The County Commission has been debating restoring some sort of official public water access on the ends of several of the streets that dead end north of the Overseas Highway through unincorporated Big Coppitt. Jade Street is not one of those streets for it ends in a turn around blocked off by private homes as we shall see.
There were apparently instances of people sitting on the waterfront drinking beer and in order to assuage neighbors the county tried to make such behavior illegal. Jade Street does not invite lingering amidst it's flowers and hedges.
I think of myself as one who likes to explore but it seems I don't get off the highway enough. I never knew there was a large, mainland-like apartment complex back here for instance.
Complete with keep out signs,
automatic gates and water access it wouldn't look out of place in Palm Beach County, with anonymity and ample parking for all. 
The scale of the homes back here is quite unusual too, for one used to the scale of stilt homes on side streets among these islands.
I wonder at the detail on this covering for the downstairs spaces under the home. Perhaps it is for sale by the yard at Home depot but I have never seen it before.
Jade Street has water on both sides. 
There are older, more modest homes here.
And good things to smell I am told.
This magnificent place looked surplus to requirements these days with tall grass and an air of abandonment. The Habitat homes up the street were bustling with activity.
I like these big rocks lining the street. 
Granted they could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes but still they looked good I thought.
This home is more typical of suburban Keys home simply elevated to stay out of the flood plain. From what I read with more flooding of the mid West perhaps they should try stilts homes Up North as well.
Here marks the end of the street. 
Some architect was having a bad day when the plans for this bread box crossed their desk. 
The red diamond means any further and you will fall into salt water. It is a common sight on side streets in the Keys. 
Ah Jade Street, home to homes of distinction.
The Habitat homes were opposed on the grounds the poor dears proposing to live there would be too close to the Highway. True enough but their occupants now have cherished homes in the Keys within ten minutes of jobs in Key West.
This Mile Marker Ten, a blur on my way to work each evening.
The new sewers covered by the new bicycle path looks rather nice through here.
This home is more typical of suburban Keys home simply elevated to stay out of the flood plain. From what I read with more flooding of the mid West perhaps they should try stilts homes Up North as well.Here marks the end of the street. 
Some architect was having a bad day when the plans for this bread box crossed their desk. 
The red diamond means any further and you will fall into salt water. It is a common sight on side streets in the Keys. 
Ah Jade Street, home to homes of distinction.
The Habitat homes were opposed on the grounds the poor dears proposing to live there would be too close to the Highway. True enough but their occupants now have cherished homes in the Keys within ten minutes of jobs in Key West.This Mile Marker Ten, a blur on my way to work each evening. The new sewers covered by the new bicycle path looks rather nice through here.
Or, if you have a spare $900,000 you could just buy your own place, a little further up Elizabeth Street.
There's even a separate unit in the building one could rent out to help pay the horrendous mortgage. It all sounds rather pre-2008 when real estate was an investment, supposedly.
I like the idea of these hurricane shutters for inaccessible windows. In summertime it's air conditioning all the way for most people and they don't need to throw windows open...
My shutters are made of corrugated aluminum and I only put them up when a storm actually threatens. I have walkways all round my house so mine are easy to install. 
The Key West library lurks on the corner of Fleming Street, daytime home to the dispossessed as well as those seeking videos and books and computer time. Patrons arrive on an array of bicycles.
Some of us bring back oddities from distant travels. This porch ornament look Asian to me, perhaps Indonesian? I caught sight of it across Elizabeth Street from the library as Cheyenne wandered the library parking lot. It got me thinking.
Perhaps it just came out of a papier-mache class at the college. The library is actually county property and a Sheriff's deputy gets a detail working here keeping order during the day.
And the inevitable rooster even though pets are eschewed at the library. 
