Let ‘em fry!

 

Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test, [the poor] fail, and for this they are despised.

— George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933

Apparently it never rains in the Keys. And the hot sun doesn’t beat down mercilessly.

That must be the thinking of the local gendarmerie and town fathers in Marathon. While moving a commuter bus stop from a site in front of a local liquor store and bar might make sense, designing a new stop with no benches and no cover certainly doesn’t. But that’s what is going to happen in the Middle Keys as a result of a June 24 city council decision.

The bus stop in question serves two round-trip routes. One provides transportation to Key West while the other does the same between the Keys and Florida City. The people who use the latter are primarily service workers who travel two hours to slightly better paying low-end jobs at places such as Kmart, Winn-Dixie and Publix.

In the near future, when these workers, upon whom the big box chain stores depend, leave Marathon after being on their feet all day long, they will have the privilege of standing at an unprotected bus stop on a busy highway while they wait for a bus to take them on the two-hour trip home.

Talk to any business owner in Marathon and you’ll soon hear a litany of complaints about finding employees. When the two new hotels now being built in Marathon open they will be looking for minimum wage housekeepers and staff. Where will they find those workers? The town has very low unemployment and that’s part of the reason that the bus routes are so critical to Marathon’s financial survival.

Hundreds of complaints

Why the move? The sheriff’s department had received over 800 calls about fighting, littering (yeah, littering), drunkenness, drug dealing and other issues. More than half the complaints originated from the woman who owns and operates the Brass Monkey, the bar and package store that sits right behind the current bus stop. Ironically, that bar caters to the very clientele that often uses the bus.

This same woman complained bitterly about the same issue as far back as 2006. The newspaper that this writer edited at that time, Keys Sunday, did a cover story about the bus stop and the problems associated with it.

Reporter Ryan McCarthy, who also authored the most recent story in the Keynoter, quoted Brass Monkey owner Judy Sorenson at that time,

“I won’t tell you one good thing about that bus,” she said. “I’ve been trying for over a year to get it moved, but no one will listen to me.”

Obviously the stop wasn’t moved. However, the reason that the bus stop merited a cover story in Keys Sunday was not because of drunkenness and littering. It was because the city didn’t care enough to provide a protective cover or benches. As a result, people sat on the ground waiting. Or on overturned grocery carts.

The 2006 Keys Sunday story continued:

“The reason [one interviewee] walks around is there are no benches or shaded areas like you might see at a normal bus stop. Those who do happen to know the schedule have nowhere to sit and wait for the bus except giant stones on the side of the road.

“As a result, they have taken to stealing carts from neighboring stores and flipping them over to use as seats. There are no trashcans, so they fill the carts with garbage. At any given time, there are a dozen or more carts strewn along the side of the road. The stop also attracts the homeless en masse, who loiter while drinking and panhandling.”

Directly as a result of the story, the city erected a bus stop cover and, then later, another one. They also added two trash barrels. The item on the June 24, 2014 council agenda when the councilors decided to move the stop, indicated that there were no trash barrels at the bus stop and that’s why there is litter. No one bothered to go look because there are two trash barrels there. People litter. Everywhere. Middle class people litter. Tourists litter, everywhere. Including at Sombrero Beach even though there are many trash barrels there.

No bathrooms for travelers or tourists

Another directly related issue is the lack of sanitary facilities at the site. Anyone who plans to take the bus and is forced to wait for a lengthy period of time might have to go to the bathroom. It’s certain that Publix or Winn-Dixie supermarkets will not be pleased to have non-customers enter their stores to use the bathroom. Nor will the Brass Monkey.

There’s an easy fix. In Paris there are free-standing bathrooms all over the city. They are clean, they are free, and they are easily accessible.

Many will complain that indigents and others will do drug deals in the bathrooms or maybe even engage in sex acts. It’s possible. That’s why we have police.

According to the Keys Sunday story in 2006,

“[Then] Marathon Public Works manager Walter McDowell says he understands the concerns of business owners but feels the bus stop is necessary.

“Wherever we have it it’s going to be a problem,” he admits, “but we really have to have it because it is used so much.

“If we didn’t have it, everybody around here would be hurting for workers,” he said, adding people from the mainland could never afford to live in the Keys with the wages they get paid here. “We’re in a unique area and we’re just going to have to deal with it.”

Workers are willing to make the trip from the mainland because they get paid more here for doing the same job. Publix, for instance, has an incentive pay schedule for employees in their Keys stores and even reimburses for miles and meals for those who commute.”

The media is often full of stories about the desperate need for affordable housing in the Keys but there are no stories about paying living wages. Ten dollars an hour – or more often $ 8.50 – does not enable residents to purchase homes or pay the often outrageously high rents in the Keys. People working for these very low wages can’t buy cars or open checking accounts. Even two-earner families struggle every week.

Despite all the public handwringing about affordable housing or workforce housing, not a great deal has been accomplished. Of even more concern, most of the plans call for affordable housing but not for workforce housing. The distinction is clear. Affordable housing aims at the middle class, people with decent jobs and two-earner families.

Workforce housing is for those who toil in lower wage jobs – checking us out at the grocery store or checking us in at local motels. Further aggravating the problem is the steady erosion of trailer parks and docks or moorings for liveaboards to clear the way for wealthier residents or snowbirds.

The plan to move the bus stop is a common story in our society. The actions of a few end up penalizing everyone else. Some dolt tries to explode his shoe on an airplane and now the rest of us must remove our shoes at airport security. A few or maybe even more than a few indigent people create a nuisance at a local bus stop and instead of handling that problem in an expeditious but also humane way, Marathon will force working people to stand out in the hot sun or heavy rain, waiting for a bus to transport them on a two-hour journey home.