I attended the City Commission’s November 5th hearing on the proposed sightseeing franchise ordinance. The ordinance passed on its first reading. The second reading will be held November 17th. Our Old Town neighborhoods will suffer the greatest impact of any new twenty-year franchises. The right ordinance can save Old Town from being overwhelmed with sightseeing vehicles. A well-planned ordinance should be in place before the Commission considers licensing any new tour operations.
How many more sight-seeing operations will be allowed? How many tour vehicles will be added to our streets? Before a new tour operation is franchised, will the City conduct a study by independent consultants of the operation’s impact on traffic congestion, traffic safety, and noise, and pay the study’s cost with application fees? Will financial and business background checks of the applicants be required? Must applicants submit credible safety and courtesy training programs? Must they have sufficient insurance to indemnify the City for the company’s operations? Should they be required to hire most of their employees locally? Will the City need another department to regulate all these sightseeing operations, necessitating more City employees, offices, salaries, benefits, and taxes?
The purpose of a franchise is to limit the number of businesses engaged in a certain service in order to guarantee the quality and delivery of the service, and to protect the residents of the neighborhoods that it serves. That is why we are served by one electric company, one water company, one trash company. And that is why the City limits the number of taxies, cruise ships, hotel rooms, liquor licenses, and street vendors, among others.
At the Commission meeting Key West was falsely compared with Boston, Washington and Savannah, whose larger tourist areas can accommodate two or more tour companies. Key West has a much smaller and more residential tourist area than such larger cities. Increasing the number of tour vehicles on our narrow streets will not increase the number of tourists: it will increase traffic congestion through more neighborhoods as at least twice as many and larger tour vehicles traverse new routes, creating more noise and hazards.
We have all gotten behind a Conch Train or a pedicab or several ill-driven scooters. Has it really been that bad? YES. But not as bad as getting behind a Conch Train, a pedicab, several ill-driven scooters, an out-of-town trolley, a mammoth Duck tour vehicle, and a double-decker sightseeing bus.
Visitors are being adequately served by the two existing franchise companies. Doubling the number of franchise companies immediately – and who knows how many others in the future – is not something to be done hastily and without proper impact studies and neighborhood input.
We deserve an ordinance that will preserve our quality of life. Please attend the next reading of the sightseeing franchise ordinance at Old City Hall, on November 17th at six o’clock, and let your voice be heard.
Mary Haffenreffer
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