Call me bourgeois but I like the cultural events that pop up in and around Key West. Pretty soon the theater season will shut down as all the snowbirds pack their bags (again! how do they do it twice every year? Pack, unpack, pack, unpack...) and bugger off to see their families Up North, leaving us to fan ourselves and enjoy outdoor activities during hurricane season. So, as I look forward to the Keys emptying out in a few weeks I try to take advantage of those activities that restricted to the winter when the islands are packed with visiting patrons of the Arts, and artists anxious to evade snowdrifts.
The open space in front of Fort Zachary is currently occupied by a bunch of peculiar constructions, all part of Sculpture Key West. Its an annual event that this year was split part of the time at the West Martello Tower, home of the Garden Club, and then at its traditional home in the State Park. I always enjoy wandering around trying to make sense of the whatever is put out for us philistines to enjoy and emote over. This year it seems a little less whimsical than years past, but there's plenty to see. These two dudes got into the spirit of the thing:
They were laughing and puzzling out loud, as all of us tend to do when confronted by these apparitions and no handy guide book to explain how they should make us feel. They suggested this cryptic offering should have been labeled "This Art Exhibit Brought To You By Why..." and who am I to disagree?
Don't ask me to explain, I just spent a happy forty-five minutes wandering around in the warm afternoon sun looking and wondering and sometimes my mind wandered and I spotted background action too:
This white flowing tent-like thing put me in mind of Arabia, mosques, and bright white walls. God and the Artist only know what it is meant to be to be, if anything. Which is, I suppose the point:
When you take a walk around Sculpture Key West some works of Art seem plain stupid or odd, but others speak to you in most unexpected ways. This next one, nothing more than stacked pieces of wood, brought to my mind most forcefully memories of cold damp winters spent in the Santa Cruz mountains of California living by the power of a wood stove.
There were three "walls" of stacked wood and a few small piles scattered around but I had the greatest difficulty not spending more time pondering them and remembering that which they evoked of my life in Ben Lomond. On the wooded theme there was a rather odd looking yurt lurking prominently in the middle of the open space, which, the closer I got to it, opened out into an honest-to-goodness maze, a hurricane house they say. Art? I don't know but it sure was hot sweaty fun to explore:
The next erection I came across baffled me. It looked like some sort of towering redoubt, most uninviting. And this one had a label, which turned out to be no help at all as it simply stated the obvious:
From the Land of the Inexplicable I plucked this other set of strange monoliths, made of metal frames with some narrow mesh over them and the whole thing painted a silverish shade of white. They were set out in a wide swath for all to see and walk through, as illustrated above:
And then there was the almost compulsory exhibit of Trash as Art the re-use of the recyclables made, this time, into an amusing wigwam pyramid of color and space:
Over all this nonsense the permanent metal statue on the walls of the Fort stood guard:
While down below, at moat level, my favorite gathering of sculpted metal skeleton pirates gloating over their chest of treasure were moved to make way for an oblique mirror contraption:
The other exhibit that made me laugh was a series of roadsigns placed along the path back to the main parking lot. They were built in the style of international warning symbols, red bordered white triangles with various nonsensical symbols, crashing waves and the like.
All good fun, but the best part of Sculpture Key West is to take the time time to come back, perhaps without the interference of the camera and hang out with one's friends and enjoy the space and the day and the company of people you like:
What better to way to spend an afternoon in the spring than to stand chatting on the waterfront at Forty Zachary Taylor, surrounded by the blessing of Art?
The next erection I came across baffled me. It looked like some sort of towering redoubt, most uninviting. And this one had a label, which turned out to be no help at all as it simply stated the obvious:From the Land of the Inexplicable I plucked this other set of strange monoliths, made of metal frames with some narrow mesh over them and the whole thing painted a silverish shade of white. They were set out in a wide swath for all to see and walk through, as illustrated above:And then there was the almost compulsory exhibit of Trash as Art the re-use of the recyclables made, this time, into an amusing wigwam pyramid of color and space:Over all this nonsense the permanent metal statue on the walls of the Fort stood guard:While down below, at moat level, my favorite gathering of sculpted metal skeleton pirates gloating over their chest of treasure were moved to make way for an oblique mirror contraption:The other exhibit that made me laugh was a series of roadsigns placed along the path back to the main parking lot. They were built in the style of international warning symbols, red bordered white triangles with various nonsensical symbols, crashing waves and the like.All good fun, but the best part of Sculpture Key West is to take the time time to come back, perhaps without the interference of the camera and hang out with one's friends and enjoy the space and the day and the company of people you like:What better to way to spend an afternoon in the spring than to stand chatting on the waterfront at Forty Zachary Taylor, surrounded by the blessing of Art?
So here's the thing: you have a patch of shady beachfront in a town notorious for its sunshine and heat and you run the park system that takes care of this, the town's best beach. So what do you decide to do? Why, cut the trees down of course! It's as obvious as breathing if you run the State of Florida Park System.
The Park Service says the casuarina trees, also known as Australian pines, are an invasive species and have to go. This is the same argument California made in attempting to get rid of eucalyptus trees, imported from Australia to be used as fast growing wind breaks. Casuarina trees grow where other plants won't, but their needles are acidic and prevent undergrowth from sprouting and the pines propagate wildly when left to themselves. However at Fort Zachary they grow in an isolated stand and provide beautiful shade at the waterfront used by people on bicycles, on foot in cars and even riding motorcycles (imagine that!):
The arguments against the removal of the pines are made logically and concisely on the Real Key West Blog. The video convinced me the wholesale removal of the pines is unnecessary, expensive and generally a bad idea. For a long time I had been something of a fence sitter on the subject because I do like native vegetation, but the notion that the well developed pines should be hacked down at a cost of $275,000 with no replacement other than a gruesome cement Ramada seems absurd. The pines, non native though they may be,have their own beauty:
And they offer welcome shade:
The Park Service has removed trees around the food concession overlooking the beach and their modest native plantings sit out in the sun baking gently:
Visitors to Key West in winter love the sunshine we enjoy year round and they think nothing of baking on the beach fleshing out their tans, soon to be transported back among envious neighbors Up North:
The park is tucked away in a corner of the city at the entrance to the harbor and the roadway into the park is lined on one side by the Navy Base while the other side is now city property, soon to be developed since the navy handed over 33 waterfront acres to key West (those development proposals are a controversy all their own...).
I prefer the western end of the park, the area with least development with picnic tables littered all around under the trees. This where I prefer to take my lunch breaks:
But development is encroaching with the creation of paths and borders and plantings:
When it comes to cutting down the pine trees I favor a middle path, a compromise that wouldn't suit anyone I guess. I really don't see the need to immediately cut down the shade trees, as non native as they may be. I'd like to see the Park Service aggressively plant in the wide open space between the Fort and the waterfront. Thus far their efforts are not encouraging. No one wants to see the pines demolished to make way for this:
The destruction of the pines looks even more crazy when viewed from the middle of the open space, currently occupied by Sculpture Key West. The pine trees across the horizon make quite a statement:
I wonder what the Park Service is thinking. Actually I don't think the leadership is thinking, if they were they wouldn't bring the Service into disrepute by cutting down a bunch of trees that actually serve a purpose, cost nothing and require no watering. As it is Fort Zachary Taylor is living proof our State is a lunatic asylum governed by the inmates.
Once upon a time, long long ago there was a street in Key West called Houseboat Row, and it was called that because people lived in houseboats parked along the seawall. And there are photos on the 
They were a colorful lot the residents of the two dozen floating homes tied up to the seawall. Indeed there is a story that one of the home
Well its not quite empty, people still defy the city and tie up their dinghies to the seawall,
in the mangroves:
As well as their bicycles apparently:
You've got to have wheels if you are going to get into town, and bicycles mopeds and even motorcycles can be seen from time to time parked along the roadway waiting for their owners to come to shore.
One can still see the steps leading down to the water:
Over the protests of the people, and with assurances from local property owner Ed Knight that he wasn't planning on developing the land he owned in the area the houseboats were towed away to new homes in Garrison Bight Marina. I remember seeing the forlorn houseboats being towed down Hawk Channel 
Meanwhile onshore life goes on, and amazing to relate those inland acres did end up getting built on. Right after the ugly blight of polluting wrecked houseboats was cleaned up, a bunch of multi-million dollar condos sprouted like mushrooms across the street:
A cynic might argue that the houseboats were swept away to make way for the high end developments but 
Its just one of those things. Change happens and people come and others go to make way for them and so the wheel goes round. People are still managing to hang in and live on their boats in Cow Key Channel. When the west wind blows the planes come in to land over the head
Nothing stays the same, and every time I ride by on South Roosevelt I miss the mail boxes and planters strung along the sidewalk, but there it is. Modern Key West is better than no Key West at all.