Homes For The Keys

The official estimate is ten to fifteen thousand homes in the Keys are uninhabitable or severely damaged according to the newspaper. To me, either estimate and the variation does seem rather broad, is unimaginable. Somewhere between a  fifth and a third of Keys homes can't be used. 

FEMA is supposed to be sending trailers but the demand is enormous what with all the disasters hitting the US this hurricane season. I hear much talk of people forced to leave the Keys, of jobs not filled, of lack of staffing after the storm.

The county commissioners are talking about changing rules for house building, easing restrictions, allowing construction in Tier 3 land and other arcane variations on the land use plan. My innate skepticism leads me to wonder cui bono from all this expansion of construction rights. Even well meaning changes to the law lead to unintended consequences.

My skepticism comes from the fact that the term "affordable housing" is wide open. This term is supposed to indicate that some buildings, perhaps as part of a broader development will be devoted to housing people who work and have less to spend. The problem is that the term "affordable" never quite seems to be defined.So constructions height limits are raised "for affordable housing" or previously un-buildable lands are being considered for development "for affordable housing." Yet what that threshold of affordability might be is yet to be explained.

Some affordable housing has been sold around a quarter million dollars with deed restrictions to limit future sales to  qualified applicants. It helps but I don't think it's enough and not accessible enough.

The irony of our situation is that the hospitality industry has a tip mentality and limited wages and health insurance at the lower echelons seems to encourage mobility. Hotels have been rebuilt with worker housing under the eaves as employees come and go. The question is, how do you buy affordable housing on waitstaff salary? And do you want to encourage permanence among the help?

In some high end eateries that may very well be possible and easy even. But in the majority of cases where it isn't, the county is faced with a crying need for decent affordable rental housing. To me the shining example of worker housing is Meridian West (LINK)  on Stock Island built at the direction of developer Ed Swift. 

To me the only realistic solution to  this this problem of housing is to build more complexes exactly  like Meridian West, with parking at the ground floor (risk of flooding I know) and assorted apartments above. It's not cute but it would be comfortable, and accessible and built in Key West or Stock Island would keep commutes short.

There is a lot of public housing in Key West but it is old and not terribly comfortable. You will see open windows and elderly air conditioning units battling the heat of summer.  The issue then becomes public opposition to tall housing structures. There are no easy answers but Key West has settled on a core of wealthy residents full and part time in Old Town and a modern segment of the city housing people dedicated to serving them. Broad generalizations I know but the divide seems to be getting wider as time goes by. And the availability of housing for workers is shrinking.

I may be wrong and I hope I am wrong but pretty soon if you want to live in Key West and get a job your housing choice will be  none or a modern apartment in a soulless complex or a faux Key West home at  a price that will make your eyes water with a commute in proportion.  Hurricane Irma has simply highlighted what was already known, and not acted upon. The longer nothing is done the worse it gets. If you want affordable housing you have to build it and rent it at a price people can pay. Nothing else will work no matter how much you fiddle with regulations and land use plans. If you want affordable housing build it.

Clean Up

City Hall is looking spic and span these days despite the chaos in the city. 

 White Street Pier and the Aids Memorial less so. It's going to take a while for the crews to get around to cleaning the beaches and Higgs Beach streets. I hope the tourists are patient. Perhaps they can go and stare at the pristine city hall...

In the neighborhoods where they fit, that is to say New Town, these monsters have been scooping up mounds of leaves and sawed up trees:

One guy monitors the grabbing at ground level and the other one sits in a bucket seat and operates the arm. Pretty slick.

 In old town you couldn't fit one of these trains so clean up there will take longer.

It's a matter of closing streets here and there, setting up detours and plucking the stuff and shoving it into a much smaller truck. It will take longer.

 There's plenty of foliage to remove:

 This lot came bagged from a hotel:

 And yet, deliberately tossing garbage on the sidewalks still ticks me off. I know it's just force of habit but still. Is this necessary?

Boca Chica Beach Then And Now

I have been trying to reintroduce Rusty to normal activities after his long road trip as an evacuee.

Boca Chica Beach was a favorite.

The trees were shredded by Irma but Rusty didn't care and that's part of the pleasure of a dog walk.

The other part of the pleasure is being in Nature though that is curtailed these days.

Before the storm it was  a pleasant shady place to sit looking out at the ocean:

Nowadays the view over the Straits is  from a bench created from driftwood.

And the Navy fence is frequently not there.

I preferred it when it was green and flourishing.

      

Rusty was just fine with it all torn up

Spotted something out of the corner of his eye in mid bound:

Cheyenne in her younger days when I first got her enjoyed the paved walk along what used to be State Highway 4:

The road now is a bit different covered in sand and seaweed:

A year ago it looked like this:

Rusty went for a stroll on Navy property and even though he came running when I called a patrol vehicle showed up behind the parking lot while I was watering him and I don't believe in coincidences.

The beach with its huge shade trees and winding coastal path.

    I know it will grow back but the land is gone, the tide is encroaching and I doubt I will still be around then this lot returns to looking as it did.

Which I liked a lot. And even though the collection of twigs built into a structure still seemed to be there it was out of reach for a proper inspection.

   

And I know it was a refuge for nudists and al fresco gay sexual encounters but they never bothered me and the walk was always worthwhile. 

This picture put me in mind of a lakeside dock in winter Up North. 

This is what it really ought to look like:

Normal:        

Now:

May it all grow back soon. Before I'm dead maybe.

Acting Your Age

In my continuing efforts to help Rusty get over his post hurricane stress (and mine) we went for a walk at Sugarloaf Loop, an hour's diversion between leaving my Cudjoe home where clean up is a constant and our digs in Key West with friends. Apparently we aren't alone in our hurricane stress:

It was a beautiful hot still day, the breezes that are currently flowing over Florida hadn't reached us Monday so I was sweating by the time we reached the Sugarloaf Jumping Bridge half a mile up the trail:

 Joe Cool was busy checking out the bushes as we went.

Aside from a couple of youngsters on bicycles who overtook us coming from the main road we had birds for company and silence in the air:

Rusty was crashing through the dead leaves which now make up the underbrush after the Category Four storm blew through denuding all branches. I was checking out the canal and wondering if black and white pictures express the stillness and heat better than color...

 ...when two middle aged cyclists pulled up. I photographed their bicycles later and they looked ready for an expedition.

I saw them standing in an attitude of prayer and I thought to myself...that looks odd...had they been teenagers...

 ...I'd guess they were...

 ...thinking about...

...jumping off the so-called Jumping Bridge of Sugarloaf Key. It's where teenagers come to dare each other to make the status-affirming leap. I've photographed them before in this spot and they tend to shout and grin and jump. These two, affirming their status as rebels made it a more prolonged, thoughtful moment up there on the bridge above me.

 Well damn!

 And down they went.

 They said the water felt good which surprised me as I have not seen it return to proper clarity since the Irma unpleasantness.

The birds weren't impressed but when I made a remark to the effect I'd only ever seen teenagers make the leap they said they weren't known for acting their age.

 Rusty was cooling off while this went on.

He just sat, not needing to make a point by jumping. The only dry one left was me and I was still sweating.

 Oh and him:

 My black and white efforts  (swirled into sepia by my smart phone app) is a mark I think of me moving away from recording the gruesome facts of survival and thinking more about how things look.

 I rather preferred the black and white version of the jumpers' bicycles too:

And Rusty who took off for a solo explore leaving me to find shade where I could and there was none.

 Then the wind picked up out on the Straits of Florida and we went back to the car, back to the world of  post Irma life in the Keys.