Key West targets homeless camps in wetlands - says action is pro-environmental, not anti-homeless

City says action is pro-environmental, not anti-homeless; SHAL to count homeless today

ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen
A group of homeless citizens is drawn to the warmth of a compfire Tuesday at an encampment in Key West's salt ponds area. About 40 homeless camps have sprung up in the wetlands near the Bridle Path.

KEY WEST — A group of transients were hunkered around a small fire in the mangroves Tuesday, trying to keep warm during the cold snap that blew through the Florida Keys.

They were nestled in a camp abutting salt ponds and atop some of Key West's most sensitive wetlands. They do their best to keep the area clean, they say, such as picking up their trash and using portable toilets on the nearby Bridle Path. However, mangroves gave way to their encampment and their activity limits the growth of new trees.

"I respect my home. I keep it clean," said Becky C., who declined to give her last name. "I may be homeless, but I have a heart. I'm a human too."

City officials have hesitated to roust the homeless from their woodland camps because federal judges have required other cities to provide shelter before pushing the homeless from publicly owned lands. However, neighbors and city leaders say it is an environmental issue now, because the state has declared the salt ponds protected wetlands.

Many contend the homeless are harming the environment there, and a walk through the area Tuesday supported that claim.

One false move and the portable grill whose blazing logs provided warmth could have sent fire quickly racing through dead leaves lining acres of wetlands.

Old beer bottles, plastic containers and other trash littered the area. Mangroves had been hacked and other tree branches cut down to make room for tents and walkways.

Such environmental degradation must come to a stop, city officials say. The city plans to have police and city employees in the mangroves next week to shut down the camps, Assistant City Manager John Jones said.

City officials thought they had a handle on the camps back in December, with only eight camps there. However, city Park Ranger Russ Draper underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized for several weeks. He was then on sick leave for two months.

During his absence, the number of camps grew to 40, Commissioner Ed Scales said.

The city will have a solid number on how many people are living in the wetlands after the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League does its annual homeless count today.

Mangrove residents say police told them they can sleep there. Some local residents and environmentalists say it is a ploy to get the homeless out of the historic district and away from tourists.

But, the salt ponds camps are far more environmentally damaging than having them in Mallory Square or along Duval Street, environmentalists charge. Mangroves and other trees wiped out by campers in a matter of days take years to regrow.

"I think it's outrageous that anyone at the city would say they can live there," said Linda Hunt, who lives at the neighboring LaBrisa condominiums. "There are serious health, safety and environmental concerns."

The city passed an ordinance last year that prohibited camping in local wetlands. The ordinance remained in question for months, as the city dealt with building a "safe zone" sleeping area for the homeless. The city also had to make sure that excluding homeless or anyone else from camping in the wetlands did not violate case law that stemmed from a Miami lawsuit, referred to as the Pottinger case. The case made it illegal for cities to remove homeless from public lands if they can't offer alternative shelter.

The decision to get transients out of the mangroves does not violate the tenets set down in Pottinger, Scales and Jones said.

The city also was awaiting approval by the state Department of Environmental Protection to declare the mangroves near the salt ponds as an environmentally sensitive area. The approval came last month.

"This is an environmental issue. They have other alternatives. They have other places to go," Jones said. "But this is going to put a burden on beaches and other places like Mallory Square."

tohara@keysnews.com

Do a Google Earth visit to Key West and you will see lots of green growing on every bit of half way dry land and out into the shallow water. That green crud is mangrove trees.

It is not in the least danger of anything. Do remember that mangroves cover a miles wide strip from Everglades City on Florida’s west coast to Florida City on the east coast. Not to mention every island and shallow spot in Florida Bay,and lots more of Florida’s umpteen miles of coastline

Gazillions of the things. The simpering swine have decided to dump on the Key West homeless because they can.

My bet is that “Tree Rights”, ‘specially when such a “Tree Rights” based habitat designation was made long after the human use began, will be found to be a transparent violation of Pottinger.

Wanna bet the simpering swine will squeal like pigs when they have to pay the judgements?

Soueeee! Here pig, pig, pig!

I can hear the thundering herd of lawyers stampeding down the Overseas Highway as I type.

“they just appointed a new police cheif who was fired from the County Sheriff’s dept because he was caught having sex with an underage boy in a patrol car .... but they can’t tolerate the unwashed masses”

Sex in a county car is an old, honored (at least in the breech) Monroe County tradition. A county biologist decided to carry on tradition while in a county car (he doesn’t have to clean it up afterwards) and the intercourse was on the county clock, of course.

However, he parked at a stop sign, just off the road. Then and there, the sex began. Shortly thereafter, a school bus full of little Conchs (Keys folks are citizens of the Conch Republic) stopped at the same sign. And on the same side of the road.

The bus nearly turned over as all the little Conchs moved over to that side of the school bus for a better view. “Little eyes are curious eyes”.

Blissfully, the record does not contain the comments of the audience. However, I can assure you, Gentle Readers, the biologist was male and his partner in crime was female. Note that things have degenerated since then.

Oh, what crime, sez Da Liberal? Well, lots of counts of forbidden behavior before lots and LOTS of children, not to mention a dog’s breakfast of other misdemeanors (some very demeaning, indeed) and some felonies.

The County Biologist resigned.

ON the other hand, until the onslaught of lawyers and AgencyPersons, the Keys was once a relaxed source of endless amusement. Now, it is a tax money sink and a breeding ground for queers and lawyers and ‘Crats.

BAH! HUMBUGGERY! !

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