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Streets for People / In Quest to Improve Crosstown Greenway, City Prepares to Construct New Bike Trail Segment

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written and published for KONK Life newspaper on May 21, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. What do a new bike trail segment and professional baseball in Key West have in common? Well, if you know where MLB affiliates for the Padres and Cubs – named the Key West […]

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Streets for People / How Better Transit and Bicycle Facilities Can Help Address Affordable Housing

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life newspaper on May 14, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. A survey of residents in January, conducted as part of the City’s strategic plan process, identified affordable housing as the number one area of concern. No surprise. It’s been the number one […]

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Streets for People / City Commission Tries to Have Its Cake and Eat It Too on S. Roosevelt Blvd. – Perhaps Dooming a Safer Project

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life newspaper on May 7, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission.   The City Commission seemingly took a step in the right direction Tuesday night, when by a 6-1 vote (Commissioner Wardlow dissenting), they rescinded a bad 4-year-old decision and gave the […]

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Streets for People / What’s Old is New Again – Two New Bike Trails Take Us Back in Time to a Simpler Key West

By Chris Hamilton. (Featured picture by Britt Myers, Keys Weekly); This story was written for and published by KONK Life on April 30, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. Do you know where the Cubana Plane, once used by Cuban defectors in an attempt to reach the U.S., is? It’s parked along Government Road […]

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Streets for People / Do Key West Commercial Areas Need Business Improvement Districts (BIDS)? – Part 2: What BIDS in Key West Might Look Like

By Chris Hamilton. (Featured photo by Karrie Bond) This story was written for and published by KONK Life on April 23, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. In Key West we’ve seen budding support for putting in parklets to widen the sidewalks, for restaurants and retailers to “take the streets” and even for some semblance of […]

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Streets for People / Do Key West Commercial Areas Need Business Improvement Districts (BIDS)? – Part 1: What’s A BID?

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life on April 16, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. In Key West we’ve seen budding support for putting in parklets to widen the sidewalks, for restaurants and retailers to “take the streets” and even for some semblance of the return of Mall-on-Duval-like activities. Advocates […]

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Streets for People / The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – A Dozen Marketing Things KW Transit Can Do to Increase Ridership

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life on April 9, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. There’s no substitute for frequent and simple service, but studies show that you can get a 10 to 30 percent increase in the investment of putting bus service on the street by […]

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Streets for People / The Sorry State of Key West Bus Stops – We Just Don’t Care

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life on April 2, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. Experts say, the bus stop is one of the biggest signals, to everyone in the city, about a community’s attitude toward buses and their customers. What do Key West Transit’s bus stops say […]

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Streets for People / It’s Time to Reconsider a Road Diet on S. Roosevelt and Make the Promenade and Road Safer

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life on March 26, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. APRIL 29, 2021 UPDATE: At the May 4, 2021 City Commission Meeting, Commissioner Mary Lou Hoover is sponsoring a resolution that would rescind the Commission’s February 7, 2017 decision to keep the […]

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Streets for People / Getting the Parking Right Leads to Streets for People – Part 2: Battling Our Inner George Costanza – Ten Things We Can Do in Downtown Key West to Get the Parking Right

By Chris Hamilton. This story was written for and published by KONK Life on March 19, 2021 and is reprinted here with permission. Parking is a big topic, so we broke this piece into two stories. Last week we set up the problem and discussed why the topic should be addressed in “Part 1: Nobody […]

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