Letter to the Editor (KW Citizen)

Today's Citizen newspaper ran a letter by Sloan Bashinsky, which can also be found on one of his own blogs. It's reproduced here for your convenience....

BCCLT a good model
for local governments

[A July 8] Key West Citizen
editorial was about Conch
Community Land Trust
(BCCLT). If you did not get to
read this excellent editorial,
you can do so by going to bcclt.
blogspot.com.
I have met Norma Jean
Sawyer and other dedicated
BCCLT members. They are
fighting tooth-and-nail to
restore Bahama Village inch
by inch, and wish to extend
that vision and progress to the
Navy land allocated to Bahama
Village in the larger conveyance
from the Navy to the city
of Key West.
I have written before that
Key West should use BCCLT’s
vision and progress as a model
for the entire city, and today I
extend that recommendation
to Monroe County. The way
to start doing that is to meet
with Norma Jean Sawyer and
other BCCLT members. Go to
BCCLT meetings. Look at their
plans. View some of what they
have already accomplished in
Bahama Village.
After doing that, you might
wonder, as I did, why it has
been such hard going for
BCCLT with the Key West City
Commission, which often
seems to lean over backwards
to approve development and
redevelopment projects that do
not seem to have any concern
for Key West, but only seem to
have concern for fattening the
pocketbooks of developers and
redevelopers.
You might also wonder about
what I once was told by a black
Bahama Village native I know
pretty well. Bahama Village
blacks are not Conchs. Only
white people born in Key West
are Conchs, he said. Say what?
He said it again. Native whites
do not view native blacks as
Conchs.
I have had native whites
dispute that, but my Bahama
Village friend’s words rung
true as well. Which leaves me
wondering if Bahama Conch
Community Land Trust would
have had smoother sailing if it
had left Conch out of its name.
Norma Jean Sawyer can be
reached at normajeansawyer@
bellsouth.net.
Sloan Bashinsky
Key West