Archive for June, 2011

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minority report

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

On the front page of The Citizen today - keysnews.com - is yet another article about creating a park on most of Truman Waterfront. The article mostly concerns putting out bids to contractors to build the park, right next to a beautiful state park people in Key West call “Fort Zach,” for Fort Zachary Taylor, an old US military fort, which lies within the park boundary.
 
I wonder how many of the loud voices clamoring for this new park use Fort Zach, which I have used quite a bit? I wonder why they feel compelled to make another park out of what looks like moonscape to me? I doubt anyone else views it any differently, because it is moonscape. It is man-made from channel dredgings, just like Sunset Key and Wisteria Island, and, yes, Fort Zach. Except Fort Zach has an Australian pine forest and sea grapes and palm trees. I wonder if it has to do with you can’t walk your dog in Fort Zach, or even take your dog there. Or maybe you can take your dog there and I just don’t remember ever seeing a dog there. Once, though, I saw a young couple dogging it in the lagoon by the jetty there. They saw me, too, and kept dogging it.
 
Oh, well. So much for what I wrote in yesterday’s if you really want better city government, Key West … post on what could be done with Truman Waterfront that would be a bonanza for the city government and the people of Key West.
 
I drove down to Key West yesterday, to see the new Transformers movie. I wondered driving down if the transformers theme was in play in my life. Arriving at the box office, I saw Chief Assistant Attorney Manny Madruga. He said he’d been out of town. He asked if I was running for anything this year?
 
Oh, well, so much for people reading The Citizen, which reported on Tuesday that I am running this year.

Yeah, people tell me to run. Yeah, people tell me I have great ideas. Yeah, Todd German, Chairman of Hometown! PAC, tells me onging that I bring something to races and candidate forums no other candidates bring. So what? Did anything I ever brought to races or candidate forums ever get put into play? Help me here. Maybe I’m missing something. I don’t believe I am, but maybe I missed something.
 
Along similar lines, this email exchange the other day with a fellow I sometimes call The Sultan, for reasons he earned. It took him a while to come up with a retort, which is the name he sometimes calls me.

 
What are you running for from Little Torch?  I think TG [Todd German] is right – if you want to be elected to anything, don’t talk about God, angels, or even your dreams.  If you are running for something and people are supporting you, you should not let them down and should campaign in the most effective way possible.  If you want to run just as a gadfly, you don’t need any supporters.  Just say whatever you want and end up in the low triple digits.  Try it the pragmatic way just one and maybe you’ll be surprised how enjoyable running a serious campaign can be. 
 
I ran several times, in both Republican primaries and general elections [in another state], and I can tell you that I always worked my ass off.  I won three general elections – no losses – and won about four primaries and lost two.  Believe me, you feel a lot better when you win than when you lose.  And if you lose by a small margin, that makes you really second-guess yourself.  In the close primary that I lost, the total vote for Republican committeeman for my opponent and me was more than the vote for the unopposed, and very popular, Republican Congressman running for reelection.
 
Hi, Sultan.
 
I am not running for anything from Little Torch. As I have been lamenting in posts, it seems I will be running for Mayor of Key West again, meaning I will move back down there to do it.
 
Yours is excellent advice for anyone running for office, unless that someone is me.
 
I am no where near convinced yet that my Campaign Advisers ever intended I would get elected. I am pretty near convinced my Campaign Advisers make me run for office to give me a bigger pulpit in which to hold forth, make a fool of myself, or an ass, depending on perspectives in the viewing audience. I was trained to be a priest, not a politician. I imagine I have about as much chance of being a politician as a horse as of being a pig, and vice versa. Maybe God is testing Key West, since it is so very far out there relative to other places in America. Maybe God is testing Key West to see if it really believes its creed: One Human Family.
 
Whatever, you have never been to a candidate forum and seen and heard me field questions. If you had done that, you would know I give better and more sensible answers than any other candidates. I give answers that actually will benefit the city and county, as if they are business entities trying to make ends meet and even a profit. That might shock you to hear, but it’s the truth, and it’s just not me saying it. I get told that a lot, hard to believe as that might be for you to accept. I also suggest zero-to-low cost strategies for bringing more visitors, thus more revenues, to this locale.
 
Besides a practical, no-nonsense business outlook, I am a columnist, novelist, poet, artist and, so to speak, street comedian. I fit right into that very substantial segment of Key West. I understand them, am sympathetic to their craft and how truly important it is to the heart and soul of Key West. I have zero prejudice against gays, as the gays in Key West who know me will readily attest. I get along as well with black people as with white people. I get along as well with Spanish people, as with Gringos. I get along as well with Europeans and Asians, as with Americans. I have traveled a good bit of this world, and a good bit of America. My thinking and outlook is renaissance, expansive.
 
The saving grace for me, when I ponder the frightening thought of actually getting elected, a psychotic thought process, given the zero odds of it happening, the mayor’s term is only two years. I would not have to put up with the strain and hassle past that, and the people of Key West would be rid of me just as quickly, if not sooner, depending on various uncertainties, including natural and man-made causes.
 
Never in my wildest dreams did I figure I would run for office again, when I ran against George Neugent last year. Just goes to show what a dunce prophet I am.
 
Potentate, but of what?
 
_______________________

I imagine more than a few people have some thoughts on that. As do I.

 
As do I wonder about County Commissioner George Neugent, who, in another Citizen article today, is reported as having presented to the Marathon City Council that they allow a gambling casino in the white elephant up there known as the Marathon Airport. Mike Forster was vilified in the Marathon press last year, after he made that very suggestion at the Marathon Chamber of Commerce candidate forum, in response to a question of how the airport could be made profitable? Yet nowhere in the Citizen article today does Mike get even a molecule of credit for putting a casino in the white elephant, and nowhere in the article is there any mention of George lying low last year, while Mike took a shellacking for putting out the idea George now is trying to run with. I wrote last year that I don’t care for gambling casinos, for lots of reasons, but putting a casino into the Marathon Airport was the only idea anyone had come up with that would cause the airport to turn a profit. According to the article, Neugent wants the county to partner with a casino operator and use the county’s share of the profit to pay for upgrading wastewater collection and treatment in the Keys.
 
Ciao
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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if you really want better city government, Key West …

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

At Hometown! PAC’s Call to Candidates Monday evening, Jerry Wickey spoke to me about his new website myKeyWest.us (click on link to see it), where citizens and elected officials post and discuss issues which are important to them for discussion. There also are straw polls. I went there yesterday and participated in this discussion on the Sunshine Law, initiated by Jerry:
 
Issue Summary:

The Florida Sunshine laws were intended to keep government clean, but like all laws they also have unintended consequences.

Details:

What could possibly be wrong with Sunshine? Politicians colluding in back rooms, scheming against those who elected them??? Well, people who run for and obtain public office for a degree of self interest, but also because they feel an urgency to change things for the better and help people. Of course one person’s better is not always another’s.

The purpose of the Florida sunshine laws are to prevent politicians from making secret back room deals which are not in the better interest of the people they serve. But what happens when an honest politician has a good idea and wants to discuss it with a fellow politician. If he does so, he has broken the law. Kinda’ like requiring employees to submit all suggestions for improving production in writing instead of just telling their forman. While solves some problems it produces others. What good ideas never get investigated because its just too much trouble? What about an employee who has a great idea and explains it to his coworkers, but the employee withe the great idea gets fined because the idea got to management with out any written record?

Writing new laws in answer to every problem is a common government response. Don’t blame the individuals in government. They can’t do anything about it. Government is a machine and each elected and appointed official is merely a cog. Each does his or her job the best they can, but the result is still a product of all the cogs working together. The machine of centralized government has some drawbacks. Serious drawbacks. We all see them and have to work through the problems government intervention often causes every day.

Is it time to relax the sunshine laws? Don’t do away with any of the good, but replace it with some alternatives.

We need to answer three questions.

1) Can local government make any change to the application of the law here in our county?

2) If we can, is the issue more or as important as other issues?

3) If anyone could post in a common and public forum anything they heard about any political dealings and the politicians involved could respond in an equally convenient forum, would this provide greater protection and fewer drawbacks to getting people in trouble for taking about good ideas just because once in a while two people talking alone get into trouble?

The public forum would have to be accessible to anyone, allowing comments at any time for all to see and read without requiring people to assemble at a certain time on a certain date at a certain location for a public meeting.

If you agree voice your opinion and make this happen. If you disagree, pose a rational reason for your disagreement. If you disagree but fail to find any rational reason for your disagreement, you should keep your opinion to yourself.

Todd German, Chairman of Hometown! PAC replied:
 
Jerry,

While Florida has a great website regarding the Sunshine law I feel it is still very misunderstood. Seems like a local resource whether it be links to the appropriate state sites or a discussion forum where local attorneys might weigh in would be useful. I find that too often discussion regarding the Sunshine law start based on faulty information and go rapidly downhill from there.

I noticed in one of your emails a question asking if a local ordinance could be enactacted to relax the Sunshine laws. In my opinion the answer would be a resounding NO. Local governments can and often do make laws which are more restrictive than State statute but they have no ability to enact anything with fewer restrictions.

I replied:
 
I agree with Todd German’s Sunshine Law comments and add, having now run three times for the county commission and three times for mayor of Key West (before 2011), my impression is there is deep-seated resistance in too many officials covered by the Sunshine Law to do what they can to avoid the appearance of violating it. For example, if two city commissoners have lunch at Pepe’s on Caroline Street to talk about poems they want to submit to the Robert Frost poetry contest, that is not a violation of the Sunshine Law, but it sure causes people who see them together to wonder if poetry is what they actually discussed, doesn’t it? What about county commissioners attending the annual dinner hosted by Ocean Reef Club Assocition (ORCA) for county commissioners, which is closed to the public? County Commissoner Kim Wigington delines to attend that lucheon because of the Sunshine Law. Perhaps the solution is not talk of, or actual changes to, the Sunshine Law. Perhaps the solution is putting people like Kim into positions covered by the Sunshine Law. For such people try to avoid the appearance of impropriety in other areas of ethical concern, as well – such as conflict of interest.

I emailed Jerry yesterday that I would submit a new issue, with comments, which ended up as follows:
 
Issue Summary:

If you really want better city government …

Details:
 
I have practiced law. I have run for mayor of Key West three times and for the county commission three times. I have followed and written about Key West and Keys politics since 2001. My impression is most elected officials identify with their office – it becomes part of their personality, their reason for being. It moves from being public service to something beyond that, which compromises the elected official.
 
I say there should only be one term – no incumbent can run for reelection. 2 years for city mayor should be increased to 4 years, same as city commissioners and county commissioners, and other local elected offices.

I say, when deciding who to vote for, look to a candidate’s vulnerability to family, social or financial pressure. Look to a candidate’s willingness to go it alone, be unpopular, if necessary. Look to a candidate’s ability and willingness to think outside the box.

I say, to have meaningful change in government, local, state or national, requires putting into office people who will not continue what already is being done, which isn’t working.

For example, nothing suggested so far for Truman Waterfront has worked out. That says, doesn’t it, that nothing suggested so far was what needed to happen there? Yet look at what is on the table out there. Will it benefit the city government, or will it just benefit various factions? If it doesn’t benefit the city government, then the city government should not go along with it, even if that means ignoring the referendums for the elder retirement facility and the extension of Bahama Village onto Truman Waterfront.

Those referendums gave approval but did not require the city government to go along. Legally, speaking, the city government is required to do nothing at Truman Waterfront. Legally, speaking, the city government can come up with something entirely different. For sure, the city government should not go along with anything that does not benefit the city government as much as it benefits supplicants/applicants. Truman Waterfront is the city’s land, the city should get something tangible back, if it is going to donate its land.

Consider this alternative.

Put the new city hall on part of Truman Waterfront. Provide plenty of parking nearby for employee and visitor parking, and for special events, such as the powerboat races. Let part of the acreage be a public park, which connects into Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park. Open the outer mole to Ft. Zach. Let locals and visitors again use the outer mole to swim, fish, picnic and watch sunsets.

The Walshes own nearby 5-star Westin Hotel next to Mallory Pier, and 5-star hotels up the America east coast. All successful. The Bernsteins own Wisteria Island and have partnered with the Walshes to develop it. The Washes’ title to Wisteria Island is up in the air, given recent revelations that the Department of the Navy claimed ownership and objected to sale of Wisteria and adjacent bay bottom by the State of Florida to the original private owner in the Bernstein chain of title. The Navy is not known to give its land to private citizens but has, from time to time, given its land to municipalities, including Key West.
 
The city gives Walsh/Bernstein a nominal 99-year lease on the Truman Waterfront marina and adjacent upland area, including the land currently set aside for the elder retirement facility. Walsh-Bernstein develop Truman Waterfront marina and upland in keeping with the Westin. Admiral’s Cut, which the Walshes own, is opened up. The city receives one percent of the Walsh/Bernstein gross revenues. Coming off the top, it will be easy for the city’s accountants to determine the city is getting what it is due.
 
The Bernsteins deed their interest, whatever it is, in Wisteria Island and their adjacent-owned bay bottom to the city, on condition the city turns Wisteria into a lovely green nature park for day visitors and overnight camping. The city asks the Navy to release any interest it has in the island to the city, for it to be made into a city nature park. Electricity is provided by solar panels. Water is provided by cistern. Electric compost toilets take care of human waste. A concession stand similar to the one at Ft. Zachary Taylor, except it is solar-powered, provides amenities. Fees are in line with what Bahia Honda State Park charges for day and overnight stays. A city ferry (barge) carries visitors and campers out there and back from Mallory Pier, charging $10 a head. Wisteria Nature Island T-shirts and other memorabilia are sold.
 
Other factors:
 
Consider, the city doesn’t need a new public swimming pool, which has been proposed for Truman Waterfront. The city has a beautiful seaside olympic pool at the Martin Luther King Center. Consider, the city doesn’t need a new soccer field, which has been proposed for Truman Waterfront. The city already has a nice grass soccer field on Truman Waterfront land next to Bahama Village.
 
Consider, Bahama Conch Community Land Trust had its opportunity to develop the Truman Waterfront acreage next to Bahama Village, and that didn’t work out. Consider, it doesn’t seem anyone else has/can come forward to carry that project on. Consider, it doesn’t look like there is any gain back for the city government in that project, in any event.
 
Consider, the proponents for the elder retirement community had their chance to get that built, and it didn’t work out. Not only that, elders from up the Keys and the mainland will have to buy shares/pay rent, for it to work economically, because there is not sufficient demand from in Key West. The city should not give its land to subsidize a development that is for people not living in Key West. The city should not give its land to a developer, who does not want to give the city a healthy slice of the action in return. That’s what the proponents of this facility have wanted the city to do.
 
Consider, Meisel-Spottswood have yet to nail down financing for their plan to develop and operate a mega-yacht facility in the Truman Waterfront marina and support facilities (club, spa, restaurant, swimming pool, shops) on a few adjacent upland acres. Consider, Meisel-Spottswood want the city to give them the land and the Marina, in exchange for a slice of the action on a deal that is anybody’s guess how it will turn out. Consider, the mega-yacht marina is financed and built, then it flops, like Beachside flopped at the top of Key West (a Spottswood development). Now, the city has a mega-yacht marina it doesn’t need, a bank trying to run it, the city getting nothing, its marina and adjacent upland tied up.
 
Consider, while 70 percent of the voters approved the city negotiating to buy Glynn Archer Elementary School from the School District for a new city hall, that referendum is not legally enforceable. Consider, no architect or contractor yet has personally guaranteed the cost of remaking Glynn Archer into a new city hall, and I will faint if an architect or contractor does personally guarantee the cost. Consider the city partnering for 50 years with a seriously dysfunctional School District at Glynn Archer. Consider, building height variances will be required to rebuild city hall at the Angela Street location. The city is going to grant itself a height variance after raising hell about the height of new Horace O’Bryant K-8 School?
 
If you really want something different, elect people who go about things differently, people who are not trying to win popularity contests, people who think outside the box, people who cannot be swayed by family, social, political or financial pressure. People who, when applicants and supplicants come calling, say, “We see what’s in it for you. What’s in it for the city government and the taxpayers?”
  
Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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stand up comedy, mostly

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Hometown! PAC’s Call to Candidates yesterday evening does not seem to have any mention in today’s Citizen, but Solares Hill Editor Mark Howell was there, so perhaps there will be a report this Sunday.
 
I drove down to Key West not having a clue what I would say during my dog and pony show. Various thoughts occurred to me, I called Sandy Riddle (Downs) and we tossed stuff around. But nothing seemed to feel right.

I got to Salute a few minutes before the 5 p.m. start. Out front was Sheldon Davidson and Tom Lavender soliciting memberships to Hometown! PAC. Sheldon is a retired prosecuting US Attorney from the mid-west. I told him I don’t join religions, and went inside to the bar, said hello to the owner, Richard Hatch, and ordered an ale and ginger with a slice of lime.
 
State Attorney Dennis Ward and his able legal assassin Mark Wilson arrived, and we chewed the fat a bit. Then, School Board Vice-Chairman Andy Griffiths arrived, wearing a T-shirt (I had never seen Andy in a T-shirt) on the back of which was something like, “After destroying my reputation, all I had left was freedom.”
 
I saw quite a few folks I knew and made the rounds. Several people said I looked great (without a beard). A few people didn’t recognize me (without a beard). I carried on a bit with Mayor Craig Cates and his wife, Cheryl. Craig’s campaign manager then came over and asked if I was going to campaign for Craig again this time? I said probably not, once was enough. He said they still really liked me. I said I still really like them, which is true.

Two or three people asked if I had moved back down to Key West yet, so I could run? I said not yet. Still need a place to stay. Probably more about that in a later post.
 
The holding forthing started with the Utility Board candidates. Then came the mayor candidates. Then the city commission candidates. I found myself dreading sitting through candidate forums listening to three of the candidates, whose names I will not say here. If you were there last night, you should be able to figure it out.
 
The incumbent, Craig went first for the mayor candidates. No longer the shy, aw-shucks fellow who barely was able to speak at the first call to candidates in 2009, Craig seemed comfortable up there and made sense, even if I still don’t entirely argee the new City Hall should be at Glynn Archer Elementary School, for reasons I have written in a number of posts and will not rehash today. Nor did I say a word about Glynn Archer of the School Board during my time holding forth right after Craig was finished.
 
By then, I had a general sense of where I was headed, and what jucies to add into the mix from mingling, listening and cutting up beforehand.
 
I started out by handing Todd German, the MC and Hometown! PAC’s Chairman, $20, the cost of an individual annual membership in Hometown! PAC. Todd asked if it was a bribe? No, a contribution to his organization. I wasn’t joining, I didn’t join religions. Thus began the Sloan dog and pony show for 2011.
 
I asked if Andy Griffith’s was in the audience? It took a while for him to admit it, and only then with some help from the audience fingering him. I said to look on the back of his T-shirt. It says something about after ruining his reputation, all he had left was freedom. I said I did that in Birmingham, then I came down to the Keys and did it again. I mentioned goodmorningkeywest.com as a place people could read all about it, and my ideas on the issues and get to know me.
 
Then, I turned to Todd and said, until now, it has not been known why I am running for mayor again. I have not wrtten why. It has nothing to do with God and angels telling me to run. It has to do with from the time I moved back up to Little Torch Key last year to run against George Neugent again, Todd had predicted and pushed me to return to Key West and run for mayor again. He egged me on and he was the reason I was standing there holding forth, he was the reason for this misery.
 
I said Craig Cates’ campaign manager had asked me earlier if I was going to campaign for Craig again?, and I said not this time. Once was enough. I described Aphrodite interrupting Craig two years ago (Craig had alluded to that during his remarks), bursting onto the scene topless and shouting, “Sloan for mayor! Nude beaches for Key West!” Her topless photo, I said, ended up on the front page of Solares Hill. Mark Howell rejoined, it got him a raise.
 
I told Craig Aphrodite was waiting for him in his car in the parking lot. Laughter from the audience. And she wasn’t going to charge anything. Gasps from the audience. I said, no, she wasn’t in Craig’s car, I wouldn’t do that to Craig and Cheryl. I loved them both. Although later, I wished I had said Aphrodite was interested in a ménage de trois, although I had no clue what she was interested in, what I said was, I had not seen Aphrodite in a while. I had hoped she would ask me to marry her, but she didn’t. I later wished I had thought to say, probably a good thing she didn’t ask me to marry her, I wouldn’t have been able to get enough digitalis to keep my heart beating.
 
I kept coming back to goodmorningkeywest.com, and saying if people really want to get to know me, then start reading that website. I have good ideas about how to go about things, different ideas, out of the box ideas, including different ideas for Truman Waterfront. I gave no details. It was standup comedy routine, mostly. I said some people say I’m crazy, some say I’m schizophrenic. Read me at goodmorningkeywest.com and decide for yourselves. It’s my campaign billboard.
 
When afterward I told Craig Todd German is a lot better campaign manager for me than Jim Hendrick had been two years ago, Craig burst out laughing, said that was so true! Craig said he had read my post yesterday morning and I had described Pritam Singh well – a helluva salesman, he was showing that pitching his new hotel to the city government. I told Craig he won’t be able to keep up with Pritam and Jim Hendrick. Knowing Craig, he will try. LOL.
 
Just before I left, a fellow came up and introduced himself as Paul Toppino. The Toppino’s are prominent in Key West. Paul’s father owns a big construction company. They are conchs. Paul asked if I had declared? I said I have to file to declare officially, this tonight was unofficial. He said I should file. I asked if I could quote him? He paused, said, yes. 
 
That brief conversation is what I left with. The rest was just horsing around.
 
I had a rough night last night, felt more and more poisoned as the night progressed. I just love Key West politics.
 
To lighten things up, a joke from one of my harem gals at Harpoon Harry’s.
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
 

 
A man escapes from a prison where he’s been locked up for 15 years. He breaks into a house to look for money and guns. Inside, he finds a young couple in bed. He orders the guy out of bed and ties him to a chair. While tying the homeowner’s wife to the bed, the convict gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up  and goes into the bathroom.
 
While he’s in there, the husband whispers over to his wife, ‘Listen, this guy is an escaped convict. Look at his clothes! He’s probably spent a lot of time in jail and hasn’t seen a woman in years. I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don’t resist, don’t complain… do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he nauseates you. This guy is obviously very dangerous.. If he gets angry, he’ll kill us both. Be strong, honey. I love you!’
 
His wife responds, ‘He wasn’t kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me that he’s gay, thinks you’re cute, and asked if we had any Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong. I love you, too.’

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the God candidate

Monday, June 27th, 2011

So, the Chairman of Hometown! PAC called yesterday morning to say he had opened and read the home page at new goodmorningbirmingham.com (click the link to see it) and he had really liked it. Especially noticeable, he said, is no reference to God or angels. He said that was the advice he and many people in the Keys had given me over the years: if I lay off talking about God and angels, I will be a lot more effective.
 
I chuckled, said there are three different places on the GMB  home page where I talk about not going somewhere just yet, clearly referring to beyond the pale, and I say on the home page I say I dreamt about the website for two weeks before I knew I was dreaming about the website. I said in the post at GMB yesterday – seeing with the spirit eye (click the link to see it) - I share email back and forth, in which there is talk of God and angels. The Chairman of Hometown! PAC said he did not read that post, only the home page.
 
I chuckled again, reminded Todd German that he once told me what had drawn him to me in 2003 was I had talked about my relationship with God at a candidate forum. Todd said I did it in different way back then, by saying everyone had that voice inside and I listened to it more than other people did. Maybe I said that to people who clearly were not ready or willing to acknowledge the existence of God and angels.

However, at that candidate forum in 2003, and at other candidate forums and during a US 1 Radio interview with Bill Becker that year, I said I ran for mayor because God told me in dreams to run. And after I filed, I was told in my sleep to do all I could to get Jimmy Weekley reelected, if I knew what was good for me. Not caring to incur the wrath of God, I set out to do all I could to get Jimmy Weekley reelected. Not caring to have it look like Jimmy had paid me, I explained at candidate forums why I was campaigning to get him re-elected.
 
I told Todd the angels never should have had me file, if I wasn’t going to try to win. For from that moment on, I was compromised politically. Ironically, I took Todd complimenting me for talking about my relationship with God at candidate forums in 2003 as a sign from God I was supposed to talk about God at candidate forums and in my posts. The noticeable difference between goodmorningbirmingham.com and goodmorningkeywest.com and goodmorningfloridakeys.com is I am not involved in running for office in Birmingham, thank God!
 
I told Todd his call came as I was coming out of a nap dream in which I was told Pritam Singh has promised something to the City of Key West, which he will not be able to deliver. I said I was not told what it is, or that Pritam knows he will not be able to deliver it. Only that he will not be able to deliver it, and the messenger in the dream was State Attorney Dennis Ward.
  
Todd had asked the day before yesterday, if I am Mayor of Key West, I really will oppose Pritam doing business with the city, just because I do not trust him? Yes, just for that reason, I said, and I don’t trust his sidekick, Jim Hendrick, either, and I don’t think city staff can match wits with them.
 
I said Pritam reminds me of something Ross Perot said on Larry King’s television show: He had tried doing business with Arabs, but no matter how hard he tried to cut a deal that worked for his company, he ended up getting skinned. Perot said he concluded Arabs didn’t think or behave like Americans, and he stopped doing business with them.
 
(That was Perot’s lead-in to trying to persuade America and the first President Bush not to rescue Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s army. Perot said the Arabs would go into a tent and work it out and come out arm-in-arm, and things would go okay for a while, they would keep selling America their oil. Then, the Arabs would get into another squabble and go into a tent again and work it out and come out arm-in-arm and keep selling their oil to America. Kuwait was not worth one American life, Perot told America and US Military personnel.)
 
Todd said some people operate on a handshake, on their word, while others don’t, they have their own way of doing things. I said thank you, that’s how Pritam Singh and Jim Hendrick operate.
 
It was much the same that fated night at Jim’s home, when Todd heard Jim, in his cups, tell me Pritam was not possessed by Lucifer and he was going to prove it to me. For his proof, Jim said Pritam is the best salesman he had ever seen, a master at getting people to look at what he wants them to look at, so they won’t look at what he doesn’t want them to look at. I said that’s how Lucifer operates. Out of his own mouth, Jim told me I had sized up Pritam accurately. Hilarious, if it weren’t so grim.
 
I have not voiced what follows to a living soul. For maybe two weeks, I’ve been telling Jim and Todd in my thoughts: ”When someone drinks too much booze, stuff comes visible that normally is kept hidden. It was time for Jim to tell me out of his own mouth that Pritam was possessed by Lucifer.”
 
This is the world in which I live all the time. The world I am starting to share with people on goodmorningbirmingham.com, and have shared with people in the Keys since I arrived her in late 2000, after being told in a dream, passing through Tallahassee on Greyhound, that I was going to get into politics.
 
Because of my relationship with God and angels, nobody in any race I ran in the Keys held a candle to what I was capable of doing. But the people of Key West and of the Keys do not want someone like me in office. They want in office people inclined to be hoodwinked, or hoodwinkers themselves. It’s just that simple.
 
As is it just that simple, when people hear me talk about God and angels, they discount me. Their favorite method is to follow Jim Hendrick’s lead and say I’m schizophrenic. For if I am not crazy, in their minds the alternative – they are crazy – is unacceptable. That, or they are possessed by Lucifer. You pick.
 
So there you have it all laid out in the sunshine on the morning of Hometown! PAC’s call to candidates at Salute on Higgs Beach this afternoon, starting at 5. The candidates start holding forth at 5:30. I have no clue what I will say in the short time Todd lets me speak. The angels will feed it to me, perhaps on the drive down, or even after I get there.
 
Oh, I forgot to say, in a nap dream yesterday afternoon, I was told to keep talking about God and angels, the naysayers’ poll is rotten and full of holes.
 
The Blacksmith (click link to see it) post today at goodmorningbirmingham.com seems to indicate where that site might be headed.
       
Sloan Bashinsky
 

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journalism as a contact sport

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

From Jupiter, Florida yesterday:
 
Sloan – Before a new 96 unit hotel is built, what is the current occupancy rate? Is a new hotel needed? What is the occupancy rate for the HILTON [is it the Hilton or a Marriot] near the main port within walking distance to the Mel Fisher Museum? That’s a lovely hotel and the one I would prefer. I really doubt there is a need for another large hotel in the Key West area. People want the charm of the little villas on the beach. They don’t want Miami Beach. And the rich will simply dock their yachts for a few days or go to a more tranquil and isolated location.
 
The quaintness and charm of the 1930?s to 1950?s is what made KEY WEST appealing. I first visited Key West in 2004 when CELEBRITY docked for one day. I visited the Mel Fisher Museum and walked a few blocks visiting art galleries. I returned a year later and a few stores selling T shirts and cheap souvenirs had sprung up. Returning another year later in 2006, more souvenir stores, fewer art galleries and upscale stores. After visiting the Hemingway Home and Truman House, there is little to draw me back to Key West. It has become too commercial. The reef I visited off shore is dying and brown with a few fish. The town should focus more on recapturing the old charm of Key West and less on building programs. The population has exceeded the carrying capacity of the islands. There should be more focus on self sufficiency, increasing individual solar power, reducing electricity needs, conserving water. Virginia, Jupiter.
 
AMEN, I replied.
 
Yesterday morning, Todd German called to say I was a bit mixed up: at the recent city commission meeting, Pritam Singh and the city got it worked out about parking for the 96-room hotel Pritam Singh wants to build on Caroline Street. Most of the parking will be onsite, the rest on an as-needed basis at the nearby flat city parking lot across the stree from Pepe’s, which Ron Kennerly had suggested might be a solution.
 
I did not attend that city commission meeting and told Todd it didn’t look in The Citizen article like the parking had gotten worked out. Todd said that writer, an award-winning war correspondent, had been let go just three weeks after arriving at The Citizen with much fan fare and high expectation. I said I had wondered why The Citizen had hired him, as I couldn’t see where he could fit into anything The Citizen had going. What caused the parting of ways, I said I didn’t know, but I figured The Citizen felt it needed to happen. Todd is on The Citizen Editorial Board, perhaps he knows, but it doesn’t seem important.
 
What seems important is I botched writing about the city and Pritam Singh and the parking at the new hotel. That is really bugging me, causing me to wonder if maybe I need a break from being a war correspondent in local politics and government goings on. Like, a permanent break. I’m so jaded with local politics and running for office, it’s amazing I don’t flub more than I do when I write about it.
 
Even so, what I recently wrote about Pritam Singh personally is how I see it. When Pritim makes a pitch, Jim Hendrick lurks nearby. Were I mayor, I would vote against any deal Pritam brought to the city because I would not trust how the deal would end up going down.
 
A letter to the editor in The Citizen this morning chastises the city government for waltzing with Pritam and his new hotel, knowing he is not known to live up to his promises.
 
On the bright side of that distemper is Naja Giard’s excellent article - ”Who Really Owns Wisteria Island?” - in this week’s edition Key West the Newspaper (kwtn.com). An article, the likes of which I doubt you will ever see in The Citizen or The Keynoter. Dennis Reeves Cooper publishes a lot of stuff The Citizen and The Keynoter won’t touch with a ten-thousand-foot pole, stuff that needs to be published. He touts his brand of journalism as a contact sport, and it is, the way he goes at it. Ditto, for the way I go at it. Birds of a feather, in some ways, not in other ways.
 
Alas, so much more do I enjoy what I am being given to write, so far, at the new goodmorningbirmingham.com, that I can’t help wondering if that website hatching forecasts my living in Birmingham again, sooner or later. My roots there are very deep, and some time ago the place I had wanted to live since I was fourteen, the Florida Keys, lost its glow. Politics just ain’t healthy for someone like me, might as well drink arsenic or hemlock. I ought to be a real bundle of joy at Hometown! PAC’s Call to Candidates tomorrow evening.
 

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journalism as a contact sport – Key West

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

 

From Jupiter, Florida yesterday:
 
Sloan – Before a new 96 unit hotel is built, what is the current occupancy rate? Is a new hotel needed? What is the occupancy rate for the HILTON [is it the Hilton or a Marriot] near the main port within walking distance to the Mel Fisher Museum? That’s a lovely hotel and the one I would prefer. I really doubt there is a need for another large hotel in the Key West area. People want the charm of the little villas on the beach. They don’t want Miami Beach. And the rich will simply dock their yachts for a few days or go to a more tranquil and isolated location.
 
The quaintness and charm of the 1930?s to 1950?s is what made KEY WEST appealing. I first visited Key West in 2004 when CELEBRITY docked for one day. I visited the Mel Fisher Museum and walked a few blocks visiting art galleries. I returned a year later and a few stores selling T shirts and cheap souvenirs had sprung up. Returning another year later in 2006, more souvenir stores, fewer art galleries and upscale stores. After visiting the Hemingway Home and Truman House, there is little to draw me back to Key West. It has become too commercial. The reef I visited off shore is dying and brown with a few fish. The town should focus more on recapturing the old charm of Key West and less on building programs. The population has exceeded the carrying capacity of the islands. There should be more focus on self sufficiency, increasing individual solar power, reducing electricity needs, conserving water. Virginia, Jupiter.
 
AMEN, I replied.
 
Yesterday morning, Todd German called to say I was a bit mixed up: at the recent city commission meeting, Pritam Singh and the city got it worked out about parking for the 96-room hotel Pritam Singh wants to build on Caroline Street. Most of the parking will be onsite, the rest on an as-needed basis at the nearby flat city parking lot across the stree from Pepe’s, which Ron Kennerly had suggested might be a solution.
 
I did not attend that city commission meeting and told Todd it didn’t look in The Citizen article like the parking had gotten worked out. Todd said that writer, an award-winning war correspondent, had been let go just three weeks after arriving at The Citizen with much fan fare and high expectation. I said I had wondered why The Citizen had hired him, as I couldn’t see where he could fit into anything The Citizen had going. What caused the parting of ways, I said I didn’t know, but I figured The Citizen felt it needed to happen. Todd is on The Citizen Editorial Board, perhaps he knows, but it doesn’t seem important.
 
What seems important is I botched writing about the city and Pritam Singh and the parking at the new hotel. That is really bugging me, causing me to wonder if maybe I need a break from being a war correspondent in local politics and government goings on. Like, a permanent break. I’m so jaded with local politics and running for office, it’s amazing I don’t flub more than I do when I write about it.
 
Even so, what I recently wrote about Pritam Singh personally is how I see it. When Pritim makes a pitch, Jim Hendrick lurks nearby. Were I mayor, I would vote against any deal Pritam brought to the city because I would not trust how the deal would end up going down.
 
A letter to the editor in The Citizen this morning chastises the city government for waltzing with Pritam and his new hotel, knowing he is not known to live up to his promises. 

On the bright side of that distemper is Naja Giard’s excellent article - ”Who Really Owns Wisteria Island?” - in this week’s edition Key West the Newspaper (kwtn.com). An article, the likes of which I doubt you will ever see in The Citizen or The Keynoter. Dennis Reeves Cooper publishes a lot of stuff The Citizen and The Keynoter won’t touch with a ten-thousand-foot pole, stuff that needs to be published. He touts his brand of journalism as a contact sport, and it is, the way he goes at it. Ditto, for the way I go at it. Birds of a feather, in some ways, not in other ways.

 
Alas, so much more do I enjoy what I am being given to write, so far, at the new goodmorningbirmingham.com, that I can’t help wondering if that website hatching forecasts my living in Birmingham again, sooner or later. My roots there are very deep, and some time ago the place I had wanted to live since I was fourteen, the Florida Keys, lost its glow. Politics just ain’t healthy for someone like me, might as well drink arsenic or hemlock. I ought to be a real bundle of joy at Hometown! PAC’s Call to Candidates tomorrow evening.
 

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Key Buildarama

Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Wisteria Towers

  
Yesterday, an amiga up Big Pine Key Way said I must be getting looked after since nobody killed me yet. I said maybe her saying that was a sign I might not be around much longer. As might be Dennis Reeves Cooper asking me out on a date, then he called it off. I called Shedon Davidson of Hometown! PAC yesterday, to reserve a spot to speak at Monday evening’s Call to Candidates at Salute in Key West. Social gathering starts at 5 p.m., lying politicans start holding forth at 6. Free snacks, cash bar. I might wear Kevlar, if I can find some.
 
Response to yesterday’s  the great pretender – Key West post from a Key Largo member of the resistance:
  
Hi SLoan,
 
Are occupancy need and market saturation on the list of criteria the KW permission people are allowed to include in their permission considerations ?  Seems that is the more powerful useful real deal stopper.
 
County Planning Commission is not allowed to consider saturation or competition when granting permits.  Does KW have that same restriction ?
 
County gave permit to store to sell alcohol in same 1/4 mile area that already has 5 other alcohol sales stores. Now they’re all suffering equally from less income.
 
My reply:
  
Good question, I cannot answer because I don’t know. I can see competition not being considered when grantng permits – witness the Duck Tours outcome when that happened in Key West. $6,500,000 KA-POW! for the city trying to protect Ed Swift’s Conch Train and Old Town Trolley monopoly. But not to consider market density-saturation, thus the city’s need, as opposed to a business person’s desire, or greed, is something else entirely. Madness, actually. Of course, that does not mean sanity prevails under the law. In this Nation under Gwad Almighty Greenback, hallowed Capitalanity values always seem to prevail. Might use this discussion in a post, as it’s important. Sloan
  
Sloan, as to Singh himself, does KW require completion of promise performance bonds ?  If so, that would force him to proceed with certain parts of the project in a certain order.
 
thinking about him, reminds me of the predator order of the universe. He does what his kind does. Just as a termite has to eat wood. Critters hunt for survival. It’s their nature, their life. 
 
is there a difference between being a builder and being a developer ?  if so, which is he?  
 
can a predator be re-directed to seek a different target ? 
 
My reply:
 
I suppose completion bonds can be made part of approval of application, but where does the necessary parking come from? I got into that with a developer today. Will include his and my back and forth with yours in my post tomorrow.
 
My experience with predators is they like being predators, not interested in being redirected.
 
Response to yesterday’s post from a Birmingham, Alabama developer distant relative, who likes to vacation in Key West:
 
A fascinating world you operate in………. parking could be solved off-site or as part of the structure. Or, certain parts of the Western Key could be off-limits to cars and car parking. [ using bikes and feet to get around town ] Pritam sounds like some developers I know… I do business with them, I respect them in their business deals, but I never trust them in their business deals or personally. If they keep going vertical down there in the old town and Duval section, they are going to kill the tropical goose. Vertical is not what Key West and the tropics are about….vertical is about Miami Beach etc. I looked at the picture that you lead off with on your B’ham site, and think…Christmas tree island could look like that… whooopeeee! Take care my friend, may the force be with you. Ron
   
Hi, Ron.
 
Humor me, some tongue-in-cheek rhetorical here.
 
In agreement, this from a beach bum I used to hang out some with on Higgs Beach before he relocated to get away from the sad decline of Key West and the ascension of Key Buildarama:
 
“Well said. The very last thing KW needs is another hotel. I could go on but its all been said before. Key West has lost what once made it very special. I’ve moved on. Good luck, Emil”

 
Pray tell, how can parking be solved off-site, when there is a dearth of parking already within a mile of that site?
 
Pray tell, how can parking be solved vertically, when the building height limit is, at most, 35 feet from ground level?
 
Singh has proven he gets what he wants and forgets the promises he made to get what he wanted.
 
This is not news down here, but people have short memories when people come in singing songs of new construction jobs and new hotel employee jobs, unless you know the construction workers mostly are imported, and, in Singh’s case, the hotel workers are East Europeans he brought in.
 
But people with shit for brains say development is good and the city has to process all development applications under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, I’m not joking, even though everyone in Key West with even shit for brains knows what is going to happen with this one, if it is approved – even more competition for already seriously scarce street parking.
 
Key West ain’t US 280 development sprawl south of Birmingham. Up is the only way you can go in Key West.
 
Hell, far as I’m concerned, the over-capacity in the city’s existing hotel and other lodging units is ground alone to deny any more applications in that area.

 
On your KW favorite development topic, a submission to Key West the Newspaper, which I understand was supposed to run in some form today, although it’s not on their website yet – kwtn.com. Knowing the history of how the Bernsteins ended up owning Wisteria Island, and the ownership by the Navy of the surrounding man-made (spoil) islands, thickens the plot all the more.
 
Tell me, Ron. You are a developer. Would go to the trouble of trying to develop Wisteria Island, if you owned it, before getting the title straightened out? Rhetorical question, of course. Hell, no! And you would not have paid a penny for it knowing the Navy claimed it was their island.
 
Sloan
 
Thought you all would all get a kick out of this. Here’s a sneak preview to tomorrow’s blue newspaper.
 
U.S. NAVY CLAIMED WISTERIA ISLAND!
(Who really owns Wisteria Island?)
by Naja Girard
 
You’re not going to believe this one! Back in September of 1951, when the State of Florida sold Wisteria Island to then state representative Bernie Papy, Sr, the U.S. Navy filed a formal objection to the sale, claiming the United States, not the State of Florida, owned the island.
This, of course, is big news for the group of concerned citizens opposing increased development potential for the island.
The Navy letter is not just a cloud on the title. “It’s a typhoon. A category 5 typhoon!” says Sloan Bashinsky, one of several vocal opponents to Wisteria Island’s owners’ (the Bernstein and the Walshes) plans.
It all started with one simple observation: There is a straight line of spoil islands just west of Key West harbor. Each of those islands belongs to the US government: Split Rock Key, Tank Island (sold by the US Navy to Pritim Singh),Fleming Key, Demolition Key. Like Wisteria Island, all of those islands were created by the U.S. Navy.
Wisteria Island, however, was sold by the State of Florida. So the question is: When and how did the State end up with that one island?
The minutes of the debate at the state level reveal that at the time of the sale, the Navy intervened and made a strong and unequivocal claim to own Wisteria Island.
Under the State’s policy, such a claim would usually put a halt to the sale until the issue was resolved. Curiously, in the case of Wisteria Island, the State officials, under the direction of the Florida Attorney General decided to go ahead with the sale, but added a “buyer beware” caveat: The sale, in the amount of $2,769 was confirmed – so long as the buyer was “willing to take the risk of condemnation by the Government. In the event the title fails, the Trustees will be required to refund purchase price of the land.”
This bold decision on the part of the State – to sell a property it did not necessarily own – may have come about due to the identity of the island’s first purchaser.
That first purchaser was, none other than, the legendary Bernie Papy, Sr. According to Monroe County historian, Tom Hambright, Mr. Papy was known as the “King of the Keys” and was an extremely influential figure here in the Keys as well as in Tallahassee where he had, by the time the sale of Wisteria was confirmed, been a State Representative for over seventeen years.
Apparently, back then, the Keys’ real estate craze included buying up baybottom lands and filling them in with dredged materials to create bigger and better waterfront properties. In the case of Wisteria Island, the filling-in had already been done, thanks to the US Navy.
For Mr. Papy, this particular investment turned out to be extremely lucrative indeed. According to a February 24, 1966 Key West Citizen article, Papy had flipped the island (about three or four years after his purchase) selling it to Wisteria Inc. for $55,000 (which equates to about $950,000 of profit – adjusted for today’s economy).
Key Westers loved Bernie Papy, Sr. According to Hambright, he would sit behind a huge old style desk and when locals would come into his office sheepishly asking for help, perhaps unable to pay their overdue rent, Papy would open an old shoe box he kept stashed away, and hand over a twenty dollar bill – always ready to lend a hand. He was invariably reelected and served for 14 consecutive terms.
Statewide, Bernie Papy, Sr. is perhaps best known for his controversial opposition to the “bookie bill” which would have put a damper on the local gambling industry.
In 1966 it appears that David Wolkowsky, bought into Wisteria Inc. According to Roger Bernstein, Wolkowsky, lacking funds to finish up the construction of bathrooms at the Pier House, had secured a loan from Roger’s father, Benjamin Bernstein. Wisteria Island was set aside as collateral and the Bernsteins “reluctantly” ended up with ownership of the island in 1967.
So, where does this leave us in our quest? The Navy has taken a position in opposition to increasing development rights on Wisteria, with a “less is better” formal policy on the issue. Ron Demes, Executive Director / Business Manager,Naval Air Station Key West, is currently looking into the 1951 Navy claim of ownership of the island.
According to Mr. Demes, the Navy turned over ownership of several spoil islands in the Keys to the State of Florida, back in the 1980’s. But, typically these were done on a case-by-case basis. So far, no paperwork has surfaced that would show that the Navy formally withdrew their 1951 claim of ownership of Wisteria.
For those who are eager to see Don Bilodeau succeed in his challenge to Roger Bernstein’s trespass prosecution, the Navy claim seems promising. Bilodeau is a fisherman and arguably the first person to ever be prosecuted for walking the beach of Wisteria Island.
They question whether Bernstein had any right to post No Trespassing signs on the island and whether he should be required to have his own attorneys resolve the civil dispute over title before trying to use the criminal justice system against Bilodeau.
According to local land use attorney, Lee Rohe, the Navy claim also poses a problem for any future development of Wisteria Island.
In 1967, when the Bernsteins acquired the island, they knew or should have known through due diligence, of the risk they were taking. The Navy’s claim had been on record in the deed file since 1951.
Apparently, that claim is still very much alive. “A private person can not claim fee simple title to land owned by the State of Florida or the United States through a claim of adverse possession,” explains Rohe.
Some County Commissioners have become aware of the problem. How will this affect future development of Wisteria Island? Platting and selling newly created parcels to unsuspecting buyers could resemble a borderline business operation. What would their title insurance look like?
The current Monroe County zoning laws allow only two homes to be built on the island. Roger Bernstein’s attorneys and lobbyists continue pounding the County with repeated demands for loophole zoning – most recent plans revealed a push for 75 buildings, including 85 hotel rooms, a marina, a bar and restaurant and even a marine hardware store.
Only one thing is certain. Wisteria Island seems to have a way of slowly but surely luring old skeletons out of their closets.
 
Ron’s reply:
 
Yo Bash…I believe Key West already has some off-site parking. Isn’t there a parking structure down behind Pete’s eating establishment ? ( i can’t remember if it is Pete’ or Pepe’s ) down close to the Ferry terminal and the half-shell raw bar ??? All they would need to do is buy an existing parking lot and go vertical. Then they would have to offer shuttle service to an from the hotel. I used to arrive at the Hyatt on Front street, park my rental car and never use the car again… bikes and feets got the job done. But Mr SIN gh, might not live up to that promise. Don’t they have teeth in their agreement with developer’s promises… like pulling his Occupancy Permit until he delivers ??? what do the zoning and building standard folks do down there. While I am ranting… The new school building totally ugly and totally out of context with Key West. Someone needs to be drawn and quartered !!! UGLY architecture !!!
 
I love the drama around Christmas Tree island. In answer to your question. a developer could not buy it, his lender would require a title search and a title insurance policy. Unless the developer is filthy rich and is willing to roll the dice (which are loaded in his favor)
 
Have a good weekend, I am off to the SC coast with a family group that includes a Bashinsky with us. This is my 76th annual family safari to the coast. It started when my parents and family took me to the coast before I was one year old. I assure you there are tales to be told, especially during the WWII era.
 
regards, Ron
 
Hi, Ron.
 

There is a decked city parking lot down that way. Gets pretty good use during season. Can’t see the city letting Pritam Singh count that as off-site parking for a new 96 unit hotel.
 
The Hyatt has its own on-premises parking lot, which its guests can use. Don’t see relevance of that to what Singh wants to do.
There is public parking lot on Front Street, at Mallory Pier. Cost plenty, not near site Pritam wants to develop. There is pricey land sort of nearby Pritam Singh could buy for parking. Would kill the deal, though.
 
Teeth would be to require Pritam to acquire off-site parking for the life of the new hotel. Acquire, own and build the parking lot before he breaks ground on the hotel. Fat chance. After the horse is out of the barn, you know how it goes when local politics in play. Bubba wubba wubba.
 
Yes, a developer could not get around the mortgage company because no title insurance company would insure against the Navy’s claim of ownership, but you even if you were filthy rich, Ron, you would not buy Wisteria Island knowing of the Navy’s claim.
 
Enjoy S.C. coast family reunion. Long drive from Birmingham.
 
Ron’s reply:
 
You are right as usual, it would seem to be too big a gamble that could come back down the road and bite you in the backside. We would be driving to Garden City Beach South Carolina, from Davidson, NC where most of my family lives and have lived since the 1750?s. regards, 
 
Ron
 
My best regards:
 
Safe trip, enjoy, you’re almost a Native American – stay tuned for further westerly comics

Sloan

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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the great pretender – Key West

Friday, June 24th, 2011
Perhaps some of you, or perhaps not, might be interested in gandering the evolving new home page of goodmorningbirmingham.com, which went online yesterday. A somewhat different view of moi. Perhaps some of you, perhaps not, might be interested in the little book about a few remarkable people I have known, which fell out of me in the fall of 2004. The text of the book is available in an easy to click-on file in the GMB home page menu. That little book is about as deep and down home as I know how to write. You will meet six remarkable Alabama people who seriously impacted me in an earlier life.
 
Meanwhile, today’s bake-off brings wonderment over how Pritam Singh is going to build a 96 unit hotel in downtown Key West without making the parking problem in that area a lot worse than it already is. And wonderment over why the city is not requiring Singh to get that problem taken care of before any more city staff time (taxpayers’ dollars) is spent on a development application everyone knows, if approved, will make parking in that part of downtown Key West a hell of a lot harder to find.
 
 
 
Quietly have I read The Citizen’s reports of Pritam Singh’s plan to develop a 96 unit hotel on the vacant land next door to Coffee Plantation on Caroline Street in Key West. The main issue in the Citizen today – keysnews.com – is where will the hotel’s employees and guests all park their vehicles in a neighborhood already crying for lack of sufficient parking? Singh promises he will take care of it, if he is given permission to build the hotel, which has many approval hurdles to reach, including a comprehensive plan change approved by the Department of Community Affairs, which is a state agency.
 
Let’s back up. Let’s back up and ask why The Citizen has not reported how it went with other Singh developments in Key West and the Keys? Did he keep his word about those developments after he got the permissions he sought to build the developments? Should not this be the threshold question the various city departments and officials should ask, and keep asking, until they are satisfied Singh does what he says he is going to do? Has the city forgotten Singh promised to put affordable housing into Truman Annex, but he didn’t? How about Southard and other city streets into Truman Annex? Did Singh take the necessary steps to guarantee they would remain open? Rhetorical questions, of course.
 
Let’s back up. Let’s consider a conversation I had with Jim Hendrick, Singh’s sidekick and legal and development adviser, over dinner at Jim’s home one evening. Present, besides Jim and me, were Jim’s wife, a friend of Jim and his wife, and Todd German. Jim knew I had no respect for Singh, and after imbibing a bit of the fruit of the grape, he set out to persuade me I was dead wrong about Singh.
 
Jim said Singh was the best salesman he ever met. A master at getting people to look at what he wanted them to look at, so they would not look at what he didn’t want them to look at (which is what they should look at). Not amused, I said, “That’s the way Lucifer operates.” In the past, I had written in posts that Singh was possessed by Lucifer, and I had been chided by Jim for that. Jim had touted Singh’s conversion from being a Sikh to Buddhism. I myself saw no conversion. I saw nothing Buddhist about Singh. I saw a shrewd capitalist. And I saw more than that, as already stated.
 
Despite offers by Jim before that fated dinner, and by Singh through Jim, for the three of us to get together and talk, despite my telling them both, individually, to name the time and place, no effort was made by Jim or Singh to make it happen. It was just talk, which represented how it really was with those two in other areas. You don’t play as many games of chess with Jim as I played with him, you don’t have as many conversations with Jim over chess and in his home, as I had, without getting to know what you wished you didn’t get to know.
 
I see no way Singh can do what he says he will do about the parking pressure a 96 unit hotel will put on that neighborhood. I can’t imagine anyone in any of the city departments or any city official sees any way, either. What are they thinking even entertaining this proposal before Singh has the parking pressure problem already solved? A problem no one in their right mind can believe he will solve.
 
Yet I expect the city departments and officials to be polite, keep letting Singh woo them, keep getting drawn deeper and deeper into his web, pretending he did not renege on affordable housing in Truman Annex, pretending he made sure Southard and other city streets into Truman Annex remained open. Pretending, pretending, pretending, knowing all along what will happen, if a 96-unit hotel is built in that neighborhood.

 
As if Key West needs another hotel, when the many it already has, and its many other lodging businesses, are crying for higher occupancy rates.
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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blue news – Dennis Reeves Cooper vs. Sloan

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
From Dennis Reeves Cooper (photo), Publisher of Key West the Newspaper (kwtn.com), replying to yesterday’s jealous mistress post.
 
SLOAN:

A MUTUAL FRIEND SENT ME A COPY OF YOUR “JEALOUS MISTRESS” PIECE THIS MORNING. AND I AM GLAD HE DID. I AM ON YOUR EMAIL LIST BUT I AM OFTEN TOO BUSY TO READ YOUR POSTS. INITIALLY, I DID NOT KNOW WHY OUR FRIEND SENT ME A COPY– ALTHOUGH I ASSUMED THAT IT WAS BECAUSE YOU MAY HAVE WRITTEN SOMETHING ABOUT ME. SO I STARTED READING. AND I READ AND READ AND READ– AND FINALLY, TOWARD THE END, YOU WRITE (AS IT IT WERE FACT) THAT YOU SORT OF RECALL THAT MAYBE, BACK IN 2002, OR ABOUT THEN, MAYBE, THAT I WROTE SOMETHING THAT MAY HAVE SORT OF INSINUATED THAT YOU NEVER PRACTICED LAW IN ALABAMA.
 
IT NEVER HAPPENED, SLOAN! YOU MAY HAVE ME MIXED UP WITH SOMEBODY ELSE OR MAYBE YOU DREAMED IT– BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I ABSOLUTELY NEVER WROTE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR LEGAL EDUCATION OR EXPERIENCE. BUT IF I HAD, I WOULD HAVE CHECKED OUT THE FACTS. I MAY NOT REMEMBER EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN IN MY NEWSPAPER OVER THE LAST 17 YEARS– BUT I WOULD REMEMBER THAT. I NEVER– NEVER, NEVER, NEVER– WROTE ANYTHING LIKE THAT. SO, IF YOU SEEM TO RECALL THAT I DID, YOU ARE RECALLING WRONG. DEAD WRONG.
 
BUT YOU SEEM TO DO THAT A LOT, SLOAN. YOU WRITE, AS FACT, ABOUT THINGS YOU VAGUELY RECALL WITHOUT, APPARENTLY, MAKING ANY EFFORT AT ALL TO RESEARCH THE TRUTH OF WHAT YOU WRITE. AND OCCASIONALLY, YOU GET CALLED ON IT AND, THEN YOU ADMIT THAT YOU MADE A MISTAKE AND SORT OF HALF-APOLOGIZE. MY SKIN IS PRETTY THICK AND I DO NOT NEED A HALF-APOLOGY. BUT YOU HAVE ALSO DONE IT TO OTHERS.
 
IS THERE ANY CHANCE AT ALL THAT YOU MIGHT TRY TO BE MORE CAREFUL IN THE FUTURE?
 
DENNIS
 
Well, Dennis, no mutual friend. My friends would copy to me what they sent to you.

I sort of vaguely recall lots of things about which I write and cannot possibly prove today, as no record was made when those things happened. When I write from recollection, I say that is what I’m doing. When I see on my own or am shown by someone else I have made a mistake in fact, I publish a correction.
 
My vague recollection of this particular falsehood you say I published about you yesterday was you wrote that I claimed to have been a lawyer, which insinuated I might or might not be a lawyer. You use lots of insinuation in what you publish, Dennis. As do I. Birds of a feather, yes?
 
You published stuff about me, which was so  one-sided and out of context, that I wrote to you and asked you to publish my reply, or I would publish it in another way. Maybe you don’t recall, so I will refresh your recollection using my vague recollection.

This was during the formation of the Citizens (Police) Review Board in the fall of 2002. The CRB had been passed in a referendum. A public meeting was held at Old City Hall to discuss the next step. You had been very active and instrumental in getting the CRB hatched. As had your girlfriend, whose name I don’t recall. She was redheaded, as I vaguely recall, and had moved to Key West fairly recently from the east coast, perhaps Washington, D.C. area, as I vaguely recall. She considered herself a mentor to young women – she told me this at the Green Parrot, as I vaguely recall. She also told me she hoped to be able to heal you, but she wasn’t sure it was going to happen, as I vaguely recall.
 
Earlier the day of the public meeting on the CRB, it dawned on me I needed not to have anything to do with the next step because I was prejudiced against the Key West police over the way they were treating homeless people, of whom I had been one and would be one again. At the start of the meeting later that afternoon, or evening, I said what had only dawned on me earlier that day: I had a conflict of interest and had to disengage from the CRB process. Then, I said to you and your girlfriend that you both had been important to getting the CRB this far, but now you both should pull out for the same reason – prejudice against the Key West City Police because Police Chief Buz Dillon had had you arrested and jailed for breaking an Internal Affairs investigation before it was finished. As I also vaguely recall, by then you had filed suit against Buz and the city.
 
I left the meeting and you followed me out giving me a hard time. Then, you wrote about it, without quoting accurately what I had said about why I pulled out of the CRB process, and nothing did you report about what I had told you and your girlfriend that you and she should do. I sent you an email asking for equal time/reply and said if you did not provide it, I would publish it in another way. You did not even respond. Some journalist you were, I saw. I published my reply to my growing email list, which included the mayor, city commissioners, city attorney, the police chief and others in the city government, the press, and private individuals. Or so I vaguely recall. I was thanked by city officials for that reply, or so I also vaguely recall.
 
I also vaguely recall when I filed to run for mayor in 2003, and someone suggested I go to see you about it. I told this person, who managed the Birkenstock store on Duval Street, it was not a good idea, you didn’t like me, and I explained why, as I vaguely recall. He insisted it would go fine, he said he knew you, as I vaguely recall. So I went to your office and knocked on the door and you came to the door, saw who was there and said something like, “You fuck! Get the hell out of here! I’m calling the police!” If I’d had my wits about me, I’d have sat down and waited on the police, just to see if they would come to rescue you from me. But I didn’t have my wits about me, and I left, or so I vaguely recall.
 
I also vaguely recall reading in The Citizen some years later of you ramming a palm tree – or was it a fire plug? – in you car one evening, and you left the scene and weaved home, where you were apprehended by the city police and booked for D.U.I. I vaguely recall you didn’t write about that, although you should as hell should have! I wonder if you even remember any of that, as you were three-sheets driving what had become a deadly weapon in your hands, the jihad banger of the KWPD. I didn’t read that you had your license revoked, or that you did time, or maybe my memory lapsed and you did lose your license and did time.
 
I hear lots about you going three-sheets, it seems to be your habit, and I can’t help but wonder how that might affect your memory. Don’t fuck with me, Dennis. Just do good reporting. And not just on people you don’t like, such as Buz Dillon. Do it on yourself and people you like, as well. Be a real investigative journalist, in other words. Write about me, if you wish. I will give you all the time, information and references you request. Might prove to be the biggest tongue-wagger you ever published.
 
Here’s what I vaguely remember Buz Dillon, who became my close friend, told me just before he and his family moved away from Key West, about why he had you arrested and jailed. He said he had become unhappy with The Citizen and The Keynoter and was feeding you cop shop stories for you to break and scoop the other two newspapers. You and Buz were buddies. After you broke the IA story before he gave you the go ahead, he said it was a dumb thing to do, putting you in jail, but he was really pissed off. I was not amused to learn you had not published Buz’s side of it, which you knew very well. Or so is my vague recollection.

I was trying to be your buddy, Dennis, when I told you and your girlfriend to pull out of the CRB process. If you’d had half a brain, you would have seen that. If you had half a brain, you would see I’m still trying to be your buddy, on this the day following the death of the United States of America at the hands of Barack Hussein Obama on television last night. Afterward, the news pundits said he made George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld proud, and they wondered how the Democratic Party was going to deal with that, after their el jefe had promised hope and change?
 
I vaguely remember a city commission meeting some while after 911. G.W. War, Inc. was chomping at the bit to invade Iraq, which everyone knew had nothing to do with 911. A resolution came before the Key West City Commission that the city opposed the U.S. invading Iraq without UN approval and participation. It was an acrid evening. The ones of us who spoke in favor of the resolution were villified as traitors by other citizens. Then, Mayor Jimmy Weekley said he could not support another American war over oil, and, as I vaguley recall, Jimmy cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the resolution. 4-3, the resolution passed. It should have passed 7-0 with no sweat.
 
I vaguely recall you beat Jimmy up in the next issue of your blue rag, for what he had said and how he had voted. Yet I did not see you say you were enlisting. I did not see you say you were going over there and fight. I saw you continue to write about your trivial pursuits, while you gloated over having dressed Jimmy Weekley down. You, Dennis, and all who supported the invasion of Iraq and the Gang of Three in the White House who orchestrated it with lies, are traitors. As are those who support Barack Hussein Obama. The lot of you should be hanged.
 
You owe Jimmy Weekly an apology, Dennis. Perhaps you publish it and your email to me and this my reply in next week’s Key West the Newspaper. You have my permission, but I don’t see much chance of it happening.

Sloan
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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jealous mistress

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Maybe a week ago, I read some comments on The Citizen blog re a School District Sunshine Law violation that’s showed up too often in my posts to suit me. I decided to make my own comments and created a blog account. I subscribe to the Citizen and receive a paper copy in my driveway each morning, which is how I was able to read the comments online.
 
Well, where it said to provide my name, I typed in Sloan Bashinsky. Where it said to provide a nickname, I typed in Sloan. When I entered it, a rejection notice came up. It said I needed a nickname. So I typed in local gadfly, not happy I was going to make anonymous comments, but hoping people would figure out who it was, since wheneer I announce my candidacy for office, The Citizen and The Keynoter kindly tell their readers I’m a local gadfly and perennial candidate.
 
I then found myself musing that I might say at Hometown! PAC’s call to candidates next Monday at Salute in Key West – if I show up, I’m still fighting the angels about that - that I’m the gadfly candidate because that’s what The Citizen and The Keynoter call me. I might embellish by saying the dumb asses never did figure out, even though I tried to elucidate their ignorance a few times, that Socrates’ critics called him a gadfly.
 
Well, when I spoke with Todd German yesterday - he is Chairman of Hometown! PAC - about my nickname on The Citizen, he said he had been able to use his name as his nickname. He said he didn’t  want to post anything anonymously. I said I would give it another try, and this time Sloan Bashinsky was accepted as my nickname. I can’t explain why it went through yesterday but Sloan did not go through the first time. Maybe I have forgotten something about the first attempt. 
 
Todd asked yesterday about my status with the Alabama Bar Association, said it might come up some time; I sometimes describe myself as an ex-lawyer by my own hand. I said I had told it in previous posts, but not lately, that when I left Alabama in early 2000, I was not caught up in my Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirement for 1999, which left me not in good standing with the Alabama State Bar. I said I suppose I could get reinstated in good standing, if I caught up 1999′s CLE, but perhaps they would require more.
 
I laughed, said twice I tried to get the Bar to take my law license back, and they declined both times. I developed a kook reputation in Alabama, too, but not using the same methods I have used in the Keys since arriving here in late 2000. I said when I left Alabama in early 2000, I felt I never wanted to practice law again, but who could say I would not eat those words some day? Whatever, as I wrote in one of the comments on The Citizen blog, I used to practice law and it seems I still do, but without getting paid.
 
The fact of the matter is, and you see it happen all the time, School Board Vice-Chairman Andy Griffiths has done it with the Sunshine Law violation, anyone can give a legal opinion about anything without practicing law. Laymen can file pro se lawsuits representing themselves and even the general public, without practicing law.
 
It seems, therefore, the key to practicing law is you are in the business of doing it and you get paid for doing it. So, if I were getting paid for all of this legal advice I spew forth, I would be practicing law. And since I am not licensed to practice law in Florida, it would be the unauthorized practice of law. As would it be the unauthorized practice of law in Alabama, if I lived and do there what I do in the Keys, since my Alabama law license is not in good standing.
 
A few times since I arrived in the Keys, I have had people insinuate that I made it up about having practiced law in Alabama. Dennis Reeves Cooper, Publisher of Key West the Newspaper, did that in the fall of 2002, as I recall. I had him for a snack, and then several Key West city officials patted me on the back for it.
 
In fact, I practiced law in Alabama from 1973 through 1985. Then, I moved to New Mexico and had my Alabama law license made inactive, in good standing. I moved back to Alabama in 1995, and in 1997, I reactivated my law license by paying the fee required by the Alabama State Bar for lawyers each year, and the fee for a business license in Birmingham/Jefferson County. I did not have to do any remedial CLE. I was allowed to practice law again as if I had never gone inactive.
 
My practice of law was sporadic during that second pass. I did the CLE requirements until 1999, when I saw my life was headed into the far reaches of the Milky Way, so to speak, and perhaps a bit beyond. As stated above, I had zero interest in practicing law, did not see it ever happening again, and that is why I walked away from it without completing the CLE requirement.
 
Sometimes I am asked why don’t I get licensed in Florida? Ha! Just to be allowed to take the Bar Exam, I’d have to be vetted in Alabama. Not much chance the Florida Board of Bar Examiners would let me stand for the Bar, after learning of my escapades in Alabama, especially the experiential residency I took in psychiatry. Even if I was given permission to take the Florida Bar, it would take at least six months to bone up for it, to have any chance of passing. Fat chance I would be eager to go through that.
 
If Dennis Cooper had googled me, I guess you could google back in 2002, he would have found books I wrote, as a lawyer, for people buying and selling homes, and for people using lawyers. Home Buyers: Lambs to the Slaughter?, Selling Your Home $weet Home, Kill All the Lawyers? – A Client’s Guide to Hiring, Firing, Using and Suing Lawyers. Not self-published books.
 
If Dennis had called the Alabama Bar Association, he would have been told I indeed had practiced law in Alabama and my law license was not in good standing due to failure to complete CLE requirements.
 
If Dennis had called the Tennessee Bar Association, he would have been told that I was granted a license to practice law in Tennessee, perhaps in 1983, on condition I move to Tennessee and set up legal residence there, which I later decided not to do. 
 
If Dennis had called the University of Alabama School of Law, He would have found I graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1968, and that I graduated with an LLM (Masters in Taxation) in 1979.
 
No way could Dennis have learned that in the late fall of 2001 and early 2002, I worked deep cover inside a Birmingham trial law firm, which represented then Governor of Alabama Don Seigleman. I knew Don from when he first ran for office, and then from training in the same karate dojo where the senior partner in the law firm trained. Don knew nothing about me being inside that law firm. They were afraid of what would happen, if Don’s people found out, or what I might say in a meeting with Don and/or his people.
 
I stood for the Alabama Bar Exam in the spring of 1968 and passed, apparently, as the Alabama Supreme Court issued me a law license. I then was clerking for the Hon. C.W. Allgood, United States District Judge, which position required my being a law school graduate. God only knows where that original law license is now. Maybe it went to the county landfill just before I left Birmingham in early 2000, headed for the Milky Way and beyond (Key West, eventually).
 
You might say, with some confidence, that I disbarred myself. But I did not forget how to think like a lawyer thinks, as a few people in the Keys have been finding out lately, while others down here found out about it before lately. As is said, being a lawyer is a terminal disease. As also is said, the law is a jealous mistress.
 
S.B.keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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