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
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…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.
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.
