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There is a post today at goodmorningkeywest.com, which you should be able to reach by clicking on this link:
the shadow and the flash – Florida Keys school district
Meanwhile, from Jerry Weinstock, M.D., of Key West yesterday:
Just returned “almost” limited on yellowtail plus one gray snapper
nice size —2 tuna, third one BIG one lost at boat —-very tough very sporty
and exciting- beyond sand key west -water clear and luminous,pastal blue,
{several miles past }—/// { 30 boats pounding the spawning muttons all day
and still there as we passed them on the way out an in -can’t do that.}
- many frigate birds on the hunt soaring and circling low -fish under them.
Regards !—thanks for all your good work !!—Jerry
A long-time Keys fisherman and environmental activist, for most of his career Jerry worked for the Monroe County School District in the capacity of his medical specialty, psychiatry. He’s right, it ain’t right to fish for mutton snapper when they are spawning.
This week’s edition of online Key West the Newspaper is available at this link: http://thebluepaper.com
GREEN REACTOR: “BEEN THROUGH THE DISTORT ON A KEY WITH NO NAME…”
In the Keys there are two “mainstream” newspapers: the daily Key West Citizen (owned by the Cooke family, previous owners of the LA Daily News and the NFL Redskins, nowadays owners of over a dozen
smaller papers in FL and NC); and the twice-a-week KeyNoter(owned by the McClatchy Company, 3rd biggest US newspaper publisher, including the Miami Herald). Though various incarnations of The Blue Paper have been around for almost 20 years, its reach currently pales in comparison to these bigger corporate papers.
Their reach grants them significant impact on local affairs. Quite often government wonks bow to their editorial pronouncements. At a minimum their opinions reach a lot of people who get little other “authoritative” input on local affairs. So those who write their editorials have a strong bully-pulpit to shape local opinion. The papers feign fairness by offering space to “opposing points of view”, but also place strict limits on timing and size of such responses. They sometimes rule out input from particular individuals, at their discretion.
Though I have had my own response editorials and letters to the editor published in each paper, I’ve rarely felt that my feedback could come close to having the impact of the original editorials they so authoritatively publish. Perhaps this GREEN Reactor column won’t do much better, but at least I have space here for full articulation – and also the ability to share freely across the internet. So allow me here to directly challenge a KeyNoter editorial (“Finally, an end to the No Name electricity fight”) that was published since our last issue.
I have written previously about the corporate electrification of No Name Key (most recently: here). For those not aware, the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) recently gave our County’s government the excuse they needed to “get themselves out of a local civil war” (as Commissioner Neugent misguidedly refers to it) and allow corporate electrification to the former Solar Community. Because the anti-Solar forces had carefully constructed a set of dominoes to tumble toward this goal, there was no real surprise that it has now happened. But the back-story and back-stabbing in the KeyNoter editorial that celebrated this fact deserves correction and rebuke.
My biggest concern is their characterization of Alicia Putney, champion of the Solar Community who fought long and hard against the greedy conversion to corporate power. They state that she “for years enjoyed a reputation as an environmentalist and conservationist but unfortunately has evolved into an obstructionist.” And for good measure, that she “doesn’t even live full-time on No Name; she spends time in Canada”. (MY GOD, maybe some Canadian has rubbed off on her — we can’t have THAT infecting us purified ‘mercans here, no sir!)
Hate to tell you this Mr. Corporate Newspaper Editorial Writer: The obstructionists are actually the cadre of newcomers who moved into the Solar Community knowing full well that the houses they were buying were legally NOT to be connected to the grid, but saw a chance to obstruct the community itself and profit by doing so. Alicia’s efforts against this was NOT obstruction, any more than the fighters at Dunkirk were “obstruction” of the Nazi war machine in France. Perhaps – in the face of “the system” here in the Keys – it was a futile or naïve effort. But such efforts are HEROIC Alas, there was no Normandy this time, though…
The editorial also claimed that No Name is not a “true” solar community. DUH. The Solar Community of No Name fell together long before the “master-developed” solar community designs evolved. MOST solar communities formed this way. This makes them no less “true”, just less efficient — but they’re still miles ahead of 99.9% of the rest of our planet’s communities. The mentioning of this point makes the whole editorial suspect… Was it extracted from a press-release by the anti-solar cadre?
Similarly for the “diesel-belching generators are being used there now” argument. Those have been added by the people bent on destroying the Solar Community. They didn’t HAVE to use such behemoths. But they had deep pockets and didn’t give a damn about the community’s solar-nature. Using those generators as an excuse to tear down the community is like telling the indigenous American Indians that their lifestyle was invalid because farms were now in their hunting grounds. Yeah, we did that – back when we didn’t give a shit about those who were already there. Haven’t we grown beyond this?
KeyNoter editorials often mention the “will of the majority” of No Name Key homeowners. First, No Name is not a legal district where only the few people in the area vote on changes based on local “majority”. Would you like it if a big motorcycle gang moved into your small neighborhood and “voted” that all the ladies there are now shared biker chicks? Our government has the job of protecting the minorities from over-reaching and insensitive local majorities, such as those that took over No Name Key and insisted that their greed is more important than the existing nature of the community.
Finally, the statement that the rest of the Keys “has no dog in this hunt” is ludicrous. The environment here is EVERYBODY’s business. Turning No Name Key into yet another subdivision, instead of the utility-less wildlife sanctuary barrier island it had been designated to be (after having stymied the earlier greedy developer who had plotted out his plan to overrun it with more environmentally destructive homesteads) is something weHAD put behind us. But now the extra load on all of our resources and on the natural environment is again a distinct issue we will again have to face.
Who’da thunk it – here we are well into the 21st century and we’re going to have to fight back the anti-environment greedy developer battles all over again. Shame on you, KeyNoter, for applauding this big step backward.
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I mostly agree, David. However, I told Alicia going to Canada every summer, during the hottest, sweatiest, buggiest months, was hurting her cause metaphysically. I told her she needed to live full time on the key with no name. I also told her that I was astounded that she did not make David Audlin recuse himself when he was assigned the case. Years ago, in another case, when Audlin was a practicing lawyer, he was appointed by a local judge to arbitrate whether or not utilities could be run out to No Name Key. Audlin recommended in favor of that. The local judge disregarded Audlin’s recommendation and ruled utilities could not be run out to No Name Key. Audlin, now a judge, had a blatant conflict of interest when the second No Name Key case was filed and assigned to him. Just the other day, Audlin issued a writ of mandamus, forcing the county government to issue electricity hook up permits to No Name Key homeowners who want them. All of this I tell you, David, as someone the people who hate Alicia hate just as much. While you were doing whatever you were doing, I was the only journalist in the Keys defending No Name Key from what now is happening. You know that, David. You know I would have published anything you sent to me on No Name Key. You know you waited far too long to react.
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gfilosa@keysnews.com
The city of Key West has plenty on its plate when it comes to building projects, having racked up nearly $100 million in construction plans in various stages of design.
But the plan to recreate the homeless shelter into a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week comprehensive center is the island’s priority, City Manager Bob Vitas said this week.
As opposed to the city having a senior living facility not being a priority.
City staff will make no commitments on Stock Island property, where the Florida Keys Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and now the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District are jockeying for land, until the homeless problem is addressed through a newly hired consultant’s report.
I bet the SPCA and its horde of supporters are thrilled to know the city wants to evict them. I bet the folks who live in Key West and nearby are thrilled to know the city wants to evict Mosquito Control.
“We can’t have the homeless downtown and we can’t have them where they’re at,” Bob Vitas told city commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re under litigation. We’re trying to balance where we want to be as a city, not just tomorrow but long term.”
Dear Bob, homeless people have the same legal right to be downtown as you do. The have the same right to be anywhere in Key West, which is public, that you have, Bob.
A report is due by July from Robert Marbut, the consultant who delivered an informal address on solutions for Key West’s vagrancy issue and shelter shortcomings almost two years ago.
Yeah, I was there for some of that. Afterward, I asked homeless guru Marbut what percentage of homeless in San San Antonio, where he got his start being a homeless guru, was he turning around? Guru Marbut said something like 95 percent. I said, so, homeless people who graduate from your shelter are paying their rent and utilities, buying their groceries, etc.? Pause. Pause. Pause. So, they are living independently without any subsidy from local government, charities? Pause. Pause. Pause. Bottom line. No. They nearly all graduated from guru Marbut’s shelter into other subsidized situations. And, VA regulations do not allow veterans to be forced to use their VA benefits to pay for subsidized housing. Took me about two minutes to get out of guru Marbut what none of the braniacs in the city government, in Southern Assistance Homeless League, in other homeless help programs, and in the general citizen audience had thought to ask guru Marbut.
Marbut this month signed a $19,000 contract with the city to spend 2.5 months studying the island’s services and deliver a feasibility report on the Stock Island property — including the Mosquito Control District building — to the commission.
Sort of reminds me of the channel-widening study referendum - “It’s only a study”
“He has been in and out of here for some time now,” said Vitas. “He interviewed 24 people and is putting together a report. That is a critical issue. It answers the questions we need as a community.”
Hell, Vitas, you could have gotten your questions answered better and for free by talking to Father Steve Braddock, who has been running homeless and drug addiction recovery shelters in Key West for many years.
On Thursday, Marbut said he has already hit the pavement, spending time with homeless men in Key West as they walked the route from service to service.
Spending time with homeless men, and homeless women, ain’t exactly the same a being homeless and living among them and really getting to know them.
“That’s how you really learn,” Marbut said from his home in San Antonio, Texas. “I really want to find out the flow of the day. Every day the flow is the same. In the world of the homeless, there’s no difference between Sunday and Monday.”
Every city is different, said Marbut, but Key West stands out for having an almost nonexistent native homeless population.
In fact, I knew Key West Conchs who were homeless. That aside, Key West stands out for having a very large ex-pat population from the US mainland and overseas. Including you, Vitas.
“San Diego runs about 40 percent (native homeless),” he said. “Key West is 2 percent. Almost 99 percent are from somewhere else. More than anyplace in the country, Key West has a destination homelessness.”
So, Vitas, you will recommend the Key West Border Patrol, that is, the Key West Police Department, will deport the non-native Key West homeless, quite a few of whom are US Veterans of Foreign Wars? You will recommend the Border Patrol round them all up and take them to the Greyhound bus station at the Key West International Airport and put them on a bus with a one-way ticket to their next homeless adventure of choice? Do you know that pretty much already was tried by the Sheriff and local churches? Do you know Key West continued to be a magnet for homeless people, as well as for other US and foreign runaways? Do you know, Vitas, that Key West is full of mainstream people who moved to Key West because they did not feel comfortable anywhere else?
It can be solved, Marbut added.
“You guys are off the charts on natives,” he said. “That creates both opportunities and challenges. Once you start to fix it you can see some improvement.”
Sure is sounding like a deportation scheme is in the hatching. Miami tried to use its police to depoly a deportation scheme against its homeless. The ACLU put Miami in Federal Court, and Miami got clobbered by a US District Judge for cruel and unusual punishment. Miami lost complete control over its homeless people, which the federal court assumed. Even today, Miami has to go to that federal court to get permission to do anything with its homeless people, which that federal court has not yet approved. That same federal court has jurisdiction over Key West.
He is due back Sunday to watch how the homeless community makes it through a holiday weekend.
Marbut, a former White House staffer and San Antonio councilman, helped Pinellas County build a sprawling, one-stop complex, the 250-bed Safe Harbor in Clearwater, where people are housed, fed and start to get help with mental illness, addictions and other problems that put them on the streets.
“The Harbor” is a collaborative effort among the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the city of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County government and a host of service providers in Pinellas County.
I published newspaper reports from over there of truly insane things being done by those communities and their police, at Marbut’s recommendation, which ended up really backfiring on those communities.
Key West enables the homeless, even through well-intentioned acts such as local restaurants handing out boxes of food to the hungry and tourists handing out cash to panhandlers.
Gosh, no restaurant ever handed out boxes of food to me when I lived on the street and slept in doorways on cardboard boxes in Key West. Gosh, no sidewalk passersby every bought any of the soul drawings that came through me to help me be able to get off the street. Today, I would be arrested and jailed in Key West for peddling soul art on city sidewalks without a city business license I could not afford if I were homeless. I see guru Marbut cleverly did not mention soup kitchens run by local churches. I see guru Marbut clevery did not mention there will be a soup kitchen at the new shelter on Stock Island.
“You’ve got to stop the money and food,” Marbut said. “Go cut a check to KOTS (the Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter) or Salvation Army. Give your food over to the pantry. Don’t give it out the window where it’s not connected to services.”
I sure would like to know which Key West restaurants are giving free food to homeless people. Knowing that will lend me some measure of comfort against thoughts of my perhaps being homeless again in Key West.
Marbut said in all his years of studying homelessness in American cities, he never saw people buy booze for the homeless until he visited Key West.
Marbut does not understand Key West’s economy is run by booze; boozing is the “national pastime” in Key West, which is said to have more bars per capita than any city on this planet.
“That culture has to stop,” Marbut said.
LOL Key West stops boozing.
Safe Harbor appears to be a model for Key West.
Vitas went with Marbut a week ago to visit Pinellas County, where locals have pronounced success in removing homeless men and women from its downtown and rehabilitating them with the comprehensive shelter.
Rehabilitating? Are they serious? What are the “rehabilitateds” doing a year from now? Where are they living a year from now? Who is paying for where they are living a year from now?
“I was skeptical until I got there,” Vitas said. “I saw how it’s functioning and multiple examples of how it’s done.”
Mayor Craig Cates wants the city to recreate its homeless shelter from a basic overnight bunkhouse to such a full-time comprehensive services center.
From the get-go, Cates has zeroed in on the former Easter Seals property, just a short drive away from KOTS, in place since 2004 and run by a local nonprofit.
Cates asked me to be on his homeless advisory committee, because, he said, I knew so much about homelessness. I said, sure. I never heard another word from him. Father Steve Braddock had much the same experience with Cates.
“I can see the writing on the wall,” said City Commissioner Mark Rossi, who opposes the new homeless shelter idea, on Thursday. “The votes are there to move it.”
Rossi believes that the new and improved homeless shelter will drain the city’s budget, although proponents are talking about grants and nonprofit partnerships.
“That is going to cost the city over $1 million to $1.5 million a year to operate,” said Rossi.
I think Rossi is right.
Key West reserves $400,000 a year to operate KOTS, which since October 2011 has been run by the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League.
I told the mayor and city commissioners early this year, at a city commission meeting, that they did not want to put homeless addicts in the same shelter with homeless people who were trying to turn their lives around. I said I had slept at KOTS and I recommended the mayor and commissioners do the same, to see what its like mingling with and sleeping next to addicts. I told them they needed a shelter for addicts, KOTS, and a shelter for non-addicts.
Rossi knows he is outnumbered on the dais, but hasn’t backed down from his stance to leave KOTS where it is and elevate the property to avoid flooding, keep the SPCA in place and rebuild it, and leave the Mosquito Control headquarters alone, too.
On Tuesday, Vitas essentially drew a line in the administrative sand, marking the homeless shelter as the city’s most critical dilemma.
The city’s most critical dilemma resides between the ears of Vitas, the mayor and the city commissioners.
“We need to address it and we need to stop looking away from that problem,” said Vitas. “That’s what this administration is trying to do. We want to make sure we make the right decisions for the limited amount of property on this island.”
As for the SPCA and Mosquito Control, no decisions are due until the homeless shelter is sorted out, he made clear.
“I’m not going to make a commitment publicly,” Vitas said. “It would be inappropriate. I’m going to sit back and get the information.”
You don’t have the authority to make a commitment, Vitas. The mayor and city commissioners have that authority.
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com