"Well, Governor Crist can cancel his engagement now," is a sentiment I've heard more than once from Floridians viewing the selection of Sarah Palin to run for Vice President. Charlie Crist is what English newspapers would have called a "confirmed bachelor." He had been rumored to be in the running for Vice President in John McCain's candidacy, and though everyone announces loudly that women have broken the so called glass ceiling for the top job in the country, gay men certainly haven't and our governor was hedging his bets in the old fashioned way, by putting a woman on his arm. I was hoping he would not get selected because I think Crist is a good goobernor for the State of Florida. He was in Key West recently to congratulate us on surviving Fay, like we were really smart or something, and the odious Oosterhoudt pictured him on the cover of his weekly rag, along with two other stellar local leaders:
Crist is the slim boyish one in the middle wearing a rugged jacket. Unless the Florida Democratic party can come up with an outstanding candidate Crist gets my Democrat vote next time around. He has headed off the crazy anti government Cuban legislators from Miami led by Marco Rubio who wants to dismantle government single handed; he's held the line on home insurance rates making home ownership more affordable for lots of people here and he's secured an historic deal to preserve the Everglades by buying up US Sugar's holdings. He's moderate and thoughtful and inclusive. He negotiates and talks to people which is what politicians used to do, to create some sort of consensus instead of trashing every opponent at every opportunity. When this country is open to electing a gay President he would make an excellent choice, until then the poor man has to sit in a closet in Tallahassee. Not so the other two hardliners depicted above. On the left is Mario DiGennaro, Monroe County Mayor and his acolyte Morgan McPherson Key West City Mayor on the right. DiGennnaro recently lost his two plodding supporters on the County Commission so he has been temporarily defanged, happily. The two Mayors recently came up with a plan for a hotel at the Key West airport and the Citizen illustrated it thusly:
Where Crist seeks consensus, DiGennaro who was appointed to the county commission by Governor Jeb Bush, steamrollers the opposition. And for some reason "his boy" Morgan McPherson tags along. DiGennaro says leasing land at the airport, next to South Roosevelt, where the Boys and Girls Club and Driver's License Bureau sit, would earn the county money and eliminate the need to raise taxes. The 19 storey blob would go here:
In a state with no income tax and a rabidly anti-tax population the promise of "not increasing taxes" will usually get people to do the damnedest things, and indeed the population of quiescent Marathon hasn't objected to a similar plan there. Predictably enough the population of Key West went berserk at the notion of a 19 storey Hilton Hotel, in a city that passed a referendum to keep buildings under 35 feet in height. And the weird thing is Morgan McPherson went along with his buddy. McPherson is a decent family man, a former drug addict who says God put him straight, a Conch devoted to his city, his wife is a teacher and his is a well known family around town. What he was thinking only he and his God seems to know. This and the water park plan for the Truman Waterfront may have sunk his chance of reelection. He won his last campaign with a majority of 50 votes, in a city of 25,000 and that margin is a good deal slimmer than his own waistband. A lot of us would think that would be a mandate for consensus and compromise and moving with caution. Not McPherson apparently.
I like McPherson; he has a similar personality to that ascribed to the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, who was said to have a "bluff exterior masking a bluff interior," not a kind description for a diplomat, but not at all unkind for a small town Mayor. However he doesn't seem to get how to draw into his camp the people who didn't vote for him. I think his waterpark plan, roundly booed by the vocal in the city, was an offer to give youngsters something to do in a town that has lost a lot of youthful activities to developmental greed, activities that he and his buddies remember from their Conch childhoods. Bowling, miniature golf and go kart tracks take up a lot of land, and land is valuable in the Southernmost City. The problem is, when a Republican Mayor suggests a socialistic plan for creating a city-owned amusement arcade the local right wingers fall away from the ranks of his supporters. Conchs I've spoken too quietly like the idea but newer residents, childless, retired or Democrats announce loudly he's lost his mind, and McPherson lacks the desire or ability to speak to them. And then came the airport hotel, pushed by DiGennaro and inexplicably supported by McPherson, which everyone now repudiates, but it's too late. We all know a hotel of some sort will appear next to the airport and I am forced to wonder why the land couldn't be devoted by some developer to creating a Boys and Girls Club worthy of the name with a pool, a gym a bowling alley and putt putt golf to keep youngsters amused. Why didn't MacPherson seek consensus to have the city help some enterprising developer? Perhaps there's no money in it which is why our Mayor wants the city to do it on the Truman waterfront. the problem is McPherson won't talk to his critics...
Duval Street in August is quiet enough you could play golf on it if you wanted to. This is a nice city to visit but a ghastly city to lead. My hat's off to anyone who wants to try, but in order to succeed in a town with too many opinions the Mayor needs to tread lightly. I think we may have an opening in the next election, and I wish Charlie Crist were available. Change is good I keep telling myself, wishing the mayor could learn some softly, softly, diplomacy before the next election. Sigh.
I like McPherson; he has a similar personality to that ascribed to the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, who was said to have a "bluff exterior masking a bluff interior," not a kind description for a diplomat, but not at all unkind for a small town Mayor. However he doesn't seem to get how to draw into his camp the people who didn't vote for him. I think his waterpark plan, roundly booed by the vocal in the city, was an offer to give youngsters something to do in a town that has lost a lot of youthful activities to developmental greed, activities that he and his buddies remember from their Conch childhoods. Bowling, miniature golf and go kart tracks take up a lot of land, and land is valuable in the Southernmost City. The problem is, when a Republican Mayor suggests a socialistic plan for creating a city-owned amusement arcade the local right wingers fall away from the ranks of his supporters. Conchs I've spoken too quietly like the idea but newer residents, childless, retired or Democrats announce loudly he's lost his mind, and McPherson lacks the desire or ability to speak to them. And then came the airport hotel, pushed by DiGennaro and inexplicably supported by McPherson, which everyone now repudiates, but it's too late. We all know a hotel of some sort will appear next to the airport and I am forced to wonder why the land couldn't be devoted by some developer to creating a Boys and Girls Club worthy of the name with a pool, a gym a bowling alley and putt putt golf to keep youngsters amused. Why didn't MacPherson seek consensus to have the city help some enterprising developer? Perhaps there's no money in it which is why our Mayor wants the city to do it on the Truman waterfront. the problem is McPherson won't talk to his critics...Duval Street in August is quiet enough you could play golf on it if you wanted to. This is a nice city to visit but a ghastly city to lead. My hat's off to anyone who wants to try, but in order to succeed in a town with too many opinions the Mayor needs to tread lightly. I think we may have an opening in the next election, and I wish Charlie Crist were available. Change is good I keep telling myself, wishing the mayor could learn some softly, softly, diplomacy before the next election. Sigh.
I remarked to my wife yesterday that we must have settled comfortably into our groove as "freshwater" Conchs, because even though our islands are being sideswiped by a monstrous Category 3, soon to be Category 4 storm, we kind of expect everything to carry on as normal. She has been working on her new classroom getting it ready before she goes on vacation Saturday and I hung out with her downloading these pictures yesterday. The classroom is part of the College and is built of concrete blocks, supposedly hurricane resistant to some degree, but the ventilation system was whistling and whining as wind gusts hurled themselves at the building. It was my brilliant suggestion we eat lunch at the Conch Farm, because I was craving snapper and salad, which I got:
We also got a perky waitress who said lots of locals were turning out, like us, to make up for the lost holiday trade as Miami drivers stayed away in droves from the Keys, which are under a Tropical Storm Warning. It sounds dire but it's a whole lot better than a direct hit and Gustav is looking mighty nasty. 
The Conch Republic Seafood Restaurant was a cheerful choice for lunch sitting behind one plate glass window and open to the weather on the other side we got to feel the cool breeze and get blasts of raindrops mixing in our sodas. It gave lunch a picnic feel and that was just fine.
We got a ringside seat to watch the boats tugging at their dock lines and we talked about how neither of us missed living aboard anymore. We reminisced about storms we'd weathered at sea and at anchor and my wife shuddered thinking about the exposure to the weather of the boats anchored around Christmas Tree Island. "Anchor watch" she said, thinking how we'd take it in turns to devote our attention to whether or not we were dragging as the boat tugged and twisted in the wind gusts at anchor. Inside the restaurant it was snug:
More so at the bar where sickly colored mixed drinks were flying around the room. The antidote to stormy weather is crushed strawberries and alcohol apparently.
Conch Republic Seafood has a dandy little gift store strategically placed on the direct path to the toilets and it happened that as we waited for the gusts to abate we got to doing 
They call it the "Conch Farm" because the city helped set up the place originally as a Conch research facility to see about raising the mollusks to reintroduce them to local waters where they had been fished out. (I'm told Conch meat now comes from Honduras on the only international flights seen at the Key West Airport). 
I drove the 
Gaudy consumerism I know but they offer free samples and the merchandise really is good. This shop is wasted on visitors only! It turns out my wife's Turkish sailors are going to get Key Lime Taffy and hard candies whether they want them or not- personally I like the Key Lime tea cookies but it doesn't take long to get sugared out here.
And so it was time to go back to work for the afternoon and as I was driving I took the long way round, by the beaches. To get there I went through the middle of town past the cemetery, all windy and gray and bleak. Quite lovely, like an eighty degree November day. At the Corner of Angela we found another rainwater puddle at the famous bottle wall:
I was not alone in my idea that a pause at 
The 
I did not miss the opportunity to photograph a young woman cycling one handed and shouting on the phone by Salute Restaurant in the middle of the howling winds:
Storms come ashore unimpeded on the southern beaches and Dog Park got blown around a bit. I could only imagine what might happen here with a Category Three coming ashore: 
Most of the occupants at La 
This weather has scotched our plans for a weekend's boating and swimming and I have to say we feel a more than a pang of guilt that's all we've got to worry about while the Gulf Coast is going to get ravaged tomorrow by Gustav, but survival feels sweet. Assuming the tropical wave currently in the Atlantic doesn't come ashore here in a week or two...
I was out on a bright sultry August afternoon and one would think the street would be snoozing. Not at all; people were coming and going, mostly on two wheels:
There was the dog walker:
And while I was figuring how to take a shot of the bicycles, the street and the trash pile I could hear people in an animated conversation from some secret garden along the street. A busy place Dey Street:
This street is mostly residential with a variety of styles:
But there are some light industrial areas, which are really the backside of businesses on Greene Street which parallels Dey:
And have I mentioned the value of off street parking? Each spot is prominently labelled to avoid showdowns:
Of course you could use the public lot around the corner off Simonton, at ten dollars a day, and not heavily patronised in August:
Or you could sweat like a gentleman and ride a Bonneville...This guy didn't get the concept at all, he was sitting in the car (probably a rental) sweating with the roof down and he had the engine running. So he was wasting fuel, copiously and not cooling off with the air conditioning. Bizarre.
At least he wasn't parked here:
Dey Street dead ends into Elizabeth Street about where the old Jabour's Trailer Park used to be, just beyond the white picket fence:
Jabours was one of those wondrous places in Key West that every time i walked by I wondered how it still managed to exist. I never took any photos of the travel trailers that used to hang out in the park, but there they were, packed in tight and enjoying cheap waterfront living. Then the inevitable happened and the trailers, within easy strolling distance of Schooner Wharf Bar and Waterfront Market, had to go. Jabours sold the property for millions and a new condo development came in its place. Only it hasn't arrived yet as Watermark apparently has hit a reef and may have run out of money. Imagine my surprise when I spotted an RV in the open space. The trailer's are back!
Not really, I think its just some watchman preventing people from trespassing in the dirt. It's dirt today and I have a picture of it, just to remind me of what was when someone picks up the challenge and throws some more dirt around to build something new where there was something old and perfectly adequate before. 
I am not all sure what I photographed here. Its a sort of appendix off the street that fronts the cemetery, which is Passover Lane:
This little nub of a half hidden lane ducks into the bushes like the White Rabbit down his hole in Alice in Wonderland.
And it goes back a fair old way into the jungle darkness:
There's nothing much unusual or out of place up this little unpaved alleyway just the usual charming homes and flourishing plants.
And some of the houses had striking features, including an elaborate spiral staircase which I thought looked amazing in its supporting structure:
Or a particular handle on a garden gate:
And of course there always has to be one of these cluttering up the place:
But like every other interesting corner of key West one can usually find one of these:
And then its time to pop back out and face the sunlight:
And nearly get run down by a cyclist:
And Passover Lane reverts to its peaceful status quo ante:
So now I've been up and down it and photographed it and pondered it and I still don't know what it's called!