All too sadly... Key West is changing. The Histori...

2007-04-07T06:59:00.000-04:00

All too sadly... Key West is changing. The Historic Seaport is being bought up. The Corporations that propose buying Turtle Kralls and The Half Shell Raw Bar are given the provision that they must remain restaurants. But we all know how once they have been bought... it's really easy to use that provision as leverage. The Company that proposes buying it creates High End Resorts, so... they find a crappy piece of land somewhere, offer to create affordable Housing or something like that, only with the provision that their restriction on the restaurants be lifted... the city caves in... as history will show and the developer builds his condos but never seems to get around to building the affordable housing. In fact now the crappy piece of land is a parking garage.

Do I sound cynical... yeah I am. I LOVE Key West - I love the people (that are being forced out), I love the funky-ness (Which will be forced out by Chain Businesses), I love the "Love" in Key West... which sadly will be gone when the people are gone.

I'm curious about the model being used by "The Wizards" on the City commission for changing Key West into a high scale resort. It seems like a flawed model to me.

When all the funky businesses, guest houses, restaurants etc are gone, you'll have a small island, with crappy beaches, pretty mediocre SCUBA diving, OK weather and a horrible hurricane season - and a lot of the same type of shops, restaurants etc that you can find in any mall, in any town.

I say yes yo cleaning up Key West - But no to changing Key West. Leave it alone! It works. Most Hotels are getting 300 bucks a night.

Key West - please don't be blinded by greed. Our grandchildren deserve to be able to fall in love with the Key West we love!

Comments on Be Our Guest: Key West and Rooster's Rights

All too sadly... Key West is changing. The Histori...