One of the great dividers in Key West society is whether one is pro or con cruise ship visits. The city makes something like two and a half million dollars a year from harbor fees, harbor pilots make large salaries thanks to the federal requirement that they show ships the way in.
Historic Tours of America have a half million dollar annual contract to ferry passengers form the Outer mole to the north end of Duval Street. Shop owners at Lower Duval get thousands of shoppers traipsing through their stores. Tours get tons of visitors from the ships. 
People who see no direct connection to the coin from the ships protest that the crowds make downtown Key West unpleasantly crowded. Shop owners on the southern end of Duval say the ship passengers aren't encouraged to visit their end of the street. 
Environmentalists say the ships stir up crud from the harbor bottom and make the waters cloudy, those same waters the coral reefs need to be clear to allow sunshine underwater. 
The slowly trundling trolleys and conch trains clutter the streets say residents who hate following them around at five miles per hour. God forbid a street be closed by roadwork!
Me? I have no opinion. I understand the complaints of cluttering and pollution but anyone who chooses to live in Old Town expecting a quiet life needs to rent for a while before they buy to see how they feel about it before they commit. I appreciate the money that still flows through Key West as much of the rest of the country squirms under the weight of unemployment. To some problems I see no easy solutions.
Historic Tours of America have a half million dollar annual contract to ferry passengers form the Outer mole to the north end of Duval Street. Shop owners at Lower Duval get thousands of shoppers traipsing through their stores. Tours get tons of visitors from the ships. People who see no direct connection to the coin from the ships protest that the crowds make downtown Key West unpleasantly crowded. Shop owners on the southern end of Duval say the ship passengers aren't encouraged to visit their end of the street. Environmentalists say the ships stir up crud from the harbor bottom and make the waters cloudy, those same waters the coral reefs need to be clear to allow sunshine underwater. The slowly trundling trolleys and conch trains clutter the streets say residents who hate following them around at five miles per hour. God forbid a street be closed by roadwork!Me? I have no opinion. I understand the complaints of cluttering and pollution but anyone who chooses to live in Old Town expecting a quiet life needs to rent for a while before they buy to see how they feel about it before they commit. I appreciate the money that still flows through Key West as much of the rest of the country squirms under the weight of unemployment. To some problems I see no easy solutions.
4 comments:
The answer is really quite simple.
Key West is a tourist town - pure and simple. We've been a tourist town ever since the City went bankrupt and Julius Stone moved in to rehabilitate the town in the mid '30s.
If one was born in Key West prior to 1930, one has a right to complain about the tourist trade. Everyone else surrenders that right, as tourism is a pre-existing condition.
Alternately - we talk about wrecking, cigar-making, sponging and fishing, but the industry with the greatest longevity is tourism - going on 80 years now.
So - moving to Key West and then opting to complain about tourists is like moving to Kansas anticipating an ocean view.
If one likes the weather, but dislikes tourism, there's a neato street on Ramrod Key with a few homes for sale; I've heard it's quite safe as a member of the KW police lives there, patrolling it regularly on his motorcycle.
(stepping off soapbox)
Chuck.
Thank you we are keeping Ramrod as tourist free as possible. One of my neighbors stole my first ripe pomegranite so perhaps this is a highly disreputable street.
In Seattle, people who sell their suburban split-levels and move to downtown neighborhoods like Pioneer Square and Belltown famously complain about the noise from the (many) neighborhood bars. People who move to rural Whatcom and Skagit Counties complain about the smell of manure in farm country.
The explanation is simple: these people are idiots.
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
Orin, you really need a job in a 9-1-1 center.
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