Even news junkies need a break from the fire hose of panic-making headlines, so last week Ranger Ed and I ditched the 24-7 information cycle and played Key West tourists with our 12-year-old grandson, Connor.
Cuban toast and cafe con leche. The Conch Train and the Key West Art & Historical Society’s Mario Sanchez exhibit at the Custom House. A side trip to Geiger Key for hogfish, a tour of the Coast Guard Cutter Ingham and a trek up the 88 steps of the Key West Lighthouse. A sunset sail on the Jolly Rover, red sails unfurled, cannons at the ready and Connor at the helm. Seven days of remembering that living in Key West is a joyful privilege.
It also included a six-hour, construction-fueled traffic jam on the Overseas Highway to MIA, with almost three of them to go but 22 miles. Eh. Not so joyful.
So, if you, like I, need an ICYMI news refresher, here goes:
1. Long wave the Pride flag. Looks like the Pride flag outside Key West City Hall survives the Florida Legislature for this year. Senate bill SB 100 was withdrawn from further consideration on April 8, and while anything can happen in the last days of the 2025 session, it’s unlikely either it or its House companion bill will find itself on the governor’s desk.
Written by Republican Florida Sen. Randy Fine, who traded his state post for a spot in the U.S. House, the bill would have forced the removal of Pride flags at government spaces. Seems no one else in Tallahassee was particularly interested in taking up Fine’s commitment to erasing Florida rainbows.
And in case you missed it, that flag bill would also likely have required Key West to paint over the rainbow crosswalks at Petronia and Duval. Nasty stuff, these nullification bills that slice away at home rule.
2. Speaking of home rule, SB 1730, the brainchild (I use that term cynically) of Florida State Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, whose District 38 includes a big chunk of Miami-Dade but not a speck of the Keys, continues to advance through the legislature alongside reasonable bills from Monroe County’s Senate and House representatives.
Those two bills — Sen. Ana Rodriguez’s bipartisan bill, SB1326, and Rep. Jim Mooney’s bipartisan bill, HB995 — are in sync with Monroe County, its cities and the Keys ROGO Coalition. They limit hurricane evacuation times in the Keys to 24.5 hours. They cap additional Rate of Growth Ordinance building permits at 825 spread over 10 years. A substantial portion is allocated to workforce or affordable housing.
Calatayud’s bill is a blatant attempt to expand developer rights under the state’s “Live Local Act,” preempt local governments, like Monroe County, from making growth and development decisions, add some 4,000 ROGO units for housing in the Keys and increase the current 24-hour hurricane evacuation time to 26 hours.
Hold your breath — and contact your reps — because the fate of Monroe County’s growth and development control won’t be decided until the last hours of the current session.
Key West updates | I’m in the “gotta love” the EYW group
3. Yay for the Key West International Airport. EYW opened its new departure concourses and jetway for the Delta flight this week. I know. I know. You’ll miss the tarmac walk in the rain and the combined perfumes of jet fuel, decaying sargassum and salty air after that screeching halt touchdown. I will, too. Sorta.
Fact is, though, those new jetways are a godsend for those who need extra time to board and for those for whom walking across the tarmac is a challenge, if not downright impossible. The indignity of being hauled up the handicap lift and into the plane is gone. Finally.
And just so you know, the Seward Johnson “family” statues have been refurbished and will be back in position with the next phase of the airport renovation.
4. In the spirit of nothing lasts forever, Mallory Square is more like Mallory Rectangle these days. The city said it had to close the seawall after it discovered significant structural disintegration. They’ve moved everything back about 45 feet, between the planters and the water’s edge, until they can figure out how to mitigate the problem.
The closure is a pain for everyone, including the nightly Sunset Celebration, which continues in the smaller space. But it’s no surprise if there’s disintegration; that’s what decades of use, hurricanes, salt and water do to things down here. In the meantime, the city is moving forward with plans to renovate the Cable Hut and other structures on the square.
5. I close out my catching-up list with Gov. Ron DeSantis and wife Casey’s Hope Florida Foundation. Lands, I can’t make this stuff up. Seems like “someone” — and we’re just finding out who — funneled $10 million from a Medicaid settlement into the governor’s wife’s foundation, which then promptly with some intermediary sleight of hand transferred $5 million each to two dark-money political action committees set up to fight the recreational marijuana constitutional amendment, which the governor opposed. (The amendment failed to gain enough voter support to pass.)
We’re at the “deny, deny, obfuscate” stage, though there are enough ticked-off Florida legislators to keep the pressure on Mr. and Mrs. DeSantis, at least for now.
I’ll stop. That’s enough of the fire hose.
Learn more
Pride flag legislation withdrawn
More about the Pride Flag legislation
Hope Foundation may have funneled money to dark PACs
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