Some Pretty Pictures

We live in a state of suspended animation but photographs must be taken all the same. A moored boat at dawn, bathed in the weird pink glow of early morning light. Bear in mind that temperatures are in the 90s by the middle of the day so if you were thinking dew or frost or visible breath, that wasn't happening. Thank God.

There has been the beach opening fiasco in Jacksonville where the governor said open the beaches if you can do it safely and of course it was about as unsafe a display of crowding as the Sunshine State can put on. If you live in a boring state that never makes the news I can only sympathize. I thoroughly enjoy a pratfall (my wife abhors this trait in me) and to live even only peripherally in the afterglow of the exploits of Florida Man tickles my funny bone. I managed to annoy my colleagues by looking at the link and falling out of my chair laughing. Feel free to react with disdain.

So when the Governor says he is allowing beaches to open "if  it is done safely" you just know it will be a train wreck and of course it was in best Florida Man style. The pictures of people crowding the beach was a throwback to the world before coronavirus. Before you get all sniffy at Florida and our capacity for stupidity, much as my relatives in North Carolina like to do, consider the lock down reaction Up North  where people carrying guns marched around waving flags and looking grim and serious protesting the usurpation of their various constitutions. I much prefer the Florida way of mass cheerful stupidity. 

The beaches in Key West are still closed the mayor hastened to proclaim after barricades started to be moved gently aside and people took to the sand.  Nothing has changed here. On the plus side the Governor has made it clear that schools will not reopen this semester so that issue is settled. My wife has found teaching from home far harder than doing it in the classroom even after we set her up with a desk and monitors and a lovely view across the canal. As much as she knows she has to stay isolated as she has a compromised immune system, she is looking forward to being in her classroom again. Safety first and teaching from home is the best solution for her, certainly.

I continue to hunt for unconsidered trifles on Rusty's mangrove walks. I have seen videos from European photographers, many of them professionals, who are earning no money in this long anxious lock down over there. They can't leave home, they can't work and they can only photograph their gardens at best. I at least get to walk my dog with a camera, go to work with my camera and be socially distant with my camera. Even so I am learning that whether or not you photograph people, human activity leaves behind much of interest to the lens. You notice things in their absence. 

I am struggling to notice things that are more apparent that have always been lolling there pushed into the background by more absorbing activity. Ooh look, a cement crack in a utility pad!  Excellent, how can I make that look like the Grand Canyon? I can't? Oh well. 

The inevitable spandex warrior swished by as I stared hard seeking inspiration from a bright orange leaf....Hey! I wanted to call out, come back, can I photograph your sprocket?  But he was gone, a disappearing speck of high visibility yellow taking all his photographic possibilities with him. Drat.  

 I have noticed this past weekend how dark it is outside when the moon is new as I live on a street with no street lights. A couple of nervous neighbors have outside lights on as though to attract burglars like moths but most of the street is pitch black. Rusty disappears into the void and I follow with a flashlight. So it is that I am missing the moon for a few days. If you can't remember what it looks like here it is:

 Lacking people trees have figured prominently in my repertoire, sunrise in color...

 ....windy in black and white:

Coronavirus? I can't remember anything about that while I'm looking for beauty in this messed up world.

Our Haunted House

We had tickets to the theater when the coronavirus hit the fan. So much for that. I can confirm the Waterfront is still here but I haven't seen the Red Barn as the driveway to that theater is locked. Coronavirus may have swept it away as it seems to be sweeping away every civilized thing in its path.

The Pez Garden is still there happily even though that too is locked. They call it the Pez Garden in Key West as the notable citizens represented there are depicted by bronze busts stuck on long rectangular pillars that look like nothing quite so much as Pez dispensers.

They look like this, below, but this one is separate placed next to the building that was named after him, thus he is outside the locked Sculpture Garden next to Mallory Square.

You can see why they named the old courthouse after him. I wonder how his eminence would have coped with the coronavirus? One likes to think he would have navigated the crisis like a gentleman.

Back in the alleyway between the Waterfront Theater and El Meson de Pepe we find the ficus roots taking over the old coral wall and very artistic it is too:

Cigars we were once worth more to Key West than pirates, though pirates that never existed in Key West are more glamorous:

Lots of parking if you need some and no valets to assist you either. Parking meters aren't working at the moment either so you know the fabric of civilization is rending just a little bit.

Rusty was surprisingly enterprising at the edge of the dark black sloppy ocean waters. The glass bottom boat is parked (and locked) for the duration in case you had some mad idea things were getting back to normal.

The weird thing is people are still calling the police department asking if they can come down for a visit. And they don't seem that thrilled to be told that no, the road is closed to non residents and hotels are closed. "Does that include air B and Bs?" asked one hopeful dimwit. He seemed surprised when I told him two people have been arrested so far for trying to rent vacation rooms.

There is no doubt everyone wants things to start back up but even though I don't really understand the mechanism of transmission of this weird virus, it seems to pop back up when people clump together. So do you leave the cities empty and people out of work like this?

Or do we risk a lot more people getting ill in a hurry and overwhelming hospitals? I think social distancing in Florida has been obviously pretty hit or miss and  now its getting worse as proposals to ease up start leaking in certain communities. We are lucky as long as the Sheriff holds the roads closed at the county line but Up Noprth we have seen people clumping on beaches in Jacksonville. 

I'd like to give them time to see what happens before we go whole hog down here. If in three weeks Jacksonville isn't a hot spot I say we go for it...but let them be the guinea pigs first as they seem keen to throw caution to the wind. I don't mean to imply anyone's  asking my opinion but honestly I'm not keen to be the first to open the door into the haunted house. 

It's quite possible there are no ghosts behind the closed door, and perhaps there isn't much virus in South Florida but what if there is?

So for now the shops are closed, the restaurants are either closed or restricted to outside service and the town lumbers along like a ghost town.

I spend my walks keeping one eye on Rusty who keeps an eye on me and together we meander empty streets and I dare say streets that have fewer interesting smells for a small brown dog to track down.

I expect there is less food for the wild birds too now that drunks aren't dropping pizza slices everywhere.

And even though the lights shine on in the dark the bills will come due at some point.

This dock line clamped tight around a cleat seemed like a good metaphor for our situation, hanging on for all we are worth until something changes. 

Till then follow Rusty's example and keep smiling. 

Key West Still Closed

I hear the plans are for a return to some sort of economic activity before long. These kinds of pictures I can take if I get up in the middle of the night whether or not the town is shut down. However just at the moment getting in the car at four in the morning just isn't necessary at the moment with the city shut down. This attractive pile is a real estate office not a stone's throw from Mile Zero. Behind it you can see the entrance to the old jail in the Jefferson Browne building. You can see  no people and neither could I.

then I turned to my right and took this picture of the empty main post office. It put me in mind of the post office's  plea for coronavirus funding which was denied even as airlines got theirs.  

Mile Zero with no one around. There are lots of souvenirs available if you need them. Not that you can buy them in person right now. Speculation is how much e-commerce will be inspired to ship stuff all over the place from Key West. Perhaps you won't need to be an actual tourist, just order your Mile Zero key chain on line and get it shipped. I expect you can do that now it's just becoming a more obvious way to do everything now it seems.

In normal times I'd never bother to notice this  sign. It has a nice nostalgic ring to it now, imagining a street full of people and dogs. Not the sort of scene you can find today. 

"Coming Soon -March 15th"  frozen in time. Properly lit up at the Tropic Cinema but as abandoned as if in a zombie apocalypse.

Not every empty store front can possibly be virus related. Can it?

Leaves piling up on Duval Street. Not a permanent feature of life but evocative of the times we are living.

The bar closed tight, the city darkened.

The sidewalks are repaired, up next is repaving while no one is around on Duval Street.

A slow walk through a dead city.

Rusty doesn't care as long as we get time together.

Post Pandemic

Election year writ large is hovering over the coronavirus decisions our national leaders make but in smaller print locally  he election is starting to make itself felt as community leaders look to ending coronavirus restrictions.

The Citizen is jumping into the fray feet first with some interesting interviews on the subject even to myself who neither lives nor votes in the city itself. The big question is what improvements can be made in the Keys when the drive to attract visitors starts up again? That this is also an election year and there are two very different candidates offering visions of the future make it a bit more interesting.

Add to that an interview with the Spottswood empire of tourist attractions and hotels and suddenly the coronavirus could be a vehicle for bringing good things o the Keys. Maybe.

Here's the thing: if you feel you can charge fifty dollars a day to park a car downtown are you attracting visitors who pop into the five dollar stores to buy dustcatchers made in the Far East? Welcome to Key West where we propose to fleece you as fast and as efficiently as we can. if you are off a cruise ship by all means buy plastic knick knacks before returning to the ship's buffet table but if you plan to stay in the city plan on a  four hundred dollar a night hotel, hopefully with free parking.

The Spottswood interview revealed  a desire to attract more upscale visitors interested less in pirates and wenching and more in the real history and culture of Key West. There was mention in the interview of switching the direction of advertising away from Key West as a drinking hole and more toward the city as a repository of history art and culture. On the face of it that doesn't sound bad but I dare say we local yokels will have to be supplied with a  clothing allowance to bring us up to the standards of the nouveau riche art hunters who will be sauntering around town looking for local color. 

On the other hand the man who owns Ricks Bar and who has dabbled in politics before,  running for city commission and voting blithely on ordinances affecting downtown businesses is not recusing himself from this debate as election year looms. Mark Rossi is challenging the mayor for her seat and he told the newspaper he has no qualms about raggedy drinking tourism. He wants more with no changes.

Mayor Teri Johnston hasn't had enough of the coronavirus mess and wants another term in office and she told the Citizen she wants the city to think of a bight new future after the pandemic goes away. Everything should be questioned and evaluated in her narrative, cruise ships, local quality of life and the quality of tourism. If there is another and better way she wants to find it, similar to the Spottswoods' vision.

But then in the same article there is the cold wet blanket laid over the whole discussion by the Chamber of Commerce, the union representing business owners in the city. That narrative can be abbreviated to the thought that if there were another way it would have been found already. Which indeed makes sense but it also reveals the uncomfortable truth that no one seems to much like the city Key West has become but they see no alternative to advertising a drinking town with a  tourist problem. 

People like me who come to Key West to live here tend to go through an arc of appreciation, tedium and irritation, and those of you who think you want to live here should pay attention to the emotions of those who have gone before. Key Wrest is a town that grabs you by the throat if it grabs you at all. For some it is exactly what they see, an overpriced under served irritation under a hot humid blanket of unrelenting sunshine. For others it is the answer to a lifetime search for meaning. For my wife and I it was the closest we could get to the offbeat town we had lived in on the West Coast, only with much more sunshine than cold damp Santa Cruz. California's coastal fog was dreadful for her arthritis (and my moods). Key West offered us jobs pensions and warm water swimming. But for many people who choose to settle here it is an escape from suburban tedium.

Over time quirky Key West becomes your normal and the irritations of life close in. Gentrification takes away the parts that attracted you here. You can't sustain a bohemian lifestyle when cheap rent amounts to $2500 a month. In a town fueled by low paid hospitality jobs you need three to pay the bills which leaves no time to sit on the beach or grow out your hair and seduce bored tourist maidens. Your work schedule is tight and sleep is at a premium. Fall into the belief that life here is like a vacation and you drink yourself out of work, out of your hovel and back to life Up North. A hurricane evacuation or a coronavirus lock down will have the same effect.

If you do hang on and get a reputation for reliability, and build up a network of friends who can turn you onto cheap rentals, useful side jobs and support in times of need you can live a good life, always on the razor's edge of course but that is situation normal around here.  But the hard part to accept when you look back over the course of twenty or more years, is that Key West is no longer what it was. At whatever stage of bohemian unraveling the city found itself  when you arrived, by now the quirk factor has slipped and your neighbors drive nice cars and wear name brand clothes and are proud of it.

Then you become the irritating nattering voice of the past telling anyone who will listen how great Key West "used to be" which annoys the hell out of your listeners who are enjoying their own acceptable levels of quirk as they have arrived only recently. And so, isolated and disgruntled you pack your bags and go to live in the mountains of Western North Carolina or the southern deserts of California among others.

The idea that Key West become a center of Art and History sounds enticing especially when the people interviewed suggest the art could be viewed online and shipped thus reducing the local workforce. In this town showing up on time - sober - rates you a managerial position no matter how unqualified. Coronavirus may have had the unintended effect of teaching us all how dispensable our workplaces are. A brave new world faces the least educated among us. If drinking is no longer the main reason to visit Key West hippy bar tenders with tall stories and local status are going to be much less in demand than smooth mixologists armed with knowledge and suave dress suits.

If you want a  better class of tourist you are going to need a better class of employee. Better paid, better trained, more educated. They will expect to be housed properly and that alone will be interesting. Key West can't retain people in part because there is no future here unless you are content renting a dump.

I have my doubts anything will change as the forces of reaction in this town are powerful and that is a universal rule, fortified here by success. Key West makes a few people a great deal of money and bearing in mind coronavirus shut downs are temporary the business leaders making money from the low grade tourism will demand more of the same. How do you tell a  city that makes three million dollars directly from cruise ships that those same ships are a cultural blight? Smaller ships? Fewer and more discerning travelers? All that in the wake of a coronavirus economic depression? How likely does that sound?

I have been extremely fortunate during my time in Key West, with my wife and I enjoying great jobs, real health insurance, good friends and the perfect climate, but we too reminisce fondly about the characters, the places, the attitudes that permeated this town decades ago. We don't drink (much) and we don't fish (at all) so retirement here doesn't present too many challenges. After my accident I spent a lot of time lying in bed wondering how best to use the time left. Meeting death face to face will do that and I determined that before I die I need to fulfill one more challenge and I can't do that resting on my laurels here even equipped with pensions and Medicare like the generation that went before us.

I very much doubt Key West can alter it's economic trajectory, coronavirus notwithstanding, and if it does switch to present a  more cultured offering to the world,  the working people who will want to live here will have to change too. I have absolutely no idea how to rate or value  any of it. I feel encouraged that the discussion is taking place and a real choice faces city voters this November between more of the same, or a potential struggle to change. Stay the course of grumbling, shoddy service, non conformity bubbling with rebelliousness or take a chance on more gentrification, fewer tourists and a cleaner quieter town. Take a trip to Naples up the west coast and ask yourself if a power grab by the wealthy yields a town you want to live in. My only question is will I want to come back and live on a boat here after my van adventure is over or will we have to find another quirky little town fighting gentrification under the same warm southern sun? The next election will be very revealing.