In response to yesterday’s “press release”

For Immediate Relief –

Wisteria Island, Key West address, Conch Republic

Overly-wealthy Developers launch new Development=Environmentalism web site

The people who dream of taking control of the bay bottom around Wisteria Island have put a name on their self-serving dreams and launched a professional-looking website to perpetuate propaganda about their latest grab for land and power.

Instead of calling it Billionaire-Walsh-and-the-Bernstein-Heirs’ Subterfuge Island, or Sunset Key II, or even Islandmark, the billionaire and Bernstein’s development consortium are calling their folly Key West Harbor Managed Mooring Field and have launched a “Web Site” on the “Information Super Highway” to “share information about the plans and progress of [the bulldozing and paving of Wisteria Island]“. The web address is: www.kwharbormoorings.com

However, the site can more appropriately be accessed at www.kwarbormorons.com. That’s KW ARBOR MORONS dot com. Arbor meaning trees. And morons meaning, well, morons. And the “e-mail” address that really works and really sends your thoughts and feelings to them e-lectronically is billionaires@kwarbormorons.com. Wow, ain’t technology grand?

The “Web Site” includes videos of boats in the water. Some boats in the videos are shockingly underwater. But most importantly none of the boats featured in the videos are anywhere as pretty or nice as the private yachts owned by the developers and their friends. Which is the important thing. Though the Bernstein heirs have never shown any interest in maintaining the island (that their parents bought for less than $150k and kept from developing until passing the torch onto their children recently who have unfortunately failed to keep it lit) and didn’t even clean it after Wilma but instead have always “allowed” the public to do so, the new videos clearly show that they can be environmentally concerned for Wisteria and all of Key West when it suits them.

Though the impact of adjacent Sunset Key on the environment has been heavy and ongoing, the developers would now have you believe that the bulldozing, paving, and developing Wisteria Island would be to the benefit of the sea floor nursery for thousands of marine species. They would also get the Big Heavy Stuffthat people presently moor their boats on out of the water because big heavy stuff is apparently unsafe for baby sea life, the idea being perhaps that Big Heavy Stuff scares little sea creatures by casting big shadows that make the little sea creatures think of sharks.

The Key West Arbor Morons videos include comments from Lt. David DiPre of the FWC and Dr. Billy Causey, SE Regional Director of NOAA concerning the [genuine] navigational safety concerns as well as  [heavy-handed and convenient to the developer's cause] environmental damages occurring around Wisteria Island and Key West Harbor from derelict and abandoned vessels but not from the island’s present owner’s [Bernsteins] historical lack of concern for such things as environmentalism except when convenient.

Both Dipre and Causey (who for the record are both actually very highly respected professionals and it is a shame to see their hard-earned credibility being pimped out in this manner) state the immediate need for a managed mooring field around Wisteria to end the present threats to boater safety in the harbor and to stop the pollution of the National Marine Sanctuary waters—which the developers excitedly use to make their case that it should be them who get to be stewards even though they have done such a terrible job of it in the past because it will make them more money.

- End? Nope, just the beginning -

Press Contact:

Bum Farto
LOL Hairy Assosheeits

Wisteria Island

ecopathic@gmail.com

“If Jimmy Weekley were mayor, Waterfront Market wouldn’t be closing.”

“If Jimmy Weekley were mayor, Waterfront Market wouldn’t be closing.”

Fresh from the hands that feed the mouths before word has even “officially” got out- that Waterfront Market is set to close at the end of the month because the famous community hub is being pushed out! Employees and staff having been given their final month’s notice today! – this true edict being uttered tonite island-wide from a heart-breaking number of our good neighbor’s mouths may or may not be the case.

But the one thing is certain is this:

If the community of Key West loses Waterfront Market under Morgan McPherson’s watch, his tenure as mayor is over.

An island mayor either has what it takes to avert a man-made disaster of this magnitude, or else the word on the street tonite is he has no business being an island mayor.

How many restaurant-running, business-having, home-owning, boat-using, tax-paying, neighborhood-living, community-having and registered voting people’s lives does Waterfront Market touch every day?

Mayor McPherson is presently scheduled to find out.

Who says? A little bird told me so. It was The Cormorant.

The Newest Version of Key West?

This is now the face of Wisteria Island.

The Key West citizen covered this story on Wednesday. Here’s the text…

‘Keep off’ signs go up on Wisteria

BY TIMOTHY O’HARA

Citizen Staff

KEY WEST — Wisteria Island owners on Tuesday posted “more permanent” no trespassing signs in hopes of keeping people off the island and limiting their liability in the event of accident, attorney Ginny Stones said.

The island — a longtime refuge and party spot for the homeless, local residents and live-aboard boaters — recently has attracted more traffic than usual. A month ago, a group of concerned citizens spent a Sunday removing Dumpsters-full of debris from the island, mounds of trash documented in photographs taken by myriad people and published in some local publications.

“It’s a private island and the owners need to protect themselves from liability,” Stones said. “There had been [signs] there in the past, but they have been torn down. They are just putting up more permanent ones.”

On Tuesday, crews — with the help of a mini-back loader — began digging holes, pouring in cement and placing thick wooden poles along the beach.

The owners, the Bernstein family, and developers, Oceans Property Limited, recently withdrew a request without explanation for the city of Key West to annex the property, which would have increased the potential building density. That came after several residents started a petition and began lobbying the city to preserve the island as a park.

tohara@keysnews.com

###

…sounds rational, no? Well, in fact, the reporting is good, but the story is manure.

Far be it for The Cormorant to rain on a parade, but when that parade is to be in celebration of destroying (ie developing) the last vestige forest near-shore to Key West, the rain must come, no?

The Cormorant promises to locate the picture that ran with the Citizen’s story and to post it here. (It was taken by Rob O’Neal, who amazingly was in the neighborhood and caught the image for posterity.) But what it shows is most telling.

It is a photograph of an unnamed laborer and a handle-bar moustachioed fellow. He’s the noteworthy one. So, who is the moustached person in the photo?

It is Jim Vernon.

As in, Jim Vernon…

- brother to Judge Susan Vernon, ex-spouse of James Hendrick;

- Project Development Engineer for Ocean Properties Limited;

- gunslinger-on-payroll for the Walsh Brother’s empire building in Key West.

Specifically, as project development engineer, Jim Vernon was The Man for development of the property which is now Westin. Even more telling, he was The Man in charge of re-building Tank Island – from the waterline up – into Sunset Key.

Jim Vernon’s employer, Ocean Properties Limited (OPL), doesn’t own Wisteria Island, the Bernsteins do. And the annexation is off. So the question remains:

Why was Jim Vernon – Billy and Michael Walsh’s own personal Jason Bourne – seen overseeing the supposedly simple task of planting of ‘no trespassing’ signs on Wisteria Island?

Because it’s like this. The annexation request is off, but plans for development are not. In fact, they are quite on, and OPL heavyweight Jim Vernon was brought in to complete a display of ruling power.

When it comes to staking a claim, you don’t do it half-heartedly. You do it with muscle or you don’t bother doing it at all. Jim Vernon and those signs – installed as they were with a land excavater, poured concrete, and 8″ x 8″ lumbers – are there to let us peons on Key West know in no uncertain terms, “This is where we draw our line in the sand. Go no further, Key West. This is ours. We are Ocean Properties Limited, and the Bernstein heirs are allowing us full authority because we are billionaires! KEEP OFF.”

The Cormorant loves a good fight, or rather a fight for good. And this case, the fight is for a forest of a mix of plant and animal species – some native, some non-native, all important – that has come to represent the “line in the sand” that our world has drawn for developers.

And it is a line that also comes with a message. And it is,…

“Unscrupulous, greedy, and short-sighted developers: Your time was up five minutes ago. The past has come and gone. The present is now the future, and here in the future your purpose has been served. You are hereby notified of your own obsolescence. Now, either get with the program or else have your entire support base turn on you and lose everything. You have already lost public support. WE HAVE NO PLACE IN THE ONGOING SUCCESS OF THE PLANET EARTH FOR THE OVERLY-WEALTHY. Resign yourself to consensual participation, or perish.”

Which sort of says it all.

It may come as a suprise to the Walsh brothers and the Bernstein heirs, who have got away with so much for so long, that Key West would start caring all of a sudden about more development. They must wonder, “Why such a hubbub over a single piece of one-hundred year old marine eco-system?”

The answer is: Because here in the future that multifunctional forest is not merely Key West’s, it belongs to the entire world, and a great many of us in Key West realize this. The trees, plants, animals, and function that all of it combined serves have beneficial consequences on everything, from air and water quality to quality of life. And here in the future an entire world is watching us and this play for power play out via the awesome power of a fully operational internet.

One well-connected blog now makes all the difference.

Got it? The Cormorant – on behalf of the Global Internet Consensus – sends his regards.

Wisteria Forest under attack – First Strike

Here’s the video footage.

Wisteria Under Development

This photo was taken this morning at approximately noon. The “lander”from Sunset Key/Tank Island dropped off this mini-crane, supplies (including the bags of cement seen at the left edge) and two passengers, one of whom was Billy & Michael Walsh’s right hand man who developed Tank Island into Sunset Key. Just around the corner, 8′ fence posts were being inserted into the ground.

So, we can “trust the Bernesteins,” can we, Mayor McPherson

No doubt about it, protecting Wisteria Forest is the issue on the coming electoral ballot.

Coffee Plantation sponsors Christmas Tree Clean-up

The Cormorant received this announcement today from Theo Glorie at the Coffee Plantation.

This Sunday July 22th we have picked to clean up Christmas Tree Island.
The plan is to be at Simonton pier at 9:00 am
Come join us…
We got bags, and can use lots of helping hands.
See ya there!
Theo

Wisteria Island

One of the inspirations of the Cormorant is Wisteria Island. Also known as Christmas Tree Island, Wisteria (as it’s known on nautical charts) is a green space deserving of attention. And attention it has gotten! Recently, the island’s stewardship was taken over by the sons of the people who owned it. The parents passed on last year, and the sons quickly have made efforts to develop it

There has been a lot of press about “the condition” of Wisteria, about the problem with rubbish on the island. And to a degree, it’s true. No one cleaned it up after Wilma, and a ton (or more) of debris accumulated. Plus beer cans, beer bottles, and stuff that just washes up from time to time. So my buddy Cliff the Weaver, his buddy Steve-O, and I got together this week and put in a few hours collecting and bagging up garbage.

Here is a picture with our bounty, twenty bags of it. Thanks to Arnaud and his Magic Penny II for help transporting all the stuff across the water and to the garbage.

Why The Cormorant

Because after spending three years around cormorants, watching them nest, mate, live, hunt, eat, shit and love, I have found that the bird has a piece of my heart.

They are a heavy, dark meat bird, you know?

Not that I have eaten one (blech), it’s just one of the bits of collateral cormorant information I have learned in my sojurn with the birds. They have a fully-developed skeletal system, too, meaning none of this “light bones” stuff. It’s all or nothing for the Cormorant!