BY TERRY SCHMIDA
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Evicted!
That’s the fate of Key West’s designated panhandling zone at Mallory Square, following a recent decision from City Hall.
The suddenly urgent issue of what do about increasingly violent panhandlers and their aggressive tactics at the zone was discussed at the Jan. 15 City Commission workshop, where there was near-unanimous agreement between commissioners and the public to close the zone down.
“There has been another incident that’s been well-publicized,” Mayor Teri Johnston said, referring to a brutal assault last week that left one indigent man in a mainland hospital and another zone regular facing second-degree murder charges. “I think it’s time that we have a conversation as a commission . . . we certainly recognize that it is not a positive situation in Mallory Square.”
Commissioner Sam Kaufman, an advocate for the homeless in private life, asked City Attorney Shawn Smith if he might brief the chamber on the reasons behind the creation of the zone (and another on Caroline Street that will remain unaffected) in 2012, but the barrister, and the other commissioners agreed that the time to discuss how and why the zones came to be was less important than dismantling them.
“ . . . I think the best course of action is tell the commission and the public what the city management intends to do with that location, leaving aside some of the background and other issues involved . . .with all due respect,” Smith said.
Major Johnston was in accord: “I think we can all agree . . . that the Sunset Celebration group . . . has had a number of issues . . . with aggressive panhandling, and with assaults,” she said. “ . . we welcome 900,000 people to the City of Key West, through this portal.”
Commissioner Weekley agreed with Smith, adding an anecdote he had heard about people living in a tent at the zone, as well as some other complaints he’d heard from residents.
His colleague Clayton Lopez echoed these concerns, and related reports of boxes of supplies such as toilet paper in the public restrooms being pilfered.
“This kind of thing happens on a regular basis,” Lopez said. “It is a conversation we need to have.” He deferred on this issue to City Manager Greg Veliz:
“Unless I get a direction to go another way,” said Veliz . . . I’d like to propose that we start to dismantle . . . put the parking spaces back . .. deterrents on the wall . . . put the fences back up at the dumpster, and perhaps get a keypad system . . . basically just return it back to its original state of being a parking lot, of being a dumpster area, and try to dissuade people from going there as opposed to inviting them to go there. I don’t think that it’s stopping people from going out into the streets and panhandling in the streets.”
Finding support on dais for this approach, Mayor Johnston called on community members to give their input.
The commission got an earful, including horror stories of drug sales and prostitution taking place from the speakers, many of whom are Sunset Celebration performers and merchants.
The recommendation to remove the zone was even supported by an employee of the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League (SHAL.)
“I completely agree with this conversation, and with the city manager, that this is probably not accomplishing what it was set out to accomplish,” she said. “It’s a hard situation for everyone.”
Just one speaker opposed closing the zones.
Other topics discussed at the workshop included restrictions on leaf blowers, future affordable housings planning including an update on the new KOTS homeless shelter, and sea level rise adaptation.
The commission will meet again on Jan. 22.
No Comment