Four In The Morning

Amelia Street looking west, toward the waterfront, in the distance.

 Restored Bahama Village architecture:

Bahama Village has been a tight knit community of African Americans who were shunted off to this side of Key West when the center of trade was in the harbor around Mallory Square. Nowadays this land is valuable but the community is well entrenched even though the voracious demand for land and housing puts pressure o the older families that want to live in "the Village."

Restoration and sale. So it goes.

 The figurehead hints at nautical roots often claimed not often verified these days.

Below we see the classic Conch styles of fencing, plain picket and cement block with decoration:

 Classic unrestored architecture, strong simple fence, metal gate and house with possibly a window air conditioner. 

I loved this sign, "Danger!" OMG...

 The ambiguity of my lunch break, head one of two ways...back to work on my Vespa.

Parking Garages

Greene Street dead ends into what used to be known as Key West Bight which is now officially known as the Ancient-Historic-Seaport-and-Tourist-Attraction-at-what-used-to-be-the-Key-West-Bight or some such nonsense. They studied the matter deeply and it seems calling something historic makes it more palatable. However having made the bight seem more attractive the city commission is now working to make it look more ugly. Weird.

There is this open space that has sat here like his forever and a little umbrella at the entrance covers a man who sits and takes money to park. Not good enough said the people in charge who were going to pave the parking lot. However shoot first aim last was the decision making process and the city commission voted to pave the parking lot until they discovered, later, that paving would produce a mere fifteen spaces, as reported in the Key West Citizen.

So, back to the drawing board they went and came up with a plan to spend several millions of dollars to build a parking garage on the site and create 300 spaces. It won't be ugly they said, it will be a work of art. And don't forget these new homes which are going to cost their new owners almost two million dollars, right next to the new parking garage it turns out...bet they like that. Sparks may well fly when the city commission meets to consider this plan.

There is also talk of creating a garage at the Simonton Street fire station, shown here in a an old picture I took right after it was built and Cheyenne wanted to inspect  it:

There was talk about building a multi story parking lot here but that plan faded away without anything being said. Now the talk is back. All in all this location seems like it would be much less controversial even though it is much further from the bars of Duval Street and in a world where walking is frowned upon I'm not sure visitors will be ready to walk six blocks to get a drink...

Meanwhile back at Greene Street the plans also call for taking down businesses currently living on the edges of the lot. Apparently storage for Conch Republic Seafood would be impacted as would refrigeration for commercial fishing operations and the long lived Reef Relief non profit. Squawks of protest naturally.

 Its not terribly scenic but they do valuable work here, all of them.

In the end this whole thing boils down to philosophy. No one wants a parking garage because they are ugly and take up space and are to a certain extent an admission of failure especially in a  town like Key West where walking and cycling and even scooter riding are viable alternatives. But the outcry or parking is an annual event, a winter sport when the town floods with people and their cars and everyone wants to park within half a block of their homes. 

 Parking lots, and the Conch Republic lot seen below is better than many, add very little to the urban landscape. call them a necessary evil sometimes masked by trees and flower beds. On the other hand if these garages aren't built... what happens to parking?

Key West does not have any kind of plan for the future. Parking is one issue that could use some 21st century vision involving say bike lanes, one way streets, public transit or something. It's the same mindset that nothing needs to change that is revealed by the total absence of solar energy in one of the sunniest spots in the nation. The new panels at city hall are saving the city substantial amounts of money each month but that news only brought more grumbling about putting them in the parking lot and not on the roof... 

I frankly don't see any way around accommodating more cars.  I'd like to see more transit and I applaud the new free bus loop running up and down Southard and Fleming around Lower Duval which could be a great start. On the other hand I'd like to see Duval Street be a pedestrian zone with Whitehead and Simonton one way streets in opposite directions with bike lanes and urban beautification on all three streets. I saw Church Street in Burlington last summer and I have been annoying everyone with my envy of Vermont's forward looking politicians ever since...

Compare Green Street above with Church Street below:

Rusty liked it too:

Never going to happen in Key West I predict.

Boca Chica Birds

With summer starting to make itself felt there are fewer cars and no people if you get to the beach at dawn.

 The warning about nudity is still there, but Rusty and I both went clothed.

 He rooted around in the bushes and i enjoyed a few minutes of messing with my camera.

 Another Rock Another Tree...

 There were tons of waders that ignored Rusty and I.

 I saw a face in this pile of rocks like the so-called Green Man, craggy eyebrows, a big white nose and a black triangular mouth...

 Like this:

But when I reverted to color the face disappeared...Make of that what you will!

 On a more mundane note some poor deluded soul left behind an empty can of "Limited Edition" Budweiser, a bit of an oxymoron I thought as this isn't exactly craft beer.

 Someone is putting in a fair bit of work building rock piles in the water and walls on land:

 Just a few pictures from a  banal beach walk.

Higgs Park

I am developing a tic: every time the word development comes up I start getting totally pissed off. So the converse occurs when I read there is a hiccough in the process and some new planned development has to be postponed. As is the case with road re-structuring now being planned for Higgs Park, the area behind Higgs Beach in Key West. The photo below I took from the parking lot at the Bocce Courts looking north up Atlantic Drive where the new road currently planned will cut inland. Except the county cannot start work for reasons I shall explain further down...

This next photo is 180 degrees now looking west  towards Higgs Park across White Street. Under the county's new plan the road would flow along this line of sight, well away from the waterfront.

The entrance as currently designed to Higgs Park, the grassy area inland from Higgs beach itself which is approximately where the new road would meander through a whole new set of landscaping. 

The plan as published in the Key West Citizen looks as shown below. The idea is that by moving the road inland they open up the beach area no longer broken up by the road or the parking lots that currently face the beach.

 I found this picture from 2015  with Cheyenne looking toward the Casa Marina Resort from Salute:

There is a tennis practice wall that presumably would have to go, but there will be a nature center built in the middle of the newly configured park. 

 I'm sure the homeless hanging out would not be part of the plan either:

And where there is open space there will be organization and parking and all that stuff.

Astro City, the very popular kids playground will be moved to the beach side of the road in the new improved plan.

The old aircraft radio beacon will also be removed I suppose which seems overdue if we're being honest. No great loss though the ibis like hunting for food in the pond that forms around it in rainy season...

Then there is what happens to the dog parks as they seem sure to shrink under the terms of the new plan. Building the park took a lot of effort when it was proposed and they raised $16,000 from citizens in a fund drive to pay for it. I hope it won't get shrunk when it is moved inland. 

Looking around at the county park I know it''s a bit chaotic but I rather like it that way. I like the grass and the random groves of palms and the feeling of not being in a "proper" city park. Actually the city of Key West has rejected all efforts by Monroe County to hand them the park and this little plot of land on the south shore of the island is firmly county property and their headache.

Apparently in 1983 the county took $80,000 in Federal grant money for the park and thereto came attached conditions including the requirement for a Federal Environmental Assessment if any changes were made to the land. It seems the county only just noticed that requirement and now the assessment must be made. They hope it will be done in "one to three " years then let the construction proceed and  at an estimated cost of six and a half million dollars.

Change is good. And I know this is probably a sensible change long overdue. But everywhere you turn everything is getting modified and cleaned up and stream lined. I wish it weren't. Maybe it will be quite a few more years before the Feds are satisfied...one can only hope.