NAVY
^ listen to my recent interview on Pirate Radio’s morning
show^
The Navy, the Mole Pier, and the Truman Waterfront
Fifteen years ago the United States Navy gave the City of
Key West an area of land called The Truman Waterfront. To date, the City has
done nothing with it. The city has however granted the use of the ramp there
for the new Duck Tours. Within the last week the Navy, who still control the
two piers , named the Outer Mole Pier and the Inner Mole Pier, as well as the
water, have cancelled civilian use of the water and piers. This effectively
puts the duck tours out of business, as there is no other place where the
amphibious crafts can enter the water at this stage. The United States Armed forces have been
using the area for Special Forces Training, for one. Seals, Green Berets… ex,
use the thirty four foot deep Mole for underwater training.
Over the last two years, or so, the city has been
entertaining the idea of building a civic area, as well as a marina, as the land in the area still belongs to the
city. With the Navy’s announcement last week of no civilian crafts allowed in
the water, that squashed the plans for the marina right then and there. In this
day and age marinas are closing, not opening, so this may very well have been a
blessing in disguise for what could have been a major white elephant. The
problem that the city is looking at is that in their plan, is that in their
original outlook for the area, the revenue for the land development was to have
come from the profits (??) from the marina. Well, now there will be no marina,
so where will the funding come from? The idea of the marina bankrolling the
civic area is sunk. Hummm.
Additionally, the Navy has the final say in what goes in
there construction wise. About a year and a half ago they specified that no
construction could be made where Eaton Street ends there. The reason for this
is elementary: If the Navy needs the area in the future, they WILL take it back
and they will need supply access for their supply trucks. This is why they
stated Eaton Street must not be blocked by construction. Additionally, the Navy
will review any plans for the area and say either “Yay” or “Nay”.
In the last year we’ve seen the Navy increasing their use of
the Mole. In years passed it was a sub base. I believe this ended in the mid-seventies. As
of late, they’ve been increasing their usage of the area. Just over a year ago
the Navy commissioned the USS Spruance here. Then, last September the Mole was
host to ten ships of the joint task force. It was the most ships there since
WWII and they could have fitted more easily. You may have seen the piece I
wrote about it here in the blog.
The U.S. Navy has been increasing its usage of the Mole more
and more. Let’s look a little closer at the obvious; Key West is the
southernmost city in the United States and it already has two Naval piers that
it can utilize. I call that a strategic advantage. It’s already been
established that the Navy controls the Truman Waterfront area and has the final
say as to what can and cannot be built there. In theory, it’s very possible
that they could approve absolutely nothing for construction at The Truman
Waterfront. On the other hand, if anything were to be built there by the city,
they could take it over at the drop of a hat, in the name of national security,
and rightly so.
What do I suggest? My suggestion may seem a bit out of the
box for some, but please hear me out. My suggestion is that the City of Key
West offers the U.S. Navy the Truman Waterfront property back, with the
understanding that we want several U.S. Naval ships based here.
What this would do is bring in additional naval personnel
and their families. That means new construction, additional civilian jobs, as
well as additional money in our local economy.
To me, this seems to make the most sense. Additionally, I’d
be willing to wager that those in charge in the Navy fifteen years ago, may not
be the same people that are there today. Even if they were, we live in a very
different world today, then back then. Also in that wager, I’d predict that the
Navy would accept the land back.
Let’s work with the Navy, not against them. It’s good for
everyone; The Navy, The City of Key West, the overall economy of Key West.
Cuisine
Let’s look at cuisine for a moment. If you run off to anywhere outside of
wherever it is that you live, a good distance, you will end up encountering
something that’s unique to where you’re visiting. The further you go, the more
diverse it can get. Likewise, cuisines from emigrating populations arrive with
that populous as well. Additionally, as you would expect, things that grow in a
given area are part of that areas cuisine, naturally as well.
I’m thinking that I might add a cuisine section here every
now and then, just for a kick, or,
pardon the pun, to spice things up.
In this blog today, I’ll add something that is native to the
Keys, which is called “Ol’ Sour”. One of the most absolutely surprising things
that I’ve found, is that most of the
chefs I’ve come across in this town don’t have a clue as to what it is at all,
yet it’s native to the area that they are established.
Ol’ Sour is an old Conch* condiment made from key lime
juice. Conchs always had key lime juice on the table, along with salt and
pepper. The problem was that like all fruit, key limes have their season. This was before refrigeration, mind you. So, what the Conchs would do would be to take
a table spoon of salt and a scotch bonnet pepper and put it in a pint rum
bottle full of key lime juice. It would
go sour, but it also would be preserved. Two weeks and it’s ready. The longer
you leave it, the better it gets. The heat of the pepper won’t kick in until a
few months however. I had one bottle that was eight months old and it kicked
ass!
So what happens when you get someone like me who discovers Ol’
Sour? Crazy things indeed! I decided to try it as a marinade. The one thing
that you need to realize is that Key Limes have, by far, the highest APT rating
(APT = Acid Per Teaspoon) of all citrus fruits. If you’re going to marinate say
a chicken or pork in Ol’ Sour, four hours is the absolute maximum. An overnight
marinade will kill the dish! Put in on the BBQ and about five minutes before
it’s done; baste with your favorite BBQ sauce. Believe me, you’ll love it! For
most fish, a 10 minute marinade is perfect.
Fly on Jimmy
We lost a Key West musician a few weeks back. Jimmy
Block passed and it came as a shock to many of us. Jimmy was only maybe
in his early to mid-forties. I knew him casually. He used to come to the
Harpoon Harry’s open mic, often with an ensemble that would get into a rhythmic
groove that was really, really cool. Godspeed Jimmy.
In Jimmy’s honor, I’ll put here the Youtube video of the Key
West Junkanoos, recorded just a few months back, when they lost one of their
own, Robert. The crowd following the Junkanoos, which included Robert’s brother
Harold, were singing the Gospel song “I’ll Fly Away”, to the rhythm of the
Junkanoos. Today I’ll post it for Jimmy
Block. Fly on Jimmy. Peace.
I redid my website and it is now a Shopify site. The great thing about this is that you can
now, not only buy my album “Shanghai’d and Marooned in Key West (things could
be worse)” but also a bunch of songs that were never released! Three songs I
recorded a year prior to Shanghai’d are listed under “Salutations from Key West”,
which include my signature song “Liveaboard”, along with “Garrison Bight”, and ”Life on my Terms”. These songs feature myself
on all guitars and vocals, Dan Simpson on Bass, and George Wood on keyboards.
Also available are the four Biker songs my band “Chris Rehm and the Rabble
Rousers” recorded in 2003, “Fat Boy”, “Sweet Dyna”, “Rainy Day”, and “Electra
Glide”. These four songs are very different than most of my released songs,
save for “Mile Zero” and “Cajun’s Got a Coconut”.
Additionally, there are actual demos of some songs that have
yet to be recorded. These songs are
running only $.75 each.
As time goes on there will not only be more music available
there, as well as other cool stuff that is currently in the works!
http://keywestchris.com/
*= Conchs are the nic-names of the first inhabitants of Key
West after the Spanish left. (Conch is pronounced “Conk”) Most came from the Bahamas and were decedents
of Torys in the American Revolution, who fled to the Bahamas, part of the
British Commonwealth. African Americans were also part of the emigrating group
from the Bahamas. This was around 1820 on. Today anyone who is born in the
island chain is considered a Conch, regardless of where their ancestry is from.
Anyone who is not from the islands, but
lives there for seven years, is a “Freshwater Conch”. The Conch Republic extends from the Dry
Tortugas, through the Marquesas Keys, then through the archipelago of Keys that
stretch from Key West through Key Largo. Approximately 1,700 islands are in the Conch
Republic/Florida Keys.
"WHAT HAPPENS IN
KEY WEST STAYS IN KEY WEST" WRONG! EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING IN KEY
WEST!!!!”
