Welcome you to the website of
the
working together
to protect our
homes and neighborhoods,
and to improve our
community
West
Neighborhood
Associations
And what about Waterfront Market?
CLICK HERE!
IN THE RISE AND FALL
OF A TYPICAL RESORT AREA
CLICK HERE!
FROM A BIG PINE CLERGYMAN
Someone once observed, "When all is said and done, there's a
lot more said than done."
It seems as if everyone is talking about affordable housing but
precious little is actually being done. And most puzzling is the
fact that the county has not attacked this problem with the same
zeal it has shown for sinking ships and buying waterfront
restaurants. It could at least save the affordable housing that
already exists.
And yet we have seen a succession of mobile home parks evict
permanent year-round residents so that the land can be
redeveloped for luxury condominiums. The trend in real estate
transactions makes it probable that most of the buyers won't
even be snowbirds. And the obligatory "affordable housing"
included in the proposed deals is too few in number and too
expensive for those being displaced.
The latest community threatened with decimation is Lucky's
Landing. If the residents are evicted, the larger community will
be diminished. They buy here, work here, volunteer here, attend
church here and vote here. They are vital to our financial and
civic life. They give the Keys a flavor that second- and
third-home owners will not.
The widows, police officers, artists, teachers, waitresses,
construction workers, nurses, retail clerks, musicians and
retirees that are being driven out are the lifeblood of the Keys. If
a local citizen were dying, we would hold blood drives and
benefits to help her get better. But with our community wasting
away, the most notable activity seems to be hand-wringing.
We need to decide if we wish to be a ghost town that caters to
very wealthy but very occasional visitors, or a healthy
year-round community where those who provide essential
services and those who give the Keys its character can continue
to live. We need leaders who can resist the short-term gains of
luxury development in favor of long-term survival. And we need
to put our money where our mouth is. Treat the working people
of Monroe County as the endangered species they are. Preserve
their habitat.
----The Rev. Chris Todd, St. Francis in the Keys Episcopal Church,
Big Pine Key
Commercials on national TV are luring tourists
to the Keys with images of our beautiful
sunsets.
Freshly retired Will Soto is still happily
juggling on the tightrope, the crowd silhouetted
against the setting sun....
...As we all have noticed , Key West is
undergoing a metamorphosis, a profound
change. The artist drain cannot just be blamed
on Wilma, it has been a long time coming. Yes,
many of us lost studios, vehicles, art supplies,
living space to Wilma. Many of us just don't
make it to sunset anymore.
This does not just concern the sunset artists.
Key West as an art destination will have to
reinvent itself at this pace. We are losing
habitat.
Artists are drawn to certain places for their
unique qualities and Key West used to be one
of these places. A tolerant place, live and let
live, a beautiful place full of interesting
textures -- the weathered houses full of
stories, the cracked sidewalks and streets
making music in rhythm with a conch cruiser,
exotic plants growing in wild abandon.
Multi-cultural, music, art. ... This is what it
takes to incubate artists.
We are morphing into something else.
Exorbitant rents on housing and gallery space,
loss of space to condos and such,
Disneyfication creeping into every
neighborhood, windstorm rates that send even
those of us lucky enough to own a piece of the
rock heading for the mountains.
Losing sunset is just a symptom. We are still
fighting, but for how long do we want to we
resist change?
Plans, ideas, anyone? Key West history
teaches us frequent radical changes for this
beloved island. What's next?
Claudia Richards
Key West
CITIZENS HAS MADE SOME PROGRESS WITH OUR
INSURANCE RATES, BUT THE JOB IS NOT DONE:
WE CAN HELP OURSELVES AND OUR COMMUNITY
BY JOINING "FAIR INSURANCE RATES FOR
MONROE COUNTY"
Click on this link: www.FIRMkeys.org
PERHAPS WE WON'T BECOME THE
"DISNEYLAND THAT WENT TO SEA"
AFTER ALL!
The timing was pure coincidence. But [the recent] natural
catastrophe in central Florida and insurance-industry fallout from
new state regulation underscore — as if with black indelible
marker — the unsettling fact that our state remains in the midst
of a major insurance crisis.
Tornadoes in four counties delivered disaster on a scale that had
to be seen to be believed. Meanwhile, at least three major
property insurers announced cancellations or restrictions on
policies in response to new laws, emergency rate freezes and the
higher risk of doing business in our storm-prone state.
After a weeklong special session that ended just two weeks ago,
Florida lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist were celebrating what
they acknowledged was the political equivalent of stopping
excessive blood loss in a critically injured patient. They knew,
however, that the most substantial healing and rehabilitation still
lay ahead.
"We had to respond to the outcry of people who couldn't stay in
their homes. We had to stop the bleeding," state Rep. Ellyn
Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said last week. "We had people
stopping their premiums, saying 'Let the banks come after us.'
"We provided meaningful reform in a responsible manner given
the crisis. But the last thing we want to do is shut down the
private market," she said.
That's for sure. And as if to tell them to not waste one more
minute on self-congratulations for their efforts, representatives
of The Hartford, American Strategic Insurance and Tower Hill
Insurance Group took various actions Thursday in response to
Crist's decision earlier in the week to freeze rates. Legislators in
January expanded the state's catastrophe fund, which was
expected to reduce what companies pay for reinsurance. But
uncertainty in the Florida market is causing several insurers to
reassess whether there's a future for them in the Sunshine State.
That fact couldn't be made more clear than the Friday-morning
calamity in Lake, Sumter, Volusia and Seminole counties. In
Lake County alone, more than 1,500 homes were destroyed or
damaged, and about 700 homes and businesses were severely
damaged in Volusia.
Insurers, lenders, builders and all others with a direct stake in a
healthy, stable insurance market all must be heard — and
listened to — when legislators convene again in March. In the
meantime, Bogdanoff and others suggest as possible remedies
the creation of tax-free insurance savings plan, similar to
medical savings plans, and more favorable tax treatment for
insurers so they can invest more of their reserves.
But one of the biggest remedies remains something only
Congress can make happen: establishment of a national
catastrophe fund. Despite what appears to be a much improved
federal response to the down-state disaster last week, our state
and nation will remain vulnerable to the whims of Mother
Nature, and to some extent the insurance industry, until such a
fund is in place.
— Tallahassee Democrat
transient rental decision
We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Or
more emphatically.
That's our reaction to 16th Circuit Court Judge
David J. Audlin's order to quash a decision by
Key West's Board of Adjustment that would
have cleared the way for the sale and transfer of
transient rental rights to many as 83 residential
properties in Old Town.
Last month, as readers may recall, we expressed
a hope for this outcome when Last Stand, the
activist civic organization, joined by more than 20
angry homeowners, filed suit to set aside the
board's outrageous decision.
This issue had landed in the lap of the Board of
Adjustment when the developers of Parrot Bay,
who are currently replacing the former Hampton
Inn with condominiums, sought to override the
city's Planning Department in order to off-load
surplus transient licenses.
Judge Audlin's order affirms that the city's
master plan and other codes do not permit such
transfers, as the planning director had made
plain. He also pointedly rebuked the Board of
Adjustment — whose members also make up the
City Commission — for accepting the
developer's spurious claim that such transfers
could be permitted by recognizing a new category
of housing that was never contemplated in
existing ordinances.
We would be among the first to agree that a
board of adjustment represents a useful avenue
of appeal when interpretations of ordinances and
codes are in dispute. But it's certainly not the
place to "invent" new ordinances or permit
egregious exceptions. Once again, what we
witnessed — and what Last Stand wouldn't stand
for — is yet another example of an old, old
custom, a tendency of the board to readily
accommodate the demands of powerful special
interests, especially developers and their land-
use experts who seem to have a knack for
finding ways to circumvent regulations that
ordinary citizens could never get away with.
It also continues to astonish us that the Board of
Adjustment would approve, with only one dissent,
a developer's proposal that absolutely flies in the
face of the public's desire to protect the
residential character of historic Old Town.
Moreover, why would our city commissioners,
acting as the Board of Adjustment, needlessly
inflame tensions between the tourist industry, a
foundation of our local economy, and the
residents and voters who support tourism but
increasingly resent undesirable intrusions into
their neighborhoods?
As we stated in an editorial last month, public
opinion data that emerged from a study
undertaken by Lou Harris showed that 89
percent of respondents want the City
Commission to give equal consideration to the
concerns of residents and businesses alike, and
62 percent think the city usually or always favors
business interests.
What is it about these data that our office-
holders don't understand?
— The Citizen
Last Stand
www.last-stand.org
And our own Newsgroup
The KWNA Yahoo Group
Bob Kelly's Informative Friends and Family
Key West "Blog" Site
http://therealkeywest.blogspot.com
KEY WEST CITY SITE
AGENDAS, CODES, INFORMATION
www.keywestcity.com
Another Useful and Informative Site:
www.floridahometowndemocracy.com
www.last-stand.org
PROBLEM... LIKE IT OR NOT, LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS WILL SPEND UNTIL THE
MONEY IS CUT OFF...
IS THE ANSWER A (GASP!) INCOME TAX?
Constitution, approved by voters in 1992, has been a
real boon to homesteaded property owners who bought
in before the big real estate run-up of the last decade.
For the lucky folks in that category, the taxable value
of their homes has been kept artificially low, allowed to
increase only 3 percent each year. Many have actually
seen their annual property tax bill go down.
Meanwhile, the values of homes that sold — of which
there were a lot in those go-go years — as well as
commercial and rental properties aimed for the
heavens, giving local governments a plentiful tax base
on which to base their budgets. And they didn't get a lot
of grief because the longtime homesteaded property
owners, a group that overlaps heavily with registered
voters, weren't feeling the pain.
But Save Our Homes has had a number of unintended
side effects, the worst of which is creating a system in
which the owners of two identical properties, with
identical market values, can pay widely different annual
tax bills. And it has punished those who might want to
move within the state, even downsizing or making a
lateral move, because they could easily triple their tax
bills.
People who bought more recently have been feeling the
pain of local tax rates applied to newly engorged
property values. So the Florida Legislature has
attempted a fix — or, more accurately, two fixes.
The first was signed into law last week by Gov. Charlie
Crist and freezes local tax levels at 2006 levels. This
will provide an average $174 in savings for Keys
homeowners. It's a good idea, if only to apply the
brakes to the run-ups in local government budgets
we've seen as local officials cope with rising health
insurance and benefits, attempt to please as many
constituents as possible and ride the real estate
escalator to the top floors.
The second fix will require amending the state
Constitution again and that, thanks to a recent
amendment, will require approval from 60 percent of
voters. If the measure is approved, homesteaded
property owners would make a one-time irrevocable
choice: Stay with the current system or switch to a
"super exemption" that would exempt up to $195,000
on a home valued at $500,000 or more.
Eventually, under that system, the Save Our Homes
protection would be phased out as protected homes turn
over. There would be no future protection against
increased values or tax increases.
If the new provision is approved, the cut for local
governments is estimated at $9 to $16 billion over four
years. Forty percent of that cut would be from schools,
which lead the list of those levying property taxes.
In the Keys, where property values climbed
precipitously in recent years, most homesteaded
property owners would actually see hefty tax increases
if they opted for the new "super-exemption." The
inhibition against moving within the community would
remain.
And it's something of an irony to see the state come in
as the enforcer on property taxes, after applying so
many expensive mandates to local governments over
the years — and while shifting the responsibility for
social service funding to local governments.
Many political watchers say it's unlikely that the
proposed Constitutional amendment will meet the new
60 percent barrier. Even Save Our Homes only
garnered 53 percent of the vote.
We're in favor of any measure that tightens the reins on
government spending. We just wish it would be a
measure that was simple, fair and led to greater
accountability.
Every year, local governments hold public hearings on
their budgets before deciding on the tax rate they'll be
charging property owners. Every year, few citizens
show up. Disputes over feral cats and tattoo parlors and
lifelike statues at the Southernmost Point get a lot more
scrutiny, from press and public alike.
The Legislature deserves credit for attempting to
provide relief for homeowners who are feeling serious
pain from property taxes. But their proposed fix will,
eventually, add to the problems.
The real responsibility for levying those taxes and
keeping budgets in line with what the local community
can bear belongs to our local governments — and the
people who elect the holders of those offices. This year,
we should all step up to the plate in paying more
attention to local governments and they should
understand what the tax rates they set are doing to all
property owners, homesteaded or not, recent or
longtime. It's no fun. But it's the only way we might end
up with a fair tax system we can live with.
— The Citizen
WORTH SAVING
AND WORTH FIGHTING FOR
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
transient
rentals are still
a threat to us!
CLICK HERE
BITS AND PIECES
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
INTESTINAL FORTITUDE
AWARD
GOES TO....
about the county and County Commission when he resigned
from the board...
In a letter, he said his private attorney practice is keeping him
too busy "to devote the attention needed as a Planning
Commissioner."
But in a phone interview, Margalli gave other reasons.
"It's because of the [newly created] oppressive nature of not
wanting people to speak their minds on the planning board,"
he said. "I think ultimately a lot of people believe this is a
good position and will end up doing anything a county
commissioner wants."
Planning commission members, who make recommendations to
the County Commission about zoning and land-use issues, now
serve up to three two-year terms.
County commissioners take turns recommending them, but the
county mayor makes the final decision. Planning
commissioners can live anywhere in Monroe County, including
incorporated cities, but they have to work in the fields of
planning, development and environmental sciences.
Margalli said the County Commission is using affordable
housing as a Trojan Horse to the detriment of the environment.
"I cannot tell you how many affordable housing projects turn
out not to be affordable," he said. "There's always a loophole
in there."
A project, he said, can start out as affordable, but in the end,
most of the homes will be market rate.
"The overriding theme is to push it through. These
commissioners can get away with things and have them
glossed over by using the term 'affordable housing.' "
Nobody is paying attention to the quality-of-life issues in the
Keys, Margalli said.
"I've been here since 1994 and I can tell you that I have seen
the deterioration."
Margalli praised former planning director Marlene Conaway
but did not speak highly of the late County Commissioner
Murray Nelson. He said Nelson led the charge to chop up the
Tier System, a zoning program that initially divided
undeveloped lots into three categories: buildable, not buildable
and a mixed category. The latter didn't sit well with
commissioners, who tossed the idea, only to have the state
demand a replacement category, called special protection
areas, that encompasses 500 acres where development is
prohibited.
"If the county would have adopted our land-use maps [and
original Tier System] they would never have had the problems
they had with the governor," Margalli said, referring to the
commission's tinkering with the Tier System after agreeing to
adopt it.
More comments from the citizenry....
they mentioned that the reef was the main reason for tourists
and trashing the reef means no tourists. I don't think that's
true. We'll always have the drunks and the partyers that will
come to Key West, but if you want to attract tourists who care
about the environment, then we're going to have to take care
of it and it's something we haven't been doing and unless we
turn it around, we indeed will only have the drunks and
partyers and the rest is going to go down the toilet."
"How absurdly stupid and what a misplacement of priorities as
the city may crack down on performers. The city has 3,000
other problems that are so much more endangering to the
quality of life around here than the performers. The streets
are in lousy repair, the public places are looking very ... let's
say slummy, and they're worried about what the street
performers are doing?"
ON THE NET
recently was the lead story on political corruption in Key
West, an island so densely packed with wealth and
merchandising and allure that it resembles a Petri dish
filled with spectacular bacteria.
There are several aspects of this story that reflect equally
on Miami and other Florida regions and cities where local
character has been mercilessly bulldozed into a flat plain
of homogeneous, bland character.
The aspect that strikes us sharply is how the legal system
does work in the end to protect the public interest as it
was meant. The problem is that the damage inflicted in
the meantime—while laws and public policies adjust to
new realities—can’t be rewound.
Those who have been elected to invest in the common
good and to help level the playing field for marginalized
groups have, instead, pursued their own interests by
catering to those who are guided by the maximization of
profit.
The powerful know that the system can be gamed. To
maximize profit, laws and regulations can be modified,
clipped, turned from a bowl cut to a bouffant and by the
time the courts say you can do this, or can’t do that, what
we were fighting over has been lost, never to return.
And that’s why so much of what we value as “democracy”
disappears like a magic trick.
Put your name on it: the conversion of trailer parks into
luxury condominiums, wetlands into developable tracts,
affordable housing into parking lots, comprehensive land
use planning into board games for wealthy land
speculators, commercial fishing operations into
“dockaminiums.”
These mechanics are the real story of what happened in
the Keys. The charm of Key West has long been chased
into algae coated waters, milked into the pockets of city
commissioners, city attorneys, the high and mighty, and
all through the funnel of special interests.
It’s an obscenity. Yes it is.
We hope that the assorted articles
will help paint a picture of just a few
of the issues facing people in our community
this summer of 2007.
We encourage everyone to register to vote,
and to make their thoughts known through
letters to the editor,
and contributions to candidates
who take a thoughtful
long-range approach to our problems.
Please send your comments to the
e mail link above.
Sincerely,
Your Neighbors in Key West
PS: More to come....
published, among other places, by Bob Kelly on his web log
http://therealkeywest.blogspot.com
for the full letter go to this link:
http://therealkeywest.blogspot.com/2007/06/arts-manifesto.html#links
"go bad," it's th' artists who
get affected first....
Paradise is increasingly being marketed to the upscale. The island has transmogrified in the past 5+ years,
accelerated by the drive-up in real estate values, and resulting flight of families and the working class, into a
burgeoning second-home destination (reportedly 30% of all housing stock, with as much as 58% of all properties
not filing a homestead exemption), whether for investor-class and/or as a retiree haven. Thousands of hotel
rooms have been condo-ized. Existing work force housing (once referred to as "homes") is under continual
threat of diminishing stock. It feels that everything is in flux. The full measure of these impacts has yet to be
realized.
The community seems near incapable of surmounting the formidable challenges needed to bridge the economic
gaps that have resulted in the wake of the new Key West. Valiant and essential efforts by activists like FIRM
and others are tackling some of these real problems. Yet, we all know many people who have simply pulled up
roots and headed out. Many more would, if only they could "cash out". Monroe County is only one of seven in
the nation that actually lost population last year. The public school enrollment is down every year, from a peak
of 10,000 in the public system to 7,800 this coming year. At FKCC, the smallest of the 28 in the state, enrollment
also continues to decline The list goes on. What does this tell us and what can be done?
Any community revitalization or re-imagining begins with a fuller understanding of the cultural foundation we are
set upon. The economic facts of life reflect the cultural underpinnings. But, the economic measurements are not,
in fact, the real worth of our community. Our natural environment is the number one facet of this jewel: Cayo
Hueso. Everyone should agree on this. The natural island, this “paradise”, is what attracted us here, from its
very inception, whether military, commercial, leisure or fantasy. We've all witnessed, even over each generation,
how it has also been plundered, leaving us with rear-guard actions that are costly in every respect. We realize it
is under tremendous stress.
No one can ignore, when we face the indisputable global climate change scenarios, that the Florida Keys are
Ground Zero and impact every facet of our life. The coral reef, which protects and sustains us in more ways than
we fully realize is in critical condition. Confabs are held, gnashing of teeth is heard, and daily reports confirm
near-shore waters are under continual assault, habitat threats are increasing, quality of life is diminished for all
life forms. "Development", seen all around us, appears destructive, not constructive.
Within such an environment of change and uncertainty, it's imperative that the Arts be a vital and central
organizing principle in our lives - and not just for a feel-good entertainment escape. Our cultural roots have given
us a diverse social and political trunk. The rewards that branch from this display not just the fancy fruit, or dollar
value of our labors and cultivation. The Arts serve as creative food and fuel for our imaginations and our very
being, sustaining our environment's vitality. We despoil it and we place into peril everything – culturally, socially
and economically.
monetary forces set the course of our future. If enough of us speak out, we can certainly prevent the inevitable degradation of
our community and environment. There is no doubt that we can do better.
Rental" issue is now
settled?
Click Here
CLICK HERE
BITS AND PIECES -- BONUS PAGE
CLICK HERE
