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Short-term thinking is sinking Florida Keys
It is one of
the great ironies of modern times in the Florida Keys that, just when
life here should be at its best, it is actually the most unpleasant.
Traffic is unbearable, crowds are unnavigable, noise is beyond
endurance. And if we notice these conditions, why should we expect our
visitors — aka our economic lifeblood — to miss them?
We are in the
strange position of being the victims of our own success. In the 1970s,
when the Navy closed most of its operations in the Keys, the community
pinned its economic hopes on tourism. In order to support and encourage
the nascent industry, citizens of the Keys approved creation of an extra
3-percent tax on lodging. Most of the proceeds are used to advertise the
Keys; the rest goes to promote special events and support capital
projects with tourism benefits (such as beaches and museums). The
industry has grown so much that the county collected $12.3 million in
lodging taxes in the past fiscal year. More than half of that is
collected in Key West.
The Tourist
Development Council, which advises the county on how to spend this bed
tax money, is not the only group promoting the Keys as a vacation
destination. Private enterprises from hotels to dive shops contribute
untold millions in their own advertising. Over the past decade, the city
of Key West has aggressively marketed itself as a cruise ship port of
call, an effort that resulted in nearly 1 million passengers visiting
here by cruise ship in 2003.
The question
that is asked constantly at lunch counters, bank lines, bar stools and
of course in the venerable Citizen's Voice — though rarely in the halls
of power — is what is our goal? Are we trying to grow until, as the old
saying goes, the island sinks? Do we want as many people as we can cram
onto our islands, via every form of transportation available?
We certainly
don't need more jobs, especially jobs at service-sector wages. Monroe
County has Florida's lowest unemployment rate. Combined with the state's
highest cost of living, this is a double whammy, leaving us without
places for our current overstressed workforce to live.
And there's
the toll this level of tourism is taking on our product, which also
happens to be our home. This was raised most recently in the dismal
rating Key West received in a survey of well-informed travel experts,
compiled by National Geographic Traveler magazine. It's not the first
time the Keys have gotten bad publicity, pointing out that the product
we are selling is not the same thing we are actually offering to
visitors. The warning signals are audible and getting louder that we are
heedlessly throwing away the great legacy we have been gifted by nature
and the islands' previous inhabitants. It's as if we inherited a
fabulously fertile piece of land — but instead of farming, chose instead
to strip-mine it for a short-term payout.
For longtime
residents, these annual debates have become part of the unique calendar
of the Keys, just like sunburned college students in March, Hemingway
look-alikes in July and drunken exhibitionists in late October. But
longtime residents also cannot deny the unpleasant truths in our
increasing chorus of bad reviews. We are squandering what should be a
great renewable resource in the interest of short-term gain for a few.
There is
reason to hope. In Key West, the mayor's Ad Hoc Task Force offered a
starting place, a way to start thinking about these issues reasonably
and without rancor. At the same meeting that the task force's chair
reported on its work, the city commission chose a consultant to draw up
its long-delayed study on the effect cruise ships have on the quality of
life here. It's hard to imagine our current county commission summoning
the courage to re-examine the lodging tax and how that might be used to
benefit the community as a whole instead of subsidizing an already
hyper-speed tourism industry. But it may be time to ask the hard
questions and see if we can break our long and damaging addiction to
short-term thinking.
Perhaps we
could even envision a future for the Keys where the islands live up to
the image we sell so well and are a truly laid-back, unique, charming
and pleasant place to visit, to work and to live.
This
story published on Sat, Feb 28, 2004
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