Filling Up The Keys

There has been a growing sense of unease in the Keys that traffic is getting out of hand. There have been loud protests in the newspaper and in conversations about continued efforts to attract yet more visitors to the Keys using assorted tax monies. The argument is that money should be spent on infrastructure especially housing for actual workers. 

 It is expected this winter that you will be severely delayed on the final bridge to enter Key West. Cow Key Bridge is usually the scene of a twenty minute delay as traffic piles up on Stock Island and the lines at the Triangle on Key West move slower and slower.

This newspaper headline is rather pitiful as the "action" taken by Monroe County is yet one more traffic study to consider what might be done. It seems that there is consideration being given to increase public transit including more discussion of a rail line through the Keys. As lovely as that idea may be it seems like a total non starter in a state with no affinity for public works whatsoever.

There are two big sore spots outside of the Triangle in Key West. Islamorada is always jammed up on weekends and they only have themselves to blame as they are constantly holding special events in the "village of islands" as they call their city. The other problem hot spot is the traffic light in Big Pine half way between Marathon and Key West.  This light can back traffic up for five miles and forces people like me to take to the secret back roads where even if I drive slowly in dirt I am not sitting helpless in a  long line of cars. I may not get there faster but it is more fun to make tracks through the neighborhoods.

Of course there is roadwork and  as the highway is the only road maintenance on bridges on the roadway or on utilities can slow traffic down terribly. 

This was Bahia Honda on Wednesday, a long back up to get into the State Par. Air temperature of 83 degrees and water temperature of 75 doesn't add up to swimming conditions for me but I'm fussy. I like 80/80/80 which is 80 air temperature, 80 water temperature and 80 percent humidity. Wait long enough and we'll get it.

On this vexing subject of impacted traffic I don't have much to say other than paying attention and being focused on making progress would be a good thing. From my observation the slow down entering Key West is largely attributable to lamentable driving habits. Drivers don't know how to cope with the green arrow lane, pausing and waiting instead of smoothly entering their dedicated lane. I see cars stalled in the line while drivers madly text and this habit encourages scofflaws to approaching the left lane and take cuts to get to the head of the line. Aside from being bad mannered this habit creates further slowing as traffic nudges to find its way forward. I don't see any room for more lanes and without clearer signage encouraging traffic to move the lines won't go away.

I know it's counter intuitive but in my opinion we should have higher speed limits and more passing zones. It's soporific driving in long lines at 40 miles an hour while "island time" vacationers take in the views. There is a driving culture in this country that hates being passed (especially by a hairy old hobbit on a moped- they see me coming in their mirrors and they flee in terror that my Vespa will emasculate them by passing them),  but on Highway One, too much of the roadway is designed to prevent passing so the slow poke cock blockers slow down secure in the knowledge their bad driving will leave them at the front of the line of slow moving bored drivers. Throw in a few more passing spaces and the boy racers in the Subarus will keep the slow pokes on their toes!

The sad truth is too many workers can't find affordable housing in Key West so the commuting lines are far longer than they have ever been. I enjoy living out of town on Cudjoe Key but for a lot of people a forty five minute drive to work from Big Pine Key is a penance for not being wealthy. Add to their driving times a lot of visitors and winter traffic will be slow. Nothing is going to change. There are more hotels being built, and worker housing is being planned all along Highway One so the number of commuters is bound to increase. They can study all they want, but until greed gives way to common sense and some leader shows up with a livable vision for the Lower Keys, nothing can change.

There are no frost heaves down here but there are lots of very heavy trucks every morning starting before dawn and continuing all day that pound the road and the bridges into submission. It is just money that needs to be spent to maintain this tropical paradise illusion to keep everyone coming. And spend it they will, even if this infrastructure chokes us all.

Duval As Open Space

In light of all the ongoing debate about gentrification and decay and poor use of space along with the Truman Waterfront Park plans on on and on, I have decided to post a column from the venerable New York Times, quoted in a blog I read from my former home town in California. Bruce Bratton on Santa Cruz writes about the issues he sees plaguing his home town's main street...

... which has been suffering from identity issues that anyone in Key West could sympathize with. His subjects cover local-versus-chain stores, bums, dirt and encouraging locals to mingle with tourists...Duval Street? No, Pacific Avenue:

 

And now it seems New York is wondering how to handle Times Square which  when used  as a pedestrian zone has become a social free-for-all. The ideas contained within appeal strongly to me especially as tentative plans to prohibit traffic on two blocks of Duval were once mooted and then abandoned as merchants outside the zone feared it might be too successful.

It sounds crazy doesn't it? Let me quote a snippet from an article published in the Key West Citizen of Thursday May 30th, 2013 b Gwen Filosa, quoting city Commissioners Bob Yaniz and Jimmy Weekley among others:

Duval Street could become a "festival street configuration," giving Key West the option to close it off to cars for an event, such as the upcoming Pridefest.

Without a price tag or a specific timeline, EDSA's designers laid out what they called a vision for Duval Street, one that keeps its unique character intact but opens up the city's economic engine to greater use.

Yaniz resurrected the idea of some type of pedestrian-only option for Duval in December, where a 6-1 vote set the designing in motion. Only Commissioner Billy Wardlow dissented, saying a prior traffic study showed the idea would create traffic congestion.

Last year, the commission killed an idea backed by Weekley for a "cafe district" along several blocks of Duval.

But that idea didn't die because of local critics, Weekley said Wednesday. Instead, some Duval Street business owners and restaurateurs were annoyed at not being part of it, to the point where the threat of a lawsuit against the city arose, he said.

"This entire corridor is important to Key West, not just a piece of it," said Kissinger. "We are now talking about the entire corridor, from end to end."

Well, that never happened nor will it I dare say, and that's a shame because now we get around to the New York Times and its haunting discussion of Key West's greatest "Third Place",  Duval Street. 

COPENHAGEN — PUBLIC controversy has returned to haunt Times Square. This time, it is the presence of body-painted, topless women, who call themselves “desnudas,” and are accused of polluting the public space by “aggressive panhandling.”

Heeding calls from his police chief to tear up New York’s new pedestrian plazas, Mayor Bill de Blasio responded by announcing a review of the entire project of pedestrianizing Times Square. That might seem an extreme reaction to a couple of street performers’ shaking down tourists for cash, but it’s because the affair has touched a nerve — a sense that somehow the plaza has made Times Square only more sleazy and vulgar than ever.

The kneejerk reaction of some city officials — to tackle the issue by returning Times Square to its old car-centric, traffic-first self — is unsurprising: We know how to manage traffic, with curbs, signals, crosswalks and signposting. But the answer to this topless crisis is not to act in haste and go back to a Times Square gridlocked with yellow cabs and black S.U.V.s.

Instead, the lesson is that painting the pavement blue and closing it to cars is a start, but reclaiming space alone is not sufficient to create the sort of vibrant public plaza we’d all like. That requires real stewardship. Civic culture needs cultivating and curating. Unless we do so, public space can become a public nuisance.

Many of the city’s parks and plazas are in far better shape today than they were 10 years ago. The pedestrianization of Times Square was the flagship, but the NYC Plaza program that began under the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (and which our architectural consultancy helped initiate) has created more than 50 new plazas, in all five boroughs. Along Broadway alone, five sites opened up an area equivalent in size to Bryant Park — space that is free for everyone to enjoy.

 Like bike lanes, these innovations attracted some criticism at first, but today they have largely been accepted.

Before the changes, Times Square had no square — even though, for decades, pedestrians vastly outnumbered motorists passing through the area: 90 percent of the users were being squished into just over 10 percent of the area. After the changes, the rate of injuries went down (for pedestrians, but even more so for motorists), traffic flow in Midtown improved, and local businesses thrived — a fact reflected in steeply rising values of retail space.

It is a measure of that success that Times Square is now such a bustling place, walked by up to 480,000 people — tourists and locals — every day. The plaza program has made New York a leader in the international movement to make cities more people-friendly, while remaining pragmatic about cars. Mr. de Blasio has carried through his election campaign theme of a “tale of two cities” into the OneNYC plan, an equitable vision for ensuring access for all residents to everything New York has to offer.

That so many people are clamoring to spend time in Times Square means the city faces a new challenge of managing this vitality — one that’s very recognizable from the experience of cities across the world. Here in Copenhagen, the process has been evolving for more than five decades since the city first pedestrianized a street in 1962. Urban space develops organically and in sync with a city’s communities if it’s nurtured properly, but we’ve learned that this requires cities to keep reviewing how that space is designed and regulated.

There must be mechanisms for maintaining a balance of activities, to avoid one particular group of users, like panhandling performers, dominating. Sometimes, that means regulating activities that are a nuisance or offensive. But imposing conditions or constraints is only part of the solution.

                                  

Cities can designate certain areas for street performances and restrict them to specific times of day. They can also require performers to be registered or licensed. Many cities already do this: In London’s Covent Garden, for example, performers audition before they can use the former market’s pedestrian plazas, and a nonprofit street performers’ association works with local managers and government to maintain standards and keep things running smoothly.

The city could invite cultural institutions to curate exhibits and shows in Times Square. This spring, the city government in San Francisco opened up Market Street to a three-day festival curated by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Installations designed by local people invited passers-by to interact with them and participate in the street life. Some exhibits will become permanent features of the downtown area.

Another imaginative example of how city space can be transformed is the “Paris Plages” project in France. Promenades along the Seine are turned into beaches with tons of sand and palm trees — the scene complete with deck chairs, umbrellas and ice cream vendors. The city even sponsors sand castle-building classes for children.

Public spaces like Times Square are the great equalizer in cities: Improvements in the public realm benefit everyone. The city should view the challenge of Times Square’s pedestrian plaza not as a reason for retreat, but as a call to create a diverse, dense, intense experience of public life that we can all enjoy.