Linda Grist Cunningham | Columns and news analysis
Linda Grist Cunningham | Columns and news analysisKey West Island News editor Linda Grist Cunningham has written more than 4,000 columns — in print and on the web — since 1968. She hates writing and is compelled to do it anyway.
The end of Covid-19: What will I do with all my Key West Sushi masks?
Vaccine chatter is all the rage today. If you've scored a shot, you're euphoric. There's something about beating the gawdawful registration systems into submission that empowers even the technologically savvy. If you haven't, you're thinking about dumping your friends...
Living in Key West: How long before vacation rentals overtake my neighborhood?
I live on the quietest block on the quietest street in the quietest neighborhood in Key West. Now that the Conch Train has been re-routed, hours can pass without a car and there's only the occasional nocturnal, rowdy visitor wandering back to the hotel. It's so quiet...
Where do you go when everything else is closed? Why Key West, of course
In 10 minutes, five incoming commercial flights will descend over my porch. It will take them less than an hour to drop across the island, touch down at Key West International Airport and leave behind excited visitors and relieved-to-be-home locals. Shortly...
Living in Key West | 5 things old photos teach us about island life
I'm a sucker for old photos and stranger's scrapbooks. Wandering through a stack of historic photos can suck away my entire day and I'm always game for flipping through your family albums after supper. The Key West library, with more than 22,000 photos, is a trove of...
One year since Covid-19 | Do I still want to live in Key West?
Hint: I do. Read on. It occurred to me last Sunday as Ranger Ed and I made the swing over the Cow Key Bridge and onto North Roosevelt that the frisson of joy that races up the back of my neck each time I return to the island seemed a bit faded. Not gone. Tattered...
The scariest words in Key West: Tallahassee is now in session
Come Tuesday, the Florida legislature sits down to a banquet of tasty preemption legislation for a 60-day feast determined to remove even the table scraps from the state's now-toothless Home Rule law. Among the first-up will be a spit-in-your-face attempt to...
Dear Connor
Dear Connor is a collection of columns Linda writes for her grandson, Connor. Though he may never read them, they help her make sense of the world.
Dear Connor | As the American democracy unravels, can there be hope for your future?
American history is filled with "times like these." Three times we have been here. I believe we will be OK. Though my rage boils over too often, I believe in Americans-in-the-middle. I believe there are extremists on the right and the left -- and I believe they do not, do not, represent who we are as a people. They get the attention and the headlines today; spoiled children clamoring for their own ice cream cone, unwilling to share and willing to fight to the death to keep what they believe is theirs and theirs alone. Getting through this transition will not be for the faint of heart. But get through we will.
Dear Connor: Nine promises that we will be OK
Being OK doesn't mean the next several years will be moonbeams and unicorns. The next decade will be harsh, unsteady, inexplicable and frightening. We will, as a country, walk with that awesome shadow of the valley of death. History tells us that we must face our worst selves before we can create our best.
Hurricane Irma
In September 2017, Linda Grist Cunningham created and launched a Facebook Page that aggregated news coverage during Hurricane Irma. She was off-island at the time visiting her mother in Virginia. Her husband remained in Key West. Over the three weeks that she and her partner journalists John Teets maintained around-the-clock coverage, they reached almost a million people around the world. These are the columns she wrote each day. Hurricane Season is always June 1 – Nov. 30.
Hurricane Irma: 9-23-17: Closing up shop. Saying Godspeed. Going home to the Cat 5s
When we launched Key West Hurricane Irma, our online news coverage, we weren’t sure when “quit” would happen. We were confident we'd know. Today is the anniversary of knowing. It was time to wish our house guests farewell and Godspeed.
Hurricane Irma | One year ago, we awaited the storm
Why did so many decide to stay on the island, defying the mandatory Hurricane Irma evacuation orders and flirting with destruction? The answers are as complicated as the Keys. Re-reading my 2017 columns reminded me just how powerful we were as an online community. To each of you who followed along, who shared your stories and your tears, I say "thank you." It was a tough time. It's been a tough year.