PHOTO/C.S. GILBERT
County Mayor Sylvia Murphy is still plainspoken.
Mayor Murphy: Homelessness Key West problem, not county
BY C.S. GILBERT
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Dealing with the homeless is Key West’s problem, not Monroe County’s, county Mayor Sylvia Murphy told a Lower Keys League of Women Voters social meeting recently in Key West.
“The problem — and I told the City Commission this — we don’t have a homeless problem in the Upper Keys,” said Murphy. “Marathon has a couple of groups that work with the homeless and the sheriff’s department. Key West has the problem.”
Murphy attributed the problem to Key West’s “permissive” behavior — basically the enabling result of services such as provision of food and comfortable shelter and the ability to panhandle money to be spent, the clear inference was, on addictions, primarily alcohol.
The roomful of women and men attending the League’s Fifth Tuesday social at the Pasta Garden in Duval Square did not challenge her, although one questioner asked whether Middle and Upper Keys communities put their homeless on a bus to Key West. Murphy was adamant that they did not. “The statistics do not prove that,” she said.
“The county will help, will assist, if Key West comes up with a solution. Not money,” she said, but perhaps land. She suggested space “behind the airport.” But she made clear that “There is no will in the county to take on this problem that isn’t ours.”
It was expected that Murphy would speak frankly. Publicity on the event described her as “the plain-spoken and sometimes controversial Mayor Murphy,” and she did not disappoint.
The balance of Murphy’s informal talk ranged from Stock Island to insurance to her eight-year tenure as a county commissioner.
While she began her remarks with the observation that officially she represented “the island of Key Largo — Tavernier, Key Largo and Ocean Reef” — on the Commission, she nevertheless was elected by the entire county and, therefore, represents everyone. Stock Island was an area of particular concern: The animal shelter (“anything would be an improvement”), Bernstein Park (“fill is needed so it won’t flood any more”), Stock Island Marina Village and Hickory House.
“Take a ride down Shrimp Road,” she urged the group. “Public Works has been cleaning up the mangroves and it’s so beautiful in there… It’s a new way of doing business: Coming to the county, listening to suggestions, no variances, no kerfuffle, no headlines in the Citizen.”
Regarding the white elephant of Hickory House, Murphy was hopeful that Key West’s master developer Pritam Singh’s purchase of the adjacent Oceanside Marina would ultimately result in the sale of Hickory House “without a great loss.”
Regarding insurance, Key West Commissioner Heather Carruthers, a founder of FIRM (Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe) is the “guru,” Murphy said. “Heather updates us every month and we vote yes on whatever she wants.”
Regarding her position: “I love, love, love my job,” Murphy said, noting that she had lots of jobs in her life and retired as a fire and rescue professional. But nothing comes close to the joy, satisfaction and sense of accomplishment she feels serving the people of Monroe County. And “if I’m not drooling in my oatmeal,” she joked, she’ll be running for reelection in 2016.
I strongly disagree with Ms.Murphy on her statement that "the homeless are a Key West problem, not a Monroe county problem". The homeless are a national problem created by economic policy in Washington. Dismantling social safety nets, mental health programs and the general "screw-you-I-got-mine" Ayn Randian mind set of law makers. Unfortunately these black hearted shills are more interested in campaign contributions, AKA Bribes, and always do the bidding of their corporate masters. Tax breaks and loop holes and off shore hoarding of money made off the backs of Americans and these same bastards blame the poor for our economic problems. Insanity is the rule, not the exception in our fading republic. Welcome to Pathocracy.
Why don't we give a bus load of homeless people 40.00 each and a free ride to Key Largo. Don't give me that bull that they aren't shipping the homeless down to us. Been doing it for years..