Pessimists or Realists?

These from the Key West Citizen's Citizen's Voice on Wednesday and Thursday.

"Gas prices are at all-time highs. Airline travel has increased to the point the average tourist won't travel. Stay-at-home vacations will be the norm this year. What impact will this have on Key West? It will be devastating. Someone better tell the powers that be that the tourist economy that we have come to depend on will be nonexistent this summer. This news, with the housing market crisis, will have a negative impact on our economy. Where will the money come from? How will the average worker survive? It's a mess!"

And again on Thursday:

"If you haven't put money away this season to survive through the summer, you're likely leaving KW soon. Rising airfares, hotel rates, and food prices couple with overdevelopment, crooked government, unwanted upscaling, and vanishing character no longer makes it such a great place to be for both tourists and locals alike."

So say the pessimists. Or are they the realists?

Key West Picture Show

Finally! We saw the new KW Picture Show tonight with an audience that filled about 75% of the Jean Carper auditorium, the largest room at the Tropic Cinema. It was worth the wait. I'm looking for some more of the segments on line. So far the only one I've located is Smirk is a Girl, which if you haven't seen it, is here.

It was presented in eight separate segments, all different, most of them light-hearted. I hope that it'll be out on a DVD at some future time.

About Blogging

I realized the other day that I'm at the helm of a mini publishing empire here. I have sole or shared control of eight blogs and six web sites right now, and I'm about to add two or three more in the near future.

The City Ambassadors group are working on a plan to set up a shared blog, one on which up to 100 Ambassadors can post and make comments on the posts of others. There are also plans by the Ambassadors to create a skills bank of members who are willing to share their expertise with the City if and when such expertise will be helpful in some way.

Antonio, one of the artists whose work we represent in the Gallery, has shown a serious interest in blogging and I've agreed to help him get started. I've put up a couple of new things at the Captain Outrageous' blog lately. And just recently I acquired the blog site I'm calling Another Point of View. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to use it yet, but the notion behind it is that Key West's public information output is uniformly one-sided and self-referential. At times, propagandistic, one might say. What brought this up was a conversation I've been having with Stan, a friend of mine. He watched a discussion of the fifth penny on the City channel on Comcast Cable (CH. 77) and then thought about how the commercial channels out of Miami (and elsewhere) generally offer an opportunity for "those having an opposing viewpoint" to give a response to be broadcast whenever the station management gives its opinion about something. I'm not certain, but that may be an FCC requirement. It's likely that management makes the choice of who gets to present the opposing viewpoint, but I doubt that they exercise any censorship of what the opposer says (within the bounds of relevance, good taste and civility).

I've also thought a lot about the self-restrictions I observe, to limit what I write here to Key West, a rule that I break only rarely and with full disclosure (the tag is "Not Key West"). There are times when I'm moved to write about things that aren't Key West, so I think now and again of setting up a new web log. I've resisted that urge so far. Instead, I sometimes, but not often, will leave a comment on someone else's blog, just for the exercise of writing it.

Blogger, the site I've used ever since I began this in 2002, has improved over the last six years to be a very easy way to manage this entire process, to add photos, videos and sound -- not yet from me, but maybe -- and to format the text and add links to others. There are other blogging systems, WordPress is one, but Blogger by Google is by far the biggest and, in my opinion, the easiest to use.

There's another blogging empire up the Keys, run by a guy called Captain Conch. It consists of Good Morning Florida Keys, Good Morning Key West, Sandy for Sheriff, and a daily compendium of citizens' comments known as Coconut Telegraph at BigPineKey.com. Captain Conch uses Wordpress for his blogs. Some day I might ask him why.

Not that any of this matters much, but it's what's been on my mind this morning. That, and why the 13,000 BTU air conditioner we bought doesn't cool the room like it ought to.

Now its off to do some errands.

Highlands Follow-up

Here's another quote from the article cited in the previous post:

One trend in the region’s workforce that could help make up a worker deficit is the practice of bringing in students from other countries. Harrah’s and country clubs are already dependent on this seasonal boost.

A group from Bali is currently working at Harrah’s, and more students from other countries have been lined up for the summer, Blaylock said.

“They help us fill hard-to-fill positions,” she said, citing positions in housekeeping and janitorial services.

Harrah’s uses about 200 foreign students each year, each working 60- to 90-day stints. The company that does the recruiting is also responsible for housing the students, Blaylock said, and usually contracts with a local hotel.

Gomes also relies on foreign students. He touted their work ethic and willingness to do whatever is asked.

“They work really, really hard,” Gomes said. “Harder than I’ve seen most of our kids work. Without them, it would be very rough to get through the season.”

Gomes houses the student workforce in his village and at a six-bedroom apartment building near the inn owned by Old Edwards Hospitality Group. A few will stay outside of Highlands.

Lots of similarities with Key West. We have our eastern Europeans, Haitians, Japanese, and of course the middle-easterners who dominate the t-shirt trade. Some of these are also contract workers who may or may not be provided with housing.

Head for the Hills!

A couple of years ago I heard about a town in North Carolina that boasts a year-round population of around 3500, but a summer population of 18,000. It's called Highlands, has a Chamber of Commerce, and sits on a plateau at an altitude of 4100 feet, inside a bowl surrounded by mountains of the Great Smokies.
(View Map) 

It's a four hour drive from Charlotte, 2-1/2 hours from Atlanta.

From Chamber of Commerce Frequently asked questions:

What is the population of Highlands?
A. The year round population of the Highlands Plateau is 3,200 which grows to over 18,000 in the summer.

The woman who told the story of Highlands was a former planner from there who was now living in the Keys. She told us (I was with a group of people interested in what happens to resort places over time) that most of the housing in the area is seasonal, that is, the town more or less closes down between October and April and the 3500 full-time residents keep things going until the seasonal folks come back.  She said that the "governors" of Highlands, a mayor, five commissioners and a Town Administrator, as well as most, if not all, of the residents like things the way they are. Work hard for five months, then take seven months off to rest up. Some of them earn their living by caring for the properties left behind each year until next "season".

This is, I suppose, similar to places like Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Vail and Alta and others of the same nature.

Key West opted a long time ago for a different model, non-seasonal, short visits, a more frenetic pace of amusement, and of course, something Highlands can never have -- cruise ships. Unless global warming changes the outline of the continent more radically and sooner than now seems likely.

Is one better than another? Depends on where you want to be and what you want to do. Perusing the CofC site, I count a few dozen accommodation listings, but including a 576-room Harrah's Hotel and Cherokee Casino.

The town is not without workforce housing issues either, shrinking workforce population and all. Here's how one hotel owner handled it:

"But not for Gomes, who solved his employee-housing problem before it occurred. In 2004, while preparing to open the inn, he oversaw the creation of an employee village. Today, most of Old Edwards’ employees live in one of 35 houses on a 27-acre tract just four miles from the inn, and plans are in the works to build 10 more. Rent for a two-bedroom house is $524 a month including utilities, and $625 a month for a three bedroom, which also includes utilities."

And, oh yes, Highlands is the highest incorporated town east of the mississippi River, not to mention being the salamander and lichen capitals of the world.

Head for the Hills!

Postscript:  Highlands is one of the few temperate rain forests in America.

 

Florida House

I didn't know about this place in D.C. Florida, the only state with an embassy in Washington, D.C.

Bahama Village Blog

Tom Kemper is reactivating his Bahama Village blog. There's a permanent link to it over to the right. Tom still lives in Bahama Village and, although it remains our spiritual home, we do not.

Captain Outrageous

I just finished a long-ish post over at the Captain Outrageous blog, which is currently a tribute site to the man. The C.O. blog began back when we had just started out building the web sites for himself, for his gallery, and for his collection of photos of Key West people.

See it here.

Bahama Village Community Meeting

I got this in my e-mail this morning:

May 6, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Key West Police Department is hosting a community meeting tomorrow [Wednesday, May 7] at 6 p.m. in the George Allen Apartments playground area to discuss and address juvenile problems that have been occurring in the area.

We apologize for the short notice. Anything you can do to get the word out would be much appreciated. Everyone is encouraged to come out and talk to the police representatives, including Interim Chief Donie Lee, who will be present.

Christie Phillips
Communications Manager
City of Key West

Bahama Village Streets

The City Commission will hear a presentation from City Engineer Roland Flowers on Tuesday, about opening up two streets in Bahama Village to access the Truman Waterfront. It's necessary to do this by September in order to comply with the terms of an agreement settling and dismissing a lawsuit filed by TAMPOA, the association of homeowners in the several condominiums inside Truman Annex. against the City of Key West. The settlement essentially decrees that TAMPOA -- the Truman Annex Master Property Owners' Association -- owns the one short block of Southard Street between Thomas Street and can regulate its use in accordance with the terms struck in the agreement. TAMPOA is granted a right by the City to place a gate on Southard Street and to control access to the Waterfront over that street during certain hours. The extent of the control is clearly specified in the agreement.

The U.S. Navy and the State of Florida also assert rights to the use of Southard St. that are separate and different from those the City was granted.

The presentation on Monday is preparatory to a resolution to be considered subsequently by the City Commission that will authorize the City Engineer to proceed to build the infrastructure that will accompany the road building.

Residents of Bahama Village who are in the area between Angela Street and Truman Avenue, from Whitehead Street to Fort Street will, or should, be interested to see the plans, and will have an opportunity to ask questions either publicly in a planned meeting before the City Commission votes, or to Commissioner Lopez and/or City staff.

The Commission meeting is on Tuesday, May 6 at Old City Hall, 510 Greene Street. A group of Bahama Village residents have been advising Commissioner Lopez on how best to manage traffic through the narrow streets of the historic Bahama Village.

Once the City, the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust, and the Florida Keys Assisted Care Coalition complete the several projects that are planned on the 33 acre parcel, the Bahama Village streets will be one of the ways that city residents will connect to the waterfront for fishing, recreation and all of the other activities that will make it a vibrant place.