SHELF HELP

Staff from your Monroe County Public Library recommend some of their favorites from the collection.

What: “Groundskeeping” by Lee Cole

Why:Lee Cole is an extremely talented young writer with incredible attention to detail. The plot, which I’m assuming is somewhat autobiographical, recounts the story of a young man returning home to Kentucky to save what’s left of his misspent youth. Yeah, going home to live in your Grandpa’s basement — that always works. He garners a groundskeeping gig on a local small college campus in exchange for free tuition to a creative writing class. The rest you will have to discover for yourself.

If you like Richard Russo, Dawn Powell, Raymond Carver, Richard Yates and/or David Sedaris, then you’ll probably vibe with Lee Cole. It IS a love story, so you have been warned. And it will end in tears. Yeah, depressing. But despite the melancholy, it is absolutely worth everyone’s time. Especially if you are a Southerner who has had to return home unwillingly ... and learned that not only are we all FROM a place, we all are OF a place, whether we like it or not.

Where: This is available as a print book, e-book and e-audiobook from the Monroe County Library system.

How: You can request books online by logging in to www.keyslibraries.org and get e-books and e-audiobooks 24/7 at www.estuff. keyslibraries.org. If you don’t have a card, you can visit your local branch or register online to get one. Questions? info@keyslibraries.org

Recommended by: Jay Beasley, library assistant, Key West branch

CRUISE SHIPS, COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES & TAXES

An open letter to the Mayor and Key West City Commissioners:

All business that takes place in Key West’s commercial properties generates funds that are used to pay for goods, pay competitive wages and most importantly for our city, pay more taxes.

When foot traffic decreases, revenue usually goes down along with profits. When foot traffic decreases, rent decreases or stops entirely when tenants go out of business.

Just last week Jim Wilson, one of the Florida Keys’ most trusted property appraisers, sent me the following email:

“Ed: Commercial retail rents on Lower Duval, Greene and Front streets initially declined 15% to 30% due to COVID and cruise ship restrictions. Recently it appears to be generally closer to a 50% to 60% decline from 2019.”

This, in turn, inevitably decreases values and eventually taxes paid by the owners to the City and County and thus increases our residential taxes to pay for our police, fire, city and county improvements and personnel payrolls and subsequently leads to larger increases in our home property taxes.

Whenever anything negatively impacts property values, the results are felt by everyone in the community at large.

Sincerely,

Ed Swift, III