs, which seems like a waste to me. And there is the distance, grilling in the August sun, lies Caroline Street:But it's Old City Hall with its bulk that dominates Ann Street, looking back towards Greene Street:I have noted elsewhere on the offices underneath the building undergoing renovation. The work viewed from the exterior seems extensive: But these are beautiful and impressive doorways, suitable for such a building as this:The city is talking about moving the current city hall from Angela Street and building something new elsewhere. This place looks big enough surely?And one could sit and contemplate its proportions from a comfortable table across the street on Greene: Some lucky vacationer no doubt long since gone from Key West, and probably never even noticed little Ann Street.
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