Dear Hometown! PAC
Dear Hometown! PACI have no problem with your recent endorsement of Jimmy Weekley as Key West’s next Mayor. Jimmy has been there before, he loves Key West, he has an ambassadorial perspective, and he knows the ins and outs of city government and city politics. I would say the same for Mayor Morgan McPherson, if you had endorsed him.
However, I have a huge problem with your encouraging voters in the upcoming referendum to vote “Yes” for the retirement community on Truman Waterfront being pushed by Florida Keys Assisted Living Coalition (FKALC). I do not believe you have thought this through. Nor do I believe, except for City Commission candidate George Maurer, who also opposes this project, that the other candidates have thought it through. Perhaps there’s something about helping old people age gracefully that makes it hard to be objective. Perhaps it sounds good to say we want to help old people age gracefully. This project is not what Key West needs, though, and again I’m going to explain why. And I’m again going to say what needs to be built at Truman Waterfront, and why.
It was explained at Hometowns! Recent candidates forum, by the two representatives from FKALC, that the economics of the project requires 150 living units on the combined 4 acres FKALC wants the City to give to the project and 1 ½ adjacent acres Keys Energy has indicated it will donate. That’s 5 ½ acres total, for 150 living units, some of which will be as large as two bedrooms, others of which will be smaller units, and some of the units will be simply one-room in size with shared common areas — kitchen, living area, bathrooms, etc. It was said that when the project is completed, there will be units that are not filled up; that this extra living space is built into the model and then efforts will need to be made to fill up the excess living spaces.
The developer, whether a private company or a charitable organization, will be given the 5/½ acres for ninety-nine years, and will “sell” units to buyers on a sliding scale purchase cost and then charge a monthly fee based on ability to pay. Elders from Key West up to Vacca Cut at Marathon will be given preference in purchasing living units in this development. Units not sold to people living below Vacca Cut can be sold to elders from anywhere above in the Keys, Florida, America, and perhaps Canada, Europe or even Japan. All the units will be sold eventually, because that is what needs to happen for the project to be economically viable.
Wealthier purchasers/residents will pay more, poorer purchasers/residents will pay less. In this way wealthier purchasers-residents will subsidize poorer purchasers-residents. It will be an integrated community between rich and poor elders, and in-between. It will have public walking paths, gardens, green space. As elder residents leave this world or decide to move out of the project, they or their estates will be given back up to 80 percent of what they paid, and someone else will be found to take their place, who can pay the cost of the unit vacated. Just before your last forum began, I told your I panelists, Larry Kahn and Linda Russin, that George Maurer had told me there would be tennis courts and a swimming pool. I said they needed ask about this during the forum. It was not mentioned.
Alas! Key West is not able to house all of its own citizens. Alas! Key West has a crying need for affordable housing. Affordable for elders and non-elders. Affordable for police officers, fire fighters, school teachers, med-tech workers, hospice workers, shop clerks, restaurant workers, hotel clerks and house and ground keepers, office workers, dock workers, deck hands, yard workers, nannies, housekeepers, daycare workers, city government workers, trash collectors, and so forth. Even now there are no concrete plans for the City to provide affordable housing to its “infrastructure” workers, without whom the wheels would simply come off and Key West would cease to function.
As far as I know, I’m the only person saying that what the City needs to do with Truman Waterfront is build affordable housing on all of it, on all 33 acres, and on the 1.5 acres Keys Energy owns, if it will go along with it. If 150 living units can be put on 5.5 acres, that’s 27.4 units per acre (150 divided by 5.5). The City has 33 acres at Truman Waterfront. Even without Keys Energy’s 1.5 acres, using the FKALC model, 915 (24.7 x 33) affordable RENTAL units could be built on the City’s 33 acres. Using FKALC’s model, there can be public paths, gardens and green space. Perhaps there even can be tennis courts and a swimming pool.
The money for construction could come through partnering with Habitat for Humanity and/or land trusts, which are providing substantial amounts of money in cities all over America, to reclaim and restore their inner areas and create truly affordable RENTAL housing. Land trusts and Habitat For Humanity are not for profit. They are not trying to make money, which developers have to do to stay in business. It is nearly impossible for developers to build affordable housing in the Keys, for rent or sale, because the cost of land is simply to high for the numbers to work naturally. Instead, all sorts of “creative” finagling is attempted, which usually comes back to bite us in the hind end by the time it’s all said and done.
Let me go back to the beginning. What FKALC is proposing is not just for Key West elders. It is for elders living all the way up to Vacca Cut and beyond. It is for a retirement community that will be built on land given to it by a city which, so far, has not been able to provide enough affordable housing for its own citizens. This simply makes no sense. The City needs to build affordable housing for its own people. The City does not need to give land away so housing can be built for elders who are wealthy. The City does not need to give land away so housing can be built for elders who do not even live in Key West.
The City’s land needs to be used for the City’s people in a way that bests serves the City and its people. What the City most needs right now is affordable housing for its infrastructure workers. The needs of the city’s less well-off elders can be integrated into the equation, to include them in an affordable housing community on Truman Waterfront. Such a community will be truly integrated. It will be for the good of all of Key West’s people and for Key West.
Retract your recommendation, Hometown! PAC. Tell the voters to vote “No” on October 2. Tell them to tell the City to use Truman Waterfront for affordable housing. Tell them Harry Truman said so.
Sloan Bashinsky
The most reluctant candidate for public office Key West will likely ever see.
