Upper Duval

What an odd  story I read in the newspaper the other day, it hasn't quite sunk in. The highest law enforcement officer in the county, the State Attorney has ordered the County Clerk to "cease and desist" destroying county records.

      

A Message from
Amy Heavilin
Clerk & Comptroller
Monroe County
www.clerk-of-the-court.com

Your Clerk and Comptroller is an independently elected constitutional officer, who protects the interests of you - the citizen. As the County Comptroller, we provide a critical check and balance to make sure your tax dollars are spent appropriately. As Clerk, we serve as the keeper of court records, documenting our lives from birth to death.

Heavilin was elected in 2012, winning 64% of the vote in Monroe County which tends to elect Republicans county-wide. Shortly after assuming office she made some bad hires that smacked of favoritism for unqualified friends and stalwarts of the office started quitting. She lost the primary to Kevin Madok a former employee of the former clerk who retired and made way for Heavilin.

“During my years in the Clerk’s office, Danny Kolhage led a professional, respectful and hard-working team. Staff turnover was minimal, because we shared pride in our work and in our reputations. The Clerk’s office was a special place to work. I will restore that,” said Madok. “Like many citizens, I am troubled by the repeated critical audits, extreme staff turnover and lack of leadership. These problems are unprecedented for the Clerk’s office. This has to change and I can do it”.

The Key West Citizen's top front page story announced that the Clerk, having lost the election has apparently decided to go on a  spite filled rampage attempting to wreck the next Clerk's chances in the office. Truly bizarre. Her lawyer says its all a misunderstanding and everything will be fine. 

Monroe County government’s top attorney sent a cease-and-desist notice to outgoing Clerk of the Court Amy Heavilin recently outlining concerns about possible deleted emails and the cancellation of critical contracts. The letter also threatened contacting the governor about possibly suspending her of her duties

Apparently the fiasco came to light when employees fond email streams deleted from their computers and a contractor hired to manage county financial accounts announced she was ending their contracts as though to make life impossible for the next incumbent. 

And I know this is just one small story about one small local office holder but at the same time it reminds me of the national headlines about emails and fiduciary responsibilities and improper ties and all the rest. I wonder how we get out of this cycle of debilitating non compliance with the normal daily rules of decency.

I was wondering if perhaps we should give our elected leaders stress tests and perhaps mandatory yoga classes and meditation to help them see the trees in the woods and to remember their obligations.

So now Key West has an organic pure lifestyle fancy shop on upper Duval. I confess to being a bit surprised, not disappointed but surprised. Certainly it can't hurt but in a  town dedicated to the proposition that alcohol solves all ills it seems at odds with the goal of drinking too much all the time.

And across the street is the venerable Terraza de Marti:

The property  now known as La Te Da (from “La Terraza de Marti” or “The Balcony of Marti”), is a popular locals hang out and Key West historic hotel.  The former Perez Residence is the Hotel Lobby and Piano Bar featuring a unique collection of art from the Owner’s private collection. Adjacent to the Lobby is our world class Restaurant, brand new Terrace Bar and luxurious newly renovated guestrooms.

La Te Da has been around a bit but the Salty Angler is a newer place on Upper Duval. Its been getting good reviews so I suppose I should put it on the list for a visit if I get of out my routine. I was surprised how permanent the daily catch sign was. Perhaps "snapper" will be caught daily for a long stretch at a time. 

At a time when galleries have been opening and closing like whack a moles this place has hung on, one of a group of art outlets that seems to be able to weather Key West's tastes. I fear the name derived from its location on "south" Duval gives me a chuckle every time I see it. Sod You is an impolite Anglo-Saxon way to tell someone they are incorrect. 

I played hop scotch for a while with these Europeans who marched up the sidewalk ahead of, then behind, then ahead of Rusty and I. They seemed to be documenting every block of Duval Street each with their own camera, silently ignoring each other as they went. So striking were they I took their picture. I hope their vacation went swimmingly and may they go home to a town as photogenic as Key West.

Waterfront Kerfuffles

I am pretty sure I don't want to own  (or be owned by) a sailboat again, but now and again I let my guard down and wonder if perhaps this time my mythical sailboat might encounter favorable winds and smoother seas a majority of the time. In my actual functioning memory sailing consisted of hunkering down to hide from strong winds on the nose or taking off sailing in a desperate attempt  to find decent winds to enable a brisk refreshing sail.  Too often five minutes sailing led to an hour's motoring back to the slip and all the kerfuffle of dropping and folding sails, covering bright work and coiling lines.  However I was rather intrigued by the possibility of renting a Catalina 41 and letting someone else do the kerfuffling in future. Noted for future reference,and it LOOKS pretty good in the brochure.

Anything to do with the water involves mucking about dealing with stuff and  that includes diving. I got so fed up dealing with buoyancy vests and regulators and dive time calculations and weights and all the rest of it that I gave up diving and contented myself with snorkeling.  Rusty couldn't care either way.

Then there is fishing, a sport I have never managed to get into...and as I watched this fishing boat captain kerfuffling with tiny pieces of plastic line and bait and stuff I thought my decision to renounce chasing fish to be an excellent one.

I watched the liveaboard boater coming to the dinghy dock, slicing the water as he came.  Nope I don't miss living on the water either with all the complexities of trash disposal, crap disposal and water collection.

Live free like a bird.

On land.

Southard And Elizabeth

He wasn't wearing a  tutu but standards have dropped a bit in the Key West eccentricity stakes so a bizarre hat will have to do:

 Rusty decided it was time to imitate Cheyenne and started rooting around under a car for no apparent reason. I did hear some satisfying crunching after a bit.

 The front of the car puzzled me. I figured it was just some driver with a light grasp of Biblical characters, like the parent who named a child Cain when they meant Abel.

 We knocked off the state primary election at the end of last month and now we are in the final weeks of tortuous electioneering which will culminate in all these signs being taken down. Maybe.

This rather incoherent message  has made its way onto Southard Street:

And then there are all those lovely signs that brighten up Old Town so much and make it so much more attractive than it would be without them: 

 Yesterday's urgent message, today trampled underfoot:

 Through it all Key West remains tranquil and lovely.

I still like to receive a printed newspaper daily in my driveway but I wonder how much longer such old fashioned print will survive.

The State Attorney election is a funny race. Not many people realize the state attorney (in some states the District Attorney) is the most powerful local politician, the one who chooses who and when will be charged  with any crime ranging from battery to bribery. In Monroe County there has been a furious back and forth since Mark Kohl was ousted a couple of election cycles ago.  He was replaced by Dennis Ward, and Kohl's assistant Catherine Vogel left to take a job in Ocala. Then Dennis Ward prosecuted a popular local man and lost the Conch vote when former Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo went to jail over his wife's pilfering (she got eight years in state prison). So the vote turned and Vogel saw her way back to Key West and got herself elected. Dennis Ward hasn't given up so now they are having a rematch this fall. And so it goes. If you don't have a private income in Key West you leave town when you lose your job. Acevedo is getting married to a nice woman, not a kleptomaniac apparently, and he has another job outside the school district. Its a shame because he was a great superintendent even if his then wife was mad. 

Finally Key West has quieted down a bit after a prolonged busy summer and its safe to use the streets for a few short weeks until snow starts to fall Up North again.

I overheard the letter carrier and the UPS guy talking about the relative merits of their jobs. These days the postal service seems like a tricky career with the attitude in Congress toward the postal service.

 There was lots to see here apparently, and a scooter rider with sandalled feet arouses no surprise in Key West. But I hate the way amateurs drag their feet as they ride. It doesn't improve their balance, rather the reverse and should their feet hit the ground at speed they will hurt themselves badly.

Unwanted parrots are now on Elizabeth Street but the cat looks quite well wanted. Rusty was just out of the frame and far too smart to get close to the cat which looked quite capable of taking care of itself. 

Ohio Key

It was a stormy morning so I decided to take Rusty to a south facing beach to enjoy the force of nature. After some cogitation and discussion with Rusty, which was a bit one sided, w e settled on Ohio Key.

Before humans spread out amongst them and brought the railroad most of these islands were uninhabited and had no names. The railroad needed names and so the workers laying down tracks offered up some possibilities. Mostly they seemed to feel a nostalgia for home so the islands seemed to end up being named for various and assorted states. Next to Ohio we have Missouri.

Ohio Key is a mile or so south of the Seven Mile Bridge and you can see Marathon on the horizon. They named the City of Marathon (there is no "Marathon Key") because it was a Marathon job laying track across that particular piece of wilderness in 1910. 

 The islands here are small and there are lots of bridges connected small strips of land.

 It was windy enough to raise Rusty's ear flaps.

 The storms throw up tons of seaweed which dries and rots.

 And debris:

 Lots of textures:

 Spectacular spot:

In winter campers from the nearby RV park can often be seen down here. This time of year it's a lonely spot. Lovely.

Harriet Street

From April 2009 this look at New Town, Key West.


I have previously wandered Smurf Village with my camera but Harriet Street deserves a second look all on it's own.At first glance it's just another New Town Lane, hidden from Flagler Avenue, the main four lane street in this the eastern end of key West.Yet it's a street with a couple of little oddities that I like. So I took my wife's Vespa ET4 for an outing and enjoyed a meander on Harriet Street. The first odd thing about Harriet is that is a very out of place jog at one end. In New Town, an area built up heavily in the sixties when conformity and trigonometry seemed to rule Key West's urban planning, a street with a weird angle is out of place.The large two story house that forces the angle in Harriet's course, marks the end of the Smurf Village development. You won't find Smurf Village on a map, because it's a local nickname given to the collection of quad-plexes that in some people's minds resemble the homes of the cartoon characters known as Smurfs:You can see their point:The duplexes follow the same basic back-to-back layout but their owners have taken pains to decorate them to their tastes:According to a friend of mine who bought a home in Smurf Village, this is an area of key West that has been hard hit by foreclosures, and some of the less well maintained homes are on offer for lower prices than one might expect. I saw one for sale by owner asking $203,000. Which may seem a lot for half a duplex that needs some work, but these places were selling for up to half a million before the housing crash. The problem now is that those bought as investment properties and rented out, are shuttered and temporarily abandoned by the banks who now own them outright and don't want to deal with renters. Judging by the state of the pool this might be one such:Most of the homes are still occupied and treasured, and even in a neighborhood with a few empty homes Key West isn't the sort of town where feral urban decay takes over, happily:I spotted this well used Tomos moped, a true moped with functioning pedals, and as I stood there taking the picture the owner came out and growled at me rather suspiciously: "Can I help you?" in that tone of voice that means: "What the @#$%! are you doing?" So I showed him the picture and he agreed it was as pretty as a ...picture. "I'm going to have to take a photo of it like that," he said, though he declined to pose with his pride and joy.He waved a cheery good bye after admiring my wife's Vespa, "You can't pedal that," was his parting shot as he turned left on 16th Street. I was continuing straight across to my other favorite part of Harriet:

I'm not sure this is really part of Harriet at all, and on the maps it isn't but as an alley it makes a fine adjunct to the street:Until you skid along the gravel far enough to come out behind Poinciana Plaza which faces Duck Avenue. In the back it's all blank delivery doors and loading ramps:This is the front of the Plaza, the respectable facade wherein works my chiropractor:And just off to the end , which cannot by any stretch be called "part of" Harriet Street is the old Holsum Bread bakery. Long since shuttered, this store used to offer day-old bread at knock down prices which helped more than a few people stretch their dollars:Now the Spottswood Real Estate Empire is offering it for sale. Funny isn't it. how Key West, so cramped has all these useful open blocks of land available for sale?

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Returning to Duck Avenue I captured just another couple of images of the front of Poinciana Plaza and the wild terrible creature of the day:No, not a snotty nosed school child though that would be bad enough, but a dragon:This demented dinosaur (and noted garden pest) stuck it's head down as though no one would notice it, sunning itself on the hot asphalt. I figured the school bus driver wasn't going to make any bones about running it over, so for my good deed of this day, I rode the Vespa close enough that the startled lizard picked itself up and scuttled off the street. I shall probably rue this decision the next time one of these brutes decimates my ripe strawberries but I am weak, what can I say?