by Paul Williams…….

Dear Editors,

There is, perhaps, a readily available solution to the cultural threat posed by locating a citywide, multi – ethnic boxing gym 50 feet from Shine Forbes’s old house… uh, even though Kermit, himself, might have been fine with precisely that picture. Other people are not. They wish something else could be arranged.

Well, it could; but Islanders, Both white and black, would, first, actually have to Stop for a moment and Think …. about what a suitable PAL alternative might look like.

The big white former Navy building right next to the Coast Guard Cutter Museum at the foot of Southard would make a great location for an upbeat, highly visible, KWPD “Community Activity”.

On – The – Waterfront.
( Do the City’s esteemed parental units need an explanatory caption to this – as yet, only mental – picture? Now? In 2016?)

Yes, the ship’s crew is using the ”front”” of the building for logistics and supply space. Yet, just the ”back” (east) half of Building #103 might be sufficient for the PAL. I forget the dimensions, but it’s something like 10,000 sft. And – it has open space on All three sides. And – it’s thoroughly modifiable, expandable space, inside and out.

Reader: You would actually have to go look at it to see a clear picture of how obviously Bldg. 103 could support a public, highly desirable, community friendly, dual use. Walk around it and visualize how things might look in the not too distant future.

You know? With absolutely No Need to hit Bahama Village a completely gratuitous shot in its already wobbly cultural knee caps. If we were to think about the Black Bahama Conch community as an Asset, unique to Key West, as time goes by?

That block stretching between Petronia and Geraldine, and from Emma to Fort, is the northernmost, irreducible Anchor of Bahama Village’s threatened traditional neighborhood. With Douglas Gym, the American Legion Post 168, the Community Clinic and the Band Room, that small piece of real estate comprises the heart of what’s left of old Bahama Village

On the South is the MLK Building and its park spaces. On Whitehead, the Black Elks are still going strong. If the Council permits ANY of these remaining half dozen organs to be chipped away or repurposed, they will be actively supporting – and hastening – the destruction of almost two centuries of African – Bahama Conch tradition on the western tip of Key West.

The only surviving community assets would then be a few, mostly small, Churches.

Move the gym elsewhere… like onto the yet undeveloped Truman Waterfront, right next to the Cutter Ingram.

Let visitors to Key West see with their own eyes, without any need for puffed – up, PR embellishments, that Key West’s GENUINELY proud history is in fact a prologue to it’s strong future as a fully intact, diverse “Island Home”.

Let the visitors leave thinking: “:Gee, the place is real. It’s not just some slick PR pitch, like the instant town in Blazing Saddles. All front. Nothing real. Just a manufactured sales pitch. Nada mas.

Let the band room stay a band room. Shine Forbes liked music, too, you know.

The only force that could stop 103 from morphing into a seamless, dual community use, would be the unseen objection of some well heeled business group with visions of hi – dollar grandeur for the whole Southard street acreage.

So, people: Is Key West ALL about the money?

ALL the time?

100% ?

The City Council needs to back the right program, here.

Now.