Forbes reported that Key West is the top luxury market in the United States. Stated more simply, means Key West hotel rates are the highest in the United States. Hotel rates have increased every month the past 64 months. Record increases! Occupancy rates excellent.
Beware. Lest the hotels kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
The gay community revitalized Key West beginning around 1985. What is today was begun by them. Key West had become a ghost town of sorts after the Navy pulled out in the 1960s. The gays turned things around.
Key West’s gay community has been dwindling. Slowly, but surely. It has become a community of the older generation. Fewer young gays have been vacationing here or making Key West their home.
One reason is the cost of a hotel room and the cost of purchasing a home. Through the ceiling! So the gay community visits or settles now in Miami and Fort Lauderdale where prices are more reasonable.
The big hotels are no longer locally owned. They have been bought up by the huge corporate chains. The chains are profiting. The workers are not. They still worker for meager wages. Many leave. More will as they cannot afford to live in Key West.
We talk of the need for affordable housing. There would not be such a need if workers were paid a living wage.
A work day for me yesterday. Pleasure work. Other than an hour with Sloan, the day into the early evening was spent researching this week’s KONK Life column. I will write it today.
I have not decided on the title yet. The substance will have to do with the rich financing elections. How big money today controls elections. We live in an era where elected politicians become the feudal serfs of the money class. Which means they no longer represent us.
Yesterday’s blog indicated a photo of Jenna and Dr. Chapman was part of it. No photo. I do not know how to correctly add and center a photo. Sloan does it for me. I forgot to ask her when she was here. Someday it will be entered for no other reason than to have everyone view the lovely Jenna and Key West’s icon Dr. Chapman, the victim of a raw deal.
Love women and their go for it attitude when there is something they support. Breast feeding in this instance.
August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month. No one has to be told of the health benefits to mother and baby. There was a time when breastfeeding was frowned up by the medical community. My four children were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Each time my wife advised doctor and nurses she wanted to breast feed. Each time they brought the new born to her saying…..Oh, we forgot…..the baby has been bottle feed…..you cannot breast feed.
No longer the case.
This month there are a number of Big Latch On events. A descriptive title. Women across the country will gather together in a certain area and all breast feed at the same time. Two such events are already scheduled for the Florida keys. It is hoped the Latch On’s will encourage further breast feedings.
Legionnaires disease back in the news. Sixty five recently reported cases in New York City. Four persons died this weekend already.
Legionnaire’s disease derives somehow from the water droplets in an air conditioning system. The disease is a form of bacterial pneumonia. In New York City, it has been traced to a Bronx hotel and a certain hospital.
Enjoy your Sunday!