by Arnaud and Naja Girard…
Once again the issue of public access to the ocean has pinned some Florida Keys residents against developers and the public officials they lobby.
With a promise to build affordable housing on Wreckers Cay’s now vacant trailer parks on Stock Island the private equity firm of Lubert-Adler asked the county to donate the end blocks of two roads which have been used for years as public waterfront access.
County officials do recognize the importance of public access to the water, the law clearly protects it. But the hope for 280 new affordable housing units seems to have taken precedence.
We’ve been following a group of Stock Island residents who argue that the laws protecting public access to the ocean should apply throughout the Keys, even in working class neighborhoods like Stock Island, and even if the business community needs more housing to staff its new hotels…
[Note: Those segments of the video below showing people in close proximity without masks were captured prior to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic.]
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The Keys government corruption knows no bounds. And there are plenty of non-governmental “bubbas” and lawyers complicit in the corruption, not to mention the eager enforcers dressed as cops. You can also bet that the housing will not be anything even close to “affordable.” Government in the Keys exists primarily to take from the citizens and give to the developers (and the government official’s friends, family, and business associates). The whole system is corrupt, disgusting, and despicable. It is sickening!