Stopped at the triangle by a traffic light I realized the palm trees lining the main road into Key West will soon be -horrors!-torn down. And -double horrors!!- might not be replaced with more coconut palms after the street is rebuilt. 
The city has announced that in order to save money looking after these high maintenance trees they may be replaced them with less expensive palms after the Boulevard (the informal name given to North Roosevelt Boulevard) is re-built. However the public outcry is putting that idea on hold at the moment. These palms are the trees planted around the Marriott Beachside Hotel which sits at the Triangle (as the entrance to the city of Key West is known).They seem to be flourishing quite nicely.
The city has announced that in order to save money looking after these high maintenance trees they may be replaced them with less expensive palms after the Boulevard (the informal name given to North Roosevelt Boulevard) is re-built. However the public outcry is putting that idea on hold at the moment. These palms are the trees planted around the Marriott Beachside Hotel which sits at the Triangle (as the entrance to the city of Key West is known).They seem to be flourishing quite nicely.How did this cyclist get here in an essay about the palms of the Boulevard? 
That's because the Boulevard is lined on it's north shore not only by palm trees but also by a wide, spacious sidewalk/bike path.
The road is five lanes wide, including a center turn lane that few motorists know how to use properly so perhaps it might give way to a center median with turn lanes to not confuse the poor dears navigating their cages. 
The coconut palm in Key west is an odd tree. It's not a native plant around here but it has become by default the symbol of tropical vacations world wide. Images of luxurious rest are enhanced by a picture of an artful palm draped over a sandy beach with turquoise water filling the background. 
On those grounds alone the predictable groundswell of opposition to change has arisen across the city. The fear is that tourists will turn away in droves if North Roosevelt were to be lined with anything other than non native coconut palms. No other palm will do. Indeed no other tree will do, and so loud has the clamor grown the city is backpedaling to avoid charges of tree fascism and worse. You still won't be allowed to park vehicles longer than 20 feet (6.5 meters if you're from Quebec) on city streets.
The city in it's defense claimed the coconut palms are expensive to maintain as they produce tons of fronds, as I know myself thanks to my dozen mature coconut trees at home. They also produce nuts that fall and hurt people and damage things and become missiles in hurricanes. My mailbox looks like it is in a war zone as I can't cut down the coconuts fast enough. So you might say I, a non city resident, am sympathetic to the city's plight.
However rational thinking is nowhere to be seen. Making the argument that the city spends money unnecessarily to maintain these trees is a point of view that carries no water for the "anti-government-waste" nutters who have done an about face and now insist the city government waste money maintaining a fresh crop of coconuts after the street is rebuilt.
The bike path went through the same rectal probe of indignation when it was a crumbling cement path and the complaints about the potholes were incessant enough to fill a novel. I used to hate cycling the assault course that was the old bike path as it crumbled underneath my tires.
Finally the city spent hundreds of thousands paving the path and told citizens it was a temporary measure until North Roosevelt was completely rebuilt by the State of Florida, a project finally due to get underway next year and last two years. Then the complaints came in that the path was black and going to absorb heat and be too hot for people to ride comfortably... 
Date palms like those shown above are unacceptable. Royal palms were also mooted as were native thatch palms. Indeed there are 2600 species of palm trees in existence but the demand is for cocos nucifera. Of course North Roosevelt is pretty ugly so the argument in favor of keeping at least one side of the road looking pretty isn't completely lost on me.
However the passionate voices in support of the palm trees aren't quite so loud when it comes to some decent landscaping on the business side of the Boulevard which is, to put it politely, a mess for the most part.
That's because the Boulevard is lined on it's north shore not only by palm trees but also by a wide, spacious sidewalk/bike path.The road is five lanes wide, including a center turn lane that few motorists know how to use properly so perhaps it might give way to a center median with turn lanes to not confuse the poor dears navigating their cages. 
The coconut palm in Key west is an odd tree. It's not a native plant around here but it has become by default the symbol of tropical vacations world wide. Images of luxurious rest are enhanced by a picture of an artful palm draped over a sandy beach with turquoise water filling the background. 
On those grounds alone the predictable groundswell of opposition to change has arisen across the city. The fear is that tourists will turn away in droves if North Roosevelt were to be lined with anything other than non native coconut palms. No other palm will do. Indeed no other tree will do, and so loud has the clamor grown the city is backpedaling to avoid charges of tree fascism and worse. You still won't be allowed to park vehicles longer than 20 feet (6.5 meters if you're from Quebec) on city streets.The city in it's defense claimed the coconut palms are expensive to maintain as they produce tons of fronds, as I know myself thanks to my dozen mature coconut trees at home. They also produce nuts that fall and hurt people and damage things and become missiles in hurricanes. My mailbox looks like it is in a war zone as I can't cut down the coconuts fast enough. So you might say I, a non city resident, am sympathetic to the city's plight.However rational thinking is nowhere to be seen. Making the argument that the city spends money unnecessarily to maintain these trees is a point of view that carries no water for the "anti-government-waste" nutters who have done an about face and now insist the city government waste money maintaining a fresh crop of coconuts after the street is rebuilt.
The bike path went through the same rectal probe of indignation when it was a crumbling cement path and the complaints about the potholes were incessant enough to fill a novel. I used to hate cycling the assault course that was the old bike path as it crumbled underneath my tires.Finally the city spent hundreds of thousands paving the path and told citizens it was a temporary measure until North Roosevelt was completely rebuilt by the State of Florida, a project finally due to get underway next year and last two years. Then the complaints came in that the path was black and going to absorb heat and be too hot for people to ride comfortably... Date palms like those shown above are unacceptable. Royal palms were also mooted as were native thatch palms. Indeed there are 2600 species of palm trees in existence but the demand is for cocos nucifera. Of course North Roosevelt is pretty ugly so the argument in favor of keeping at least one side of the road looking pretty isn't completely lost on me.However the passionate voices in support of the palm trees aren't quite so loud when it comes to some decent landscaping on the business side of the Boulevard which is, to put it politely, a mess for the most part.There are some exceptions. I am quite fond of the gumbo limbos flourishing in front of the Home Depot Parking lot. 
Even motorcycles are enhanced by the presence of palm fronds. In the background the old Key West Diner remains empty awaiting a new tenant, behind it's carefully landscaped sidewalk.
The Salt Run Bridge is just a brief interruption to the march of the palm trees toward First Street and Truman Avenue. 
I parked my Bonneville under these spindly trees planted in the Walgreens lot. Low maintenance trees apparently preferred by the profit driven business class.
Not good enough we are told for a city managing a budget. Ah, irony, where is thy sting?
Even motorcycles are enhanced by the presence of palm fronds. In the background the old Key West Diner remains empty awaiting a new tenant, behind it's carefully landscaped sidewalk.The Salt Run Bridge is just a brief interruption to the march of the palm trees toward First Street and Truman Avenue. 
I parked my Bonneville under these spindly trees planted in the Walgreens lot. Low maintenance trees apparently preferred by the profit driven business class.Not good enough we are told for a city managing a budget. Ah, irony, where is thy sting?
Cheyenne's walks vary in the morning, depending on my level of exhaustion and her apparent friskiness. Some mornings we walk down the street and back, a matter of twenty minutes, other mornings we leap in the car and drive out here to the Ramrod Pool.
The Pool isn't actually a freshwater swimming pool, it's just a failed development, the beginnings of a canal dug into the rock and the hole cut into the rock provides a nice deep rectangle to swim in, open to tidal waters of Niles Channel, which is the body of water that separates little Ramrod Key from it's larger neighbor Summerland Key to the west.
Much of North Ramrod is salt ponds and mangroves which create reflecting pools for the sun which was attempting to break out through the cloud cover. The recent morning I took these pictures, tides were excessively high following a new moon, and salt water was spilling out of the pool:
During the day, especially after work, people bring their dogs and their recliners and their coolers and set up music and drink and talk and watch the water. They leave good smells for my Labrador to check out.
One recent midday visit we came upon a couple of cars with dogs running around. Cheyenne shared a quick sniff, turned around and stumped off to mind her own business. She is a happy loner and prefers to nose the smells left behind rather than meet the owners of the odors. Shown below is the causeway, narrowed by high tides that leads from the end of the asphalt street to the pool. Recently the county threw down some gravel and smoothed it out to make for easier access. Rather decent of them I thought, in these troubled economic times.
Across Niles Channel one can see the early morning lights of downtown Summerland Key blazing away. This distance from Highway One is too far for the sound of early commuters to carry across the water, even with the benefit of the usual southeast wind.
Then it's time to go home to breakfast for her and a deep and dreamless sleep for me. 
It started out called the Safe Zone, a place where people without shelter could spend the night without charge and without fear. Monroe County's then-Sheriff Rick Roth donated a piece of wasteland at the back of the Sheriff's Headquarters and Jail complex on Stock Island. It was an inspired location back in 2004, so close to the Sheriff's office and so far from most of the rest of the respectable population.
So, Saturday afternoon they had an open house for the public to see how things are going at the Shelter in these tough fiscal times. Recently City Commissioner Rossi had some negative things to say about the Shelter, known these days at KOTS. Gina Pecora, Deputy Director of the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition was very polite as she took me round saying he had been misquoted. I hope so. I think KOTS is a tremendous place and should be an example to communities across the country as the Depression takes hold and more respectable people fall off their middle class perches. Every guest checks in, with ID and gets a bedroll, a chance to shower with a place to sleep for the night.
The fact is, and critics are reluctant to admit this, that with rents as high as they are in the Lower Keys an average working Joe can't raise $3,000 for first last and deposit and utilities and a small stash of money to survive the move to a place to live. They may have a job and many of the residents of this place do work, but they are the definition of working poor. 
The separate shower stalls for men and women feature private toilets and a level of cleanliness and order that would shock those like Commissioner Rossi who apparently feel the need to pick on the least among us. This place start out as a collection of tents but now the guests are housed in fiberglass Quonset hut types of buildings. 
Each male guest gets a mattress inside the huts.
Each place has a space for personal belongings at the head of the bed and a hook on the wall. It is extremely well thought out. 
The facility is staffed by paid workers overnight and the place is covered by security cameras so overnight security guards can keep an eye on the place form their central booth. Gina told me lots of organizations come by and volunteer their time to help the guests with AA meetings and so forth a common feature of life at KOTS in the evening. The facility of operated by the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition which has been doing this type work with the poor since 1992. They are led by the dynamic and personable Reverend Steve Braddock, a man who merits a shot at sainthood in my opinion. 
