Street Living

There used to be a time, and I'm dating myself here when even the street people managed to bring a little eccentricity to the city of Key West. I well remember one guy with a shock of red hair (hence his nickname) who used to hang out shirtless and one armed on Caroline Street begging beer and waving merrily with his one remaining arm. He got offered a part in Pirates of the Caribbean when the first movie was made, as producers felt he looked just like the sorts of pirate they wanted to depict surrounding Captain Sparrow.

Perhaps I am simply jaded or perhaps the quality of the street residents today are like their housed neighbors becoming less bohemian and more mainstream. Which is not to say there is any shortage of scruffy oiks on bikes or on foot wandering around the warmest city in the mainland USA, but they don't seem to be burdened with too much of that essential spark that lifts them out of the street and into the world of lovable eccentrics.

And yet they gather and when they do the issues with vagrants in Key West become apparent. I hear a lot of complaints from people harassed by the homeless but I have to say they never bother me, or my dog. They smell bad they get drunk they don't add much o he ambiance of Key West.

Key West though adds a lot for people who need help and as it generally costs about five thousand dollars to move in to a rental apartment there are a lot of working poor in the city. They get free bed space at KOTS, the Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter on city property on Stock Island. There are showers and a mail drop so working stiffs can have a valid address. Its one part of a network of shelters and transitional housing that this rather small community does offer to people seeking a way off the streets. Granted there is not a lot of available low cost subsidized housing I remain quite impressed by the range of help Key West does offer.

Which leaves us wondering why so many people end up on the streets. And let me note not everyone ou see on the streets is necessarily homeless. Read your hone waiting for the Library to open and you could be mistaken for a residentially challenged member of the community.

The thing is the State of Florida has a rule enacted by the state Supreme Court that local government may not arrest vagrants if they do not offer approved secure sleeping locations. So if the city were to do away with KOTS there would be no recourse for sleepers on the city streets at night. As it is there is no eligibility test for public spaces during the day. You can't ban people from parks and benches for being dirty or smelly or making you feel awkward.

I'm not sure why the street population in Key West seems so much more visible than it does in other Florida cities with similar weather but when I go to the mainland I notice the difference. I'm not sure whether to be annoyed by the homeless or glad that there is at least some effort at tolerance in Key West. In part I don't live in the city so I am somewhat removed from the immediacy of people passing out on my porch or  peeing on my fence as happens. Then again I'm not sure who is simply drunk while behaving abominably and who is homeless...

I think the part that is hard to take is the notion of street living as lifestyle. Personally I'd find spending all day doing nothing and having nothing to spend excruciatingly dull. I am not driven to make vast sums of money but some disposable income adds variety to the daily routine. Living out of a bicycle in public parks would get old fast for me.

So, is a sleeper at Simonton Beach a drunk passed out, a youthful impecunious tourist or a homeless guy living the life...Does it matter?

This one looked like it was a tough night that left him sitting at the monument on Greene and Elizabeth Streets. As much as some people despise the homeless vagrants in Key West I am no great fan of public uncontrolled drunkenness. In this town it's elevated to a lifestyle, as much as street living is. And it ends up being just as messy.

The panhandling zone, a free speech area near the tourist attractions seems to have mercifully been abandoned as a bad idea... This is a photo roma few years ago:

But passing out from alcohol and whatever else remains acceptable on Petronia Street just off Duval. It's the price we pay for a successful tourist economy. And police scoop them up as fast as they can and haul them off to dry out but there are just too many.

Everywhere:

So, should we middle class worker bees be envious of the life or resentful of the imposition? Or neither?

We have our escapes, an expensive coffee at Starbucks perhaps, of which there are sadly four in town competing with the tradition of local independent coffee shops. Actually it seems there is plenty of room for both and I like my green tea latte as much as the next yuppie.

And here's another one, better off drinking coffee probably:

So when my wife and I retire with Rusty and take off to enjoy the spaces and cities will we become vagrants too? Will we be carbuncles on the face of settled communities we do not wish to join?

I look forward to finding out in a  few years.(Photo by Pleasure Way of Canada).

Higgs Beach Ablutions

It was a weekday, it was overcast and rather gloomy but still they come and they hang out at the beach.  It's funny because anyone who knows the Keys knows the beaches here are not what you'd expect in Florida, where the peninsula is made of sand. 

But they do like their beaches. And I have to say there weren't many people soaking up the gray overcast. Not least because we are in that blessed hiatus between snowbirds going home and summer vacations not starting. But those that were there were determined to enjoy it. Good for them.

Across the parking lot there was some dude who was unplugging his ears and scrubbing his armpits. I have to say I admired his nerve standing around in the public space acing like he was at home in his own bathroom. Higgs Beach has been a magnet for travelers and bums and idlers for as long as I can remember. The county owns this park and has tried to unload it on the city but the city wants nothing to do with it.

They closed off one set of tables to the bums by making them park of a children's playground so the bums moved. In winter the county pays of an off duty deputy to patrol the beach and keep it sorted out.

 The workers of course have to keep doing their thing, cleaning the trash and so forth, the unsung chores of a tourist town that prefers to advertise the water and the activities and the drinking, not the grungy day to day stuff that fascinates me. 

 And there he still was washing up.

Rusty was tired after a long cross town walk and he watched with interest as we waited for our ride to come pick us up.

Willie Ward Park

I just discovered they are letting dogs into Willie Ward park, a little pocket park on Catherine Street next to the community pool. It's named for Willie Ward, a civil rights leader, singer, radio host and press foreman at The Key West Citizen for many years according to the only record I've found about the man.

They used to have signs saying "No Dogs" and as I am a mostly law abiding type I kept myself and my dogs well out. These days there are no such prohibitions and I quite like Willie Ward so I was happy to lead Rusty to paradise found.

The pool is a peculiar structure,, raised well above ground which at certain angles gives swimmers views out to the Straits of Florida to the south:

And, lo and behold there are actual park benches in this city park. You don't see these very often in Key West and Willie Ward is covered with places to sit.

Some have the anti sleeping requirement of added armrests but not all.

Willie Ward is lush and green and shady and lovely. I have no idea why this  quiet little corner of Key West is  so ideal.

Every ointment has its  fly and there were a few residentially challenged citizens enjoying the serenity as happens in Key West. 

Rusty found them fascinating but for the most part they fill me with sadness. In this country poverty is frequently equated with some obscure moral failing but in my experience as a reporter and a dispatcher most homeless are suffering mental health issues,distant families and all the attendant de-motivators like drugs and alcohol.

I stopped reading Facebook as I got tired of the negativity and anger but hatred of the homeless keeps seeping into my consciousness when I hear people talk about the homeless as though they are on a  scam by not working. Would you hire him?

My overriding impression is that being homeless is profoundly boring. That and the fact that work gives you a place in society, a purpose and a role. I  recall the plan to save money by closing mental health hospitals and this is the result. Tax money saved, parks filled with zombies.  You get your money's worth.

Then there are dog owners in the park. Or at least this one was hanging out. His  little rug rats were what had attracted my butch masculine dog's attention, not the homeless zombies.

It's a pretty well laid out park...

...barbecue grills....

...the blessing of recycling bins even:

None of which was enough to convince the dogs to stay longer and off they buzzed. 

Lots of rules, none of which mention motor vehicles but I can't imagine scooters are encouraged to be in the park, even those ridden by visitors.

Willie Ward will see more of Rusty and I whenever we need shade and a rest.

Panhandling As Riposte

Somebody other than me saw this proposal in the paper. I saw this anonymous comment in the Key West Citizen and the wheels in my head started turning. "Right across from the beautiful green property..."

Sure enough the hotel is lovely, an oasis barely a block from Duval Street, with a piano, a self-service wine bar a swimming pool surrounded by the lush greenery that makes Key West a tropical dreamer's stereotype...

And for years the neighbor across the street was the older city hall and cranky broken down fire station. The building leaked badly in Hurricane Wilma and the mold rendered the building outdated for civilian use.

The firefighters at the Simonton Street end of the building toughed it out for a few more years...a decade actually. Plans were drawn up to ... have a protracted public debate about what to do here. Build a new city hall? A multi-story parking lot? A new fire station? It was anybody's guess and everybody had a guess to throw in the pot.

The owner of the hotel had a loud opinion and boy she was pissed. She started a campaign to defend her hotel against the possibility of dust, construction crews, road closures, all part of a city plot to drive away customers from a small local business etc...etc... The nuclear threat from North Korea was as nothing compared to the construction threat on this block of Angela Street.

In the event the Mayor spoke quietly and carried a large stick and the city fell in line behind his idea to put city hall on White Street and build a proper fire station with a refreshed parking lot. And so it came to pass. Nice eh? And yes there was some construction work but I don't think it was unbearable for neighbors. Maybe it was, who can say, it's all done and peaceful now. The dust, actual and metaphorical has settled.

So why on earth would the city even remotely consider putting a panhandling zone here? No one knows, no one has a clue. Me? I don't know but in life I do know payback is a bitch. And the City of Key West has bigger nuclear warheads than any pissed off local business.

The lesson here is one any incomer to "The Island" would do well to take to heart... It doesn't matter how long you've lived here or who you think you know. You aren't local enough or important enough to take on the real power structure in town. Come on down, be happy and don't rock the boat. I mean who wants these guys, currently defacing city property, for neighbors?

Sure you have First Amendment rights in the Conch Republic but the people in charge have a first amendment bigger and longer than yours.

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Complicated Key West

It looked genuine to me, but Captain Outrageous has been dead for years. how quickly time passes and here is a bicycle at least in his style if not by his hand in use apparently as a daily rider. How lovely.

As it was signed Lady Outrageous it appears to be one painted by his surviving consort and it looks good. It was a treat to see.

I have been trying to photograph the essential Duval Street for years and I can't seem to get it right. I look back at my archive of pictures, hundreds, perhaps thousands  by now and none of therm capture Duval. It is named for the first Territorial Governor of what was to become Florida, an obscure enough character, God knows but here he is enshrined. 

Some days Duval annoys me with its shoddy store fronts, crappy t-shirt shops and chain store blandness. Other days I like wandering among the crowd, popping pictures like a visitor, staring at the street as though I'd never seen it before. Does it live up to its reputation as the center of all that is fascinating about Key West?   

Some people make it a point to avoid Duval Street as though it were leprous but it's just one aspect of this complicated little town. 

The credit union had this fantastic car loan poster on the wall on Southard Street... and I wondered if they really would make a car loan on a California-style low rider? If anyone might it would be the credit union.

Tonics...Remedies...Elixirs...Tinctures

the Place Where Time Stood Still.

Extraordinary.

Quintessential Key West: worker meets bum. Bum wins. Sigh.

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