Simonton Street

I view my photographs and the words that accompany them a diary of my life to some extent and to a lesser extent as a record of the Lower Keys at this period.I don't go everywhere obviously and I am no longer a reporter so I am exempt  from feeling an obligation to be on the spot, but I can't stop myself from reading the newspaper. 

If there were any doubt that development taken to the limit is the goal House Bill 587 should put that to rest. This legislation apparently not supported by the Keys (Republican) representative offers to ease hurricane restrictions on development to...do what exactly? Save the state money they say.

It goes like this: development has reached maximum capacity in the Keys and the way that's calculated is how fast can the authorities evacuate the islands, supposing say a hurricane is imminent, and the magic number till now has been 24 hours. That's why you hear the order for a "mandatory evacuation" before the arrival of a hurricane and they start with tourists and residents of mobile homes. After 24 hours (the magic number!) they order other residents to evacuate. You can choose not to leave but in choosing to stay over a mandatory evacuation order you have to know there will be no help during the storm. That's what mandatory evacuation means, and emergency services don't respond when winds reach gale force because the hospital closes down and there is no medical support for first responders injured during a hurricane. Creating a  storm proof emergency room should be high on the list of priorities as the authorities now want to extend the evacuation time to 30 hours.

Extending evacuation times by six hours doesn't sound like a big deal but it changes everything. What it means is the population of the Keys will be allowed to increase as soon  as the "carrying capacity" of the highway increases by 25 %. The rationale is that owners of empty lots that cannot build on them will demand compensation from the government for their land that suddenly has no value and to avoid making the payouts the state legislature is creating a  new reality ion the Keys with I have no doubt, lots of unforeseen consequences. 

There is a pervasive air of unreality in these discussions about development and evacuations and storms and sea level rise and insurance rates and flood plains and all of it. I don't understand the logic of increasing the population density, slowing the evacuation times while at the same time raising alarms about the increasing likelihood of storm related damage to existing structures. And you know the people who choose to ignore these obvious warning signs will be at the front of the line blaming anyone but themselves for their poor planning and decision making when disaster strikes.

I read in the paper about residents without mortgages who carry no flood insurance. My mind boggles. The bald truth is f you can't afford the insurance you can't afford to live here. You can gamble your future right now but when you lose you will have to take your losses like a grown up. One resident told the Citizen he plans to invest the equivalent of the insurance premiums to self insure effectively. Doing that and thinking it's smart makes the assumption there will be no chance of a serious storm in the immediate future. The whole point of insurance os to pool the risk, not to rely on no damage for along time ahead.

I have no stake in all this as we decided not own real estate in the Keys and to rent  after we got rid of our Ramrod Key home. We lucked out with a  fantastic landlord and a very quiet neighborhood on Cudjoe Key in a house that rents for an extremely modest $1600 a month. You will pay at least twice that if you can find anything in Key West. But all this real estate is seriously at risk and the decision to own in the Keys has to be accompanied by a  sensible evaluation of your aversion to risk and loss.

If the changes are made and the state legislative majority is firmly Republican with a Republican (though very sensible) Republican governor all studying a proposal made by a  member of the majority caucus so... Our only hope is if Governor DeSantis looks at this idea and says it's nuts. He's an odd fish is the governor as he toes the party line on national politics but he's a Floridian at home, moving to spend money on preservation and the environment and talking to people with out pushing the party line within his state. He reminds of Democratic Governor Graham of fond memory, a mild mannered Dixiecrat wiped out by the Reagan revolution in the South. I fear the pressure to allow development in the Keys will push back the evacuation times and the difficulties created by this decision will be pushed out of sight into some future timeline. As usual.

By the time this madness gets into the pipeline I will be retired. It would be nice if there was somewhere to come back to for my end of life, especially as the new old folks home on Duck Avenue is getting taken over by the county which should give it some longevity but the crowding looks set to reach Hong Kong proportions before I will have finished driving around. Being evacuated as a not-so-spry old man doesn't sound too appealing. Especially like this.

Post Office Parking

The parking lot at 400 Whitehead Street has been a bone of contention forever. The rules for the after business hours use of the lot have changed over the years and confusion has been total. For a while you could park there and then you couldn't and then they said people going to the Tropic Cinema could park in the post office lot and then they decided they couldn't and people got towed. The postmaster said it was a liability issue and that people were blocking access for legitimate after hours post office box users and on it went.

Now it is official with large signs and everything. The chair was empty so I looked around. All I could see was lots of big fat signs encouraging the unwary to park. Hmm....The thing is if you park on private property in Key West the owners can have a contract with a tow company to haul your vehicle away. The tow company calls the police department to make sure the vehicle isn't stolen (they don't want to be in receipt of stolen property) and when we clear it they take it to their yard. The bill is hundreds of dollars. Please don't park in lots that say "Tow Away Zone." if you do and you get towed don't call the police expecting them to pull your chestnuts from the fire of your own making. Use legitmate parking.

I did find the attendant, a young Eastern European fella and I had him explain the rates to me, which he did with a smile after I assured him I was looking for information about car parking and not to park my (wife's) Vespa.

For regular folk it's ten dollars for all day coverage, and for Tropic Cinema members with membership cards it's three dollars. Cool. Guess what, we have Tropic membership and we used the service when we went to see The Master a rather dull take on Scientology. We had a classic Key West moment before the movie started. The manager came into the theater and asked anxiously if we were all there to see The Master. Yes we nodded like rows of bobble toys. A few got up and said no we are here to see... And they got ushered out to their respective screening rooms...Apparently someone gave the volunteer at the box office the wrong list or something got muddled and they caught it just in time. We giggled and enjoyed the moment.

When we finished strolling Duval Street we found the parking lot is being well used.

The parking lot was packed on Columbus Day and I expect it will be packed this winter. Finally this ongoing irritation of a desirable place to park and a massive source of towing anger seems to have been solved, to everyone's satisfaction.

So now we can all frolic on down to the corner of Whitehead and Eaton and find easy parking and not run the risk of getting towed. What a sensible solution all round.

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Old Harley, New Bonneville

I have been riding my Bonneville with just the top case and a cargo net lately. I have left the saddlebags at home and have been enjoying the less cumbersome ride.


Not as unencumbered as this lithe, nicely restored old Harley.


Tis bike was built to ride with thick paint, modern electrics ad all parts properly mated together.


The carburetor and huge air filter box used to interfere with the rider's legs on these older bikes.


I am no fan of tiny peanut fuel tanks and high arching ape hanger handlebars, but this is a machine put together with care and it shows.


I have no idea, not being a Harley aficionado, what is right and proper and what has been adapted. To me authenticity doesn't matter much and the owner of this thing cares because he's stuck a padlock on it to keep it his.


The Harley mystique makes people crazy and even onlookers want a part of these machines that define motorcycling USA.


The old Triumph thing is part of a different tradition and the modernization of the Bonneville makes the nerdy Triumph disciples of decades past crazy with contempt.


I like how my bike looks, how easily it rides, how adaptable it is for practical uses and how it connects me to my motorcycling past however tenuous that connection may be.


Harleys do the same for other people. And I don't mind saying there are a couple of Harleys in the contemporary line up I wouldn't mind riding if I could afford them. They are practical dependable and hard working. They ride further than their owners are capable of taking them as is the case with most modern machines.


In Key West it's bicycles that get the workstation out and even these rides out perform their owners in terms of longevity.


I wish it were time for motorcycles to be treated as dependable transportation, not toys. I'm guessing the economy will have to regress a long way for that to happen.


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Parking Woes

Yesterday I wrote around a few pictures I took at Duval and Eaton Streets watching the world go by on two wheels. Today the other face of the two wheeled coin: parking.


I am the first to admit I am anal when it comes to living life and I like things done my way, but general stupidity does irritate me one step further.


Granted there was lots of room across the street from my dentist's office but why did the guesthouse resident feel it was okay to just dump his scooter across the space?


It was still three after I came back with nicely cleaned teeth thirty minutes later. Not everyone fails to understand the principle of good manners and perpendicular parking. This rental scooter is at least pointing straight at the curb.


Parking is a big industry on a small island pullulating with vehicles. This woman spends a lifetime of days sitting on Whitehead Street propping up the sign pointing to the Steve Walker lot on Caroline at Telegraph Lane.


Skateboarding on Duval is forbidden but these four little wheels are a smart way to go around town for youngsters with a sense of balance.


This is the proper way to park a two wheeler, rear tire in, touching the curb, perpendicular to the sidewalk.


The idea is to point out so the motorcycle leans into the camber safely, and while parking the rider has control of the roadway. When leaving the rider can see who is coming and when it's safe to leave and join the flow of traffic. Easy peasy, at least for those of us with OCD.




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