| Key West Travel Guide - Visitor Information for Key West, FL in the Florida Keys

Key West Travel Guide Is Against Dredging for Cruise Ships

David Dlugitch — Sun, 17 May 2020 16:32:07 +0000

There is already too much pressure on our eco-system and quality of life to accommodate bigger and more ships. Enough is enough!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

-Dr. Seuss

Key West Travel Guide wants to make it abundantly clear: we are against dredging in the Florida Keys to accommodate larger and more cruise ships.

For too long, Key West has thoughtlessly welcomed an ever increasing number of cruise ships to our port, ignoring damage they do to the fragile eco-system and the quality of life for its residents and visitors. And all of it has been for the benefit of a few businesses that have been poor stewards of our environment. Today those businesses are actively “green washing” their image, but don’t be fooled: larger and more cruise ships is NOT the right thing to do for our coral reef, our quality of life, and our future.

Now is time for change.

Key West is currently debating whether to support funding a study about the feasibility of dredging to accommodate the next generation of cruise ships: ever larger and with even greater numbers of passengers.

This shouldn’t even be up for debate.

Dredging in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is not permitted and would require an exemption from congress.

And in response to overwhelming pressure from Key West residents, in 2011 the Key West City Commission overwhelmingly voted against funding the channel widening study.

But it is up for debate, and the local chamber of commerce has organized a political action committee (PAC) in support of gouging a wider channel.

Fortunately, many local residents are fighting this with their own PAC, known as the Key West Committee for Responsible Tourism.

This election day, Key West residents will vote on a poorly-worded referendum which will decide if the dredging study should be carried out.

Key West Travel Guide is against this study, along with many other local businesses and organizations.

If you want to support this effort, here is what you can do to help us stop this madness:

1) visit the Key West Committee for Responsible Tourism website and donate.

2) send an email to Key West’s city commissioners and mayor and let them know what you think of dredging in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Here are their email addresses:

District 1 – Jimmy Weekly jweekley@keywestcity.com
District 2 – Mark Rossi mrossi@keywestcity.com
District 3 – Billy Wardlow bwardlow@keywestcity.com
District 4 – Tony Yaniz tyaniz@keywestcity.com
District 5 – Teri Johnston tjohnston@keywestcity.com
District 6 – Clayton Lopez clopez@keywestcity.com
Mayor Craig Cates ccates@keywestcity.com

3) write a letter to the editor of the Key West Citizen newspaper at ttuell@keysnews.com
If they publish your letter, it will give Key West residents an opportunity to hear what visitors think about dredging for cruise ships.

INFOGRAPHIC: Key West’s Glass Ceiling

David Dlugitch — Wed, 13 May 2020 20:28:43 +0000

Few women have broken through the wage disparity with men.

Have you ever wondered what wages and earnings are like in Key West? What do men and women earn in their various professions?

Key West Travel Guide took a look at the recent census data and compiled the data into an infographic.

The results of our research were so interesting we thought we’d share what we learned with you.

There are a few occupations where women earn more than men, including:

Education, legal, community service, arts, & media
Food preperation and serving
Personal care and service
Transportation (though the data in this category seems too anomalous to be valid)

And when it comes to education level attained, only women with a graduate or professional degree earn more than their male counterparts.

Infographic showing wages in Key West, comparing men and women (click image for larger version)

CAUGHT ON SATELLITE: Key West Cruise Ship Causing HUGE Silt Plume

David Dlugitch — Wed, 13 May 2020 20:13:35 +0000

Cruise ships are already too large for the shallow Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Yet some want even larger ships.

Old time residents of Key West bemoan how the nearshore water is no longer crystal clear. Locals who snorkel and dive the reef wonder where the 100-foot visibility days went. Fishermen shake their heads at how dredging the main ship channel to accommodate larger ships destroyed miles of coral and sea-bottom communities, on which many fish are dependent, while allowing large cruise ships to regularly stir up the bottom and silt the water with their massive propellers.

Yet a small but powerful minority of Key West business interests who cater to cruise ships don’t want you to know the real truth: cruise ships are doing damage to the fragile Florida Keys eco-system. To further their business interests, these mass-tourism business owners are trying to sell the idea that a study is needed to determine the feasibility of dredging to accommodate larger cruise ships.

But studies have already been done, the most recent was the Army Corp Reconnaissance Study of 2010 which concluded:

This project is anticipated to have a significant negative effect on environmental quality. Widening the channel would have significant and negative effects on an unspecified amount of coral lightly distributed over approximately 17 acres. The project would also have negative effects on an unspecified amount of critical environmental habitat. Increased cruise traffic, as with an increase in any waterborne commerce, would likely also cause an increase in water pollution and turbidity

But these are just words. Sometimes a picture can do a better job of telling the story.

So, here is a satellite image from DigitalGlobe (which is what Bing uses in its maps) showing a cruise ship approaching Key West harbor causing a massive silt plume. This is a rare picture of what cruise ships regularly do to our water. And keep in mind, in 2012, 327 cruise ships arrived in Key West.

Key West cruise ship causing massive silt plume on approach to Key West harbor. (Click picture to enlarge)

In October residents of Key West will vote on a referendum asking if they want to study dredging for even bigger cruise ships.

We say no. NO WAY.

REPORT: Parrotfish Now Key to Caribbean Reef Survival

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:12:02 +0000

Without action, coral reefs could disappear from Caribbean in 20 years.

In a comprehensive report of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012, a clear link has been established between the balance of herbivores and coral health in the Caribbean. Specifically, the parrotfish and the Diadema sea urchin, the former in sharp decline and the latter almost eliminated, are key components of a healthy reef eco-system. Broadly stated, the absence of sufficient herbivores on the reef has led to a large increase in algae. This algae is toxic and smothering the fragile coral ecosystem.

Previously, it was widely suspected that the primary culprit behind coral reef degradation was global warming. Researchers looked at data for extreme warming events in 1998, 2005, and 2010. They found that there was no correlation between these events and subsequent coral loss. Actually, they found the opposite: “…the greatest losses in coral cover occurred at reef locations with less than 8 DHWs (degree heating weeks, the datapoint for extreme heating events).” This report concluded that “…local stressors have been the predominant drivers of Caribbean coral decline to date,” not global warming. It should be noted that the researchers didn’t eliminate ocean heating as a stressors on the reefs, especially for the Florida Keys, where they pointed out: “We caution that our results do not mean that extreme heating events are unimportant drivers of coral mortality due to coral bleaching and disease, as they clearly have been in….the Florida Keys.”

As algae coverage increased…

….coral coverage simultaneously declined.

History of reef decline

The GCRMN carefully analyzed 43 years of data and documented how coral coverage declined in three distinct phases:

Phase One: a massive die-off of Acropora corals in the 1970s and 1980’s due to White Band Disease, possible caused by ballast discharges from ships transiting the Panama Canal into the Caribbean.
Phase Two: a massive die-off of Diadema, the algae-eating urchins once ubiquitous on the reefs. Once again, a pathogen from the Pacific Ocean introduced via shipping, is considered the likely cause. The report shows that “Diadema mass mortality began only a few km from the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal. That, coupled with orders of magnitude increases in bulk carrier shipping int he 1960s and 1970s, strongly suggests that Diadema disease was introduced by shipping.” As the urchins died off, a simultaneous increase in algae was documented. According to the report, “macroalgae reduce coral recruitment and growth, are commonly toxic, and can introduce coral disease.”
Phase Three: Continued die offs of urchins, along with increasing “overfishing, coastal pollution, explosions of tourism, and extreme warming events that in combination have been particularly severe in the northeastern Caribbean and Florida Keys where extreme bleaching followed by outbreaks of coral disease have caused the greatest declines.”

Parrotfish now key to Caribbean coral reef health

It is the parrotfish that the report concludes as particularly important to Caribbean coral reefs, as they are now the primary consumers of reef algae since the disappearance sea urchin.

Researchers observed that areas where parrotfish were overfished, such as Jamaica and the US Virgin Islands, had the highest algae growth and lowest coral cover. The report states, “All the historically overfished localities have low parrotfish biomass and low coral cover, and macroalgal cover is significantly greater than at less fished locations.”

The researchers also noticed that when parrotfish protections were put in place, coral began to rebound. The report states, “A similar result emerges from the partial recovery of parrotfish in marine protected areas in the Bahamas. Increased parrotfish abundance and size in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park resulted in a 2- to 3-fold increase in parrot-fish grazing intensity compared with unprotected sites. This increase in grazing further resulted in a decrease in macroalgal cover from 20-25% to 1-5% and a 2- to 3-fold increase in coral recruitment.”

Protecting and encouraging the reproduction of this fish is at the heart of this report’s conclusions and will require more marine protected areas, further education, and regulations on the use of spearfishing and fish traps.

Florida Keys – a “special case” of overuse and abuse

The report notes that in the Florida Keys, parrotfish are generally not taken. Researchers stated: “A recent study on the impact of grazing by herbivorious fishes found that herbivory levels were sufficient to maintain low macroalgal cover on the offshore reefs in the upper Florida Keys.” So what is happening here in the Florida Keys?

According to the report, the combination of unprecedented population and tourism growth in South Florida and its resultant pollution, coastal development, nutrient runoff from the Everglades and Florida Bay has “combined with regional and global environmental change to impact reefs along most of the Florida Reef Tract (FRT).

The report ominously concludes:

“…the FRT epitomizes a kind of worst-case scenario in which unprecedented population growth and inadequate governance and regulations have resulted in the critical endangerment of an entire coral reef ecosystem. Despite the positive and courageous actions of the Sanctuary, coral cover is well under 10% and declining. Much more stringent actions will be required for any hope of coral survival.”

While the City of Key West recently, and overwhelmingly, voted against dredging its ship channel to accommodate larger cruise ships, it is urgent that residents consider if there are already too many cruise ship passengers for the coral reef’s survival.

So what can be done?

The report has four major recommendations:

“Adopt robust conservation and fisheries management strategies that lead to the restoration of parrotfish populations, including banning fish traps and fishing of any kind for parrotfish. Further, they recommend sever restrictions on spearfishing, gill nets, long lines, and all other destructive fishing practices.”
“Simplify and standardize monitoring of Caribbean reefs, especially since this report showed how difficult it is to gather this important data.”
“Foster communication and exchange of information. Many of the affected countries and regions were unaware of the work of other participants and frustrated about working in isolation of what was going on elsewhere.”
“Develop and implement adaptive legislation and regulations to ensure that threats to coral reefs are systemically addressed, particularly threats posed by fisheries, tourism and coastal development as determined by established indicators of reef health.”

Failing to heed these conclusions and recommendations is not an option. The report concludes:

“Caribbean coral reefs and their associated resources will virtually disappear within just a few decades unless all the measures are promptly adopted and enforced.”

Appellate Court Rules White Roofs Permissible in Key West Historic District

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:00:12 +0000

Opens door to major energy savings for residents and businesses of sunny and hot Key West

Today, the City of Key West lost an appeal to ban white roofs as an energy saving device in the historic district of Old Town.

Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision that white roofs are an energy saving device, and therefore permissible under a Florida state law which prohibits municipalities from banning energy saving devices.

The circumstances of the case began in June 2010, when Bahama Village resident Victor Cushman applied to Key West’s Historic Architecture Review Committee (HARC) for permission to paint his roofs white in an effort to save energy. HARC denied his application and claimed that there was an alternative roof coating color, “button grey” from the Lanco company, that would be effective at energy savings.

But a letter from Lanco’s Technical Director, Milton Arnold, revealed that grey would not work as well and would likely not achieve Energy Star requirements.

Mr. Cushman painted his roof despite HARC’s objections, and was subsequently cited by the City for violating the HARC guidelines. Mr. Cushman challenged the citation and fines, and the local magistrate agreed that white paint is an energy saving device and therefore permissible under state law. The City of Key West appealed that decision. Today, Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal affirmed the lower courts decision.

How efficient are white roofs at saving energy? There is probably no energy saving device that is as inexpensive and effective as simply having a white “cool” roof. Below is a chart of the reflectivity and thermal gain of various roof coatings.

Notice that Galvanized Steel, the typical roofing material of Key West’s historic district homes, causes a nearly 45 degrees CELSIUS rise in temperature, compared with an 11 degree CELSIUS rise with white paint.

The future implications of this court’s decision may be broader than just white roofs. Homeowners looking to install other energy saving devices, including solar panels and more energy-efficient windows, might also use this as a precedent. One thing is certain: HARC needs to amend its guidelines to keep pace with current needs.

This isn’t the first time Key West’s historic roofs were changed due to necessity. Originally, Key West had wood shingle roofs. And they weren’t grey.

Liberal Key West in Increasingly Conservative Monroe County

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:56:36 +0000

Chart showing how the Monroe County districts voted for Governor.

Liberal Key West overwhelmingly voted for Charlie Crist.

But as you travel up the Florida Keys, the territory gets more and more conservative, finally peaking at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo where 82% of voters backed Rick Scott.

Below is a chart Key West Travel Guide created to show how the 33 precincts of Monroe County voted in the 2014 Governor race.

HOORAY! jetBlue Now (Sort of) Flying to Key West!

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:51:03 +0000

Discount airline to drive down airfare prices for Key West. Already jetBlue has lowest fare for major Key West route.

Snapshot from the jetBlue website showing Key West is now an option.

Great news for flying in and out of Key West.

One of the leading discount airlines, jetBlue, has begun a “code share” with Silver Airways, a Florida-based airline with daily flights within the state and to the Bahamas.

What this means is HUGE: you can now go to the jetBlue website and book a ticket to and from Key West. Silver Airways will handle the Key West leg of the flight.

This opens up discount airfare for Key West – something needed since the departure of Southwest Airlines. And it should help drive down airfare on the competing airlines including American, United, Delta, US Airways. Already we are seeing nice savings.

Below are a couple jetBlue flights that are better priced than the competition:

This roundtrip ticket, from New York City to Key West on May 15 – 22, 2015, has jetBlue with the lowest airfare, 25% less expensive than Delta!

Here is a look at a roundtrip flight originating in Key West.

Pac-Man on the Streets of Key West

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:45:43 +0000

For a limited time, Google Maps lets you play the retro game in Key West

Screenshot of Old Town & the Key West Cemetery, PacMan style! Click to enlarge image

For a limited time (and only for non-mobile users), Google Maps is letting you play Pac-Man on the streets of Key West.

Mobile users can’t play the Key West game, but can play a select number of places, each hidden behind a riddle.

Here are the rules, according to Google:

You can now play the classic arcade game PAC-MAN in Google Maps with streets as your maze. Avoid Blinky, Pinky, Inky, (and Clyde!) as you swerve the streets of some famous places around the world. But eat the pac-dots fast, because this game will only be around for a little while.

Get a clue

You can only play PAC-MAN in a few places on your mobile device. Use these hints to figure out where!

Figure out the best places to play

Don’t drop the ball on the eve of your victory!
Triumph is délicieux.
Does a Galaxian bonus await at the top of those 272 steps?
Chomp your way to independence down seven lanes of July.
PAC-MAN and Ms. PAC-MAN can’t agree on which side is prettier: the American or the Canadian. Which side do you fall on,eh?
After a chat with the Sphinx, PAC-MAN sounds more like “Dokki Dokki”.
Pause game play to admire Chagall’s stained glass windows and have a bit of chocolate.
Can you score 10^(10^100) points?
Whether they’re flashing blue or sporting their natural colors, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde are always kakkoii. Even Vogue agrees they’re living in the trendiest of neighborhoods.
Previous PAC-MAN lives don’t get to rest in a white marble mausoleum.
Head to the valley of the sun and earn your grade in the art of the game.
How well can you navigate the radiating streets of the distrito federal?
Victory is like gothic glockenspiel musik to our ears.
Pay special attention to Blinky – he might blend in with the dreaming red kangaroos!
You’ll find the Beach PAC-MAN World Cup here before long.

Come back soon for more clues!

To get started, visit Google’s map of Key West (here is a link: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Key+West,+FL+33040) and click on the Pac-Man icon at the bottom of the page. Below is a screenshot of what to look for:

Screenshot of Pac-Man feature added, temporarily, to Google Maps. (UPDATE: This feature has been removed by Google)

Pigeons “Smuggled” Cigars from Cuba to Key West

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:38:14 +0000

Artist Duke Riley, in a 2013 statement about Cuba-US relations, used homing pigeons to fly embargoed cigars from Havana to Key West.

In 1962, just prior to signing the Trading with the Enemy act, President Kennedy requested and received 1,200 Cuban Cohiba cigars: his signature rendered them contraband, as these cigars remain today, coveted symbols of status in a country just 90 miles from Havana’s shore. The maritime passageways between Cuba and the Florida Keys have for centuries enabled trade – both legal and illicit – smuggling, piracy, emigration, and escape. Even in the 21st-century era of pervasive surveillance, subversion and subterfuge persist in the intertwined geographies and politics of the island country and the nation that insists on Cuba’s commercial and political isolation. Duke Riley spent over four years planning and executing a flight of homing pigeons from Havana back to Key West, some carrying Cohiba cigars, others outfitted with tiny cameras, defying law enforcement and technology to illuminate the facts and fictions that continue to determine destinies on both sides of the Strait.

Riley’s contraband cigars and cameras were affixed to his flock of homing pigeons with harnesses fashioned from women’s lingerie, repurposed and embroidered with the names of smugglers and film directors who were either convicts of suspects. Ranging from the infamous (Pablo Escobar, Roman Polanski) to the less known (Lindsay Sandiford, Lars von Trier) to the metaphoric (To Have, To Have Not), these avian namesakes of both historical and contemporary heroes and scoundrels all escaped the law, though only half completed the journey home to Key West. Combining delicate craftsmanship within a context of historical reference and political critique, Riley creates a group portrait of his animal collaborators that memorializes their actions, as well as the lives of their human predecessors.

Key West’s For-Profit Hospital & Reported Price Gouging by its Owner, Community Health Systems

David Dlugitch — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:32:06 +0000

Study shows Florida’s for-profit hospitals are charging the highest markups for services.

Oh, Florida…three times as stupid as Texas.

The numbers are head spinning. And the deed, dare we say, is dastardly.

It is a problem rampant in Florida – thanks to the private hospital corporation Community Health Systems, the owner of Lower Keys Medical Center.

The latest issue of Health Affairs published a study that shows Florida is the leader, by a large margin, of hospitals charging the highest markup rates vs. costs. The markups often exceed 1000 percent.

The study details that of the top 50 hospitals in the U.S. charging the most relative to their costs, nearly all (49 of 50) are for-profit, and 20 of them are in Florida. This is astounding, especially given that Florida represents only 5% of hospitals in the United States yet accounts for 40% of the top 50 highest-charging hospitals nationwide.

The majority of these hospitals are owned by two companies: Community Health Systems and HCA. (Interesting sad note: HCA is the company that Governor Rick Scott was the CEO of and, rated Mostly True by Politifact, “oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history.” HCA paid the federal government a $1.7 billion dollar fine for its wrong-doing.)

Here is a chart from the American Hospital Directory showing the prices for outpatient hospital charges versus costs at Lower Keys Medical Center:

According to the most recent data from the American Hospital Directory, Lower Keys Medical Center had $371 million in annual revenue and $27 million in profit.

Community Health Systems, the parent company, made $18 billion in profits in 2014 — 45 percent more than in 2013.