For many visitors to Key West the life and color and chaos of Duval Street is what they come to town to see and enjoy.
However for some other people the ability to live close by but to be removed from the chaos itself is worth moving behind bars. 
Truman Annex used to be the annex to the Key West Navy Base, founded in 1845 and renamed thanks to the time President Truman spent here during his presidency. In 1974 the annex was declared surplus to requirements and in 1986 was auctioned off to a young, untested developer who didn't actually have the 17 million dollar selling price.
Pritam Singh first came to Key West as a youthful wanderer and the tale is told he slept rough on Christmas Tree Island and around the city owing to his reduced circumstances. It is a typical Key West story from the era, a visionary who saw what was possible in a town made derelict by disuse and disinterest. Singh, a white boy from Boston, took up Sikhism, renamed himself and took off putting up developments right and left.
Singh's developments are noted for landscaping and a particular style of building known everywhere as the "Key West style" though I think more properly it should be attributed to the man who made it popular. 
I am no great fan of gated communities not least here as Key West itself is something of a gated community- an island at the end of a what is essentially a very long peninsula with one bridge in and one only. Yet for some people the cleanliness and "safety" of gates and security guards are what allow them to sleep at night.
Plus in a town where short term rentals are regulated the Annex won a court case permitting short term rentals much more loosely than in the rest of the city. That means absentee owners make some money off an investment that has lost value here as elsewhere in the US over the last few years. It also means drunks do occasionally troll through here on their way back to their vacation digs.
Pritam Singh is now suggesting he might be ready to build a hotel on the open space near Schooner Wharf and he has his critics as well as his supporters. The way he landscapes has been mentioned as a positive thing while other people think his plans will lower the tone of the neighborhood. I don't think Truman Annex, for all it's gates and fences, has lowered the tone but it does raise questions in my mind.
Key West is a tourist town that has great difficulty defining itself. On the one hand it tries to appeal to the mass tourism of cruise ships and t shirt shops and open air bars that throw alcohol down as a challenge almost as one walks the few blocks of Lower Duval.
At the same time the city is littered with homes fit for millionaires as winter toys, restaurants of discernment and expense, and resorts that appeal to people who don't mind spending money for a high end winter retreat vacation. All in the security found inside the passport-free borders of the United States.
So what is the city to do? High brow or low? We get no leadership from city leaders not least because the status quo is making important people money. There has to be a fear of upsetting the apple cart at a time when Key West is the only tourist destination in Florida that is seeing higher numbers of visitors than in years past. Every other destination in the sunshine state is seeing a decrease.
Truman Annex is gentrification and that is a word the provokes strong reactions. yet Key West has always been about gentrification ever since it was founded. It was home to Florida's first millionaire and the city went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Rich people come and go and workers do the same. Residents lament the changes, but they always have. The good old days are today, and yet we live in the shadow of the perfection of the good old days of yesterday and we worry about how to maintain the balance between the gentry and the rest of us. I like the balance as it is, when I came in 1981 Key West was a backwater and I was too young to enjoy it. Now that I'm middle aged and have seen all the bright lights I care to I'd like to have the old Key West of 1981, back. There again with the economy trending as it is there is a chance it may well come around again. I plan to take it as it comes, upscale or low, or just the same. What else is there to do? Keep on keeping on...of course!
However for some other people the ability to live close by but to be removed from the chaos itself is worth moving behind bars. Truman Annex used to be the annex to the Key West Navy Base, founded in 1845 and renamed thanks to the time President Truman spent here during his presidency. In 1974 the annex was declared surplus to requirements and in 1986 was auctioned off to a young, untested developer who didn't actually have the 17 million dollar selling price.Pritam Singh first came to Key West as a youthful wanderer and the tale is told he slept rough on Christmas Tree Island and around the city owing to his reduced circumstances. It is a typical Key West story from the era, a visionary who saw what was possible in a town made derelict by disuse and disinterest. Singh, a white boy from Boston, took up Sikhism, renamed himself and took off putting up developments right and left.
Singh's developments are noted for landscaping and a particular style of building known everywhere as the "Key West style" though I think more properly it should be attributed to the man who made it popular. I am no great fan of gated communities not least here as Key West itself is something of a gated community- an island at the end of a what is essentially a very long peninsula with one bridge in and one only. Yet for some people the cleanliness and "safety" of gates and security guards are what allow them to sleep at night.
Plus in a town where short term rentals are regulated the Annex won a court case permitting short term rentals much more loosely than in the rest of the city. That means absentee owners make some money off an investment that has lost value here as elsewhere in the US over the last few years. It also means drunks do occasionally troll through here on their way back to their vacation digs.
Pritam Singh is now suggesting he might be ready to build a hotel on the open space near Schooner Wharf and he has his critics as well as his supporters. The way he landscapes has been mentioned as a positive thing while other people think his plans will lower the tone of the neighborhood. I don't think Truman Annex, for all it's gates and fences, has lowered the tone but it does raise questions in my mind.
Key West is a tourist town that has great difficulty defining itself. On the one hand it tries to appeal to the mass tourism of cruise ships and t shirt shops and open air bars that throw alcohol down as a challenge almost as one walks the few blocks of Lower Duval.At the same time the city is littered with homes fit for millionaires as winter toys, restaurants of discernment and expense, and resorts that appeal to people who don't mind spending money for a high end winter retreat vacation. All in the security found inside the passport-free borders of the United States.
So what is the city to do? High brow or low? We get no leadership from city leaders not least because the status quo is making important people money. There has to be a fear of upsetting the apple cart at a time when Key West is the only tourist destination in Florida that is seeing higher numbers of visitors than in years past. Every other destination in the sunshine state is seeing a decrease.
Truman Annex is gentrification and that is a word the provokes strong reactions. yet Key West has always been about gentrification ever since it was founded. It was home to Florida's first millionaire and the city went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Rich people come and go and workers do the same. Residents lament the changes, but they always have. The good old days are today, and yet we live in the shadow of the perfection of the good old days of yesterday and we worry about how to maintain the balance between the gentry and the rest of us. I like the balance as it is, when I came in 1981 Key West was a backwater and I was too young to enjoy it. Now that I'm middle aged and have seen all the bright lights I care to I'd like to have the old Key West of 1981, back. There again with the economy trending as it is there is a chance it may well come around again. I plan to take it as it comes, upscale or low, or just the same. What else is there to do? Keep on keeping on...of course! 
3 comments:
Nice thread connection. The Annex to the development behind SW. Personally - the annex is too sanitary for me, but it's nice to bike through. We cut thru on our way home from ft zach, left on Emma to Fleming.
Nothing beats the original funk of Old Town, but Singh's development kicks Spotswood ass every time, IMHO. Marriott Beachside? Not so much.
From Fleming by way of Fell's Point, MD,
Chuck.
We love Fells Point but once again it involves the G-word, gentrification. Yuppies moving in and re-habbing the row houses, oh, excuse me, the town houses. Frat boys on weekends pissing and puking on your front steps. Breakfast at Jimmy's is a favorite.
It is happening everywhere and I fear with the social inequality we are pursuing so vigorously we will swee much more of it.
Post a Comment