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Cruise ships are not evil
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on May 24, 2012.]
Cruise ships are not evil
As a Director and VP of Last Stand, people are surprised that I’m not pushing to keep cruise ships away from Key West. Indeed you will find that there are Last Stand members who do NOT wish to see the cruise ships disappear from our waters. Sure, some would be gleeful if that did happen, but by no means do all Last Standers feel that way. Like many within the Key West population, I believe that our cruise-ship visitors have a place within our City’s economy. And that most of those visitors are good folks who don’t do much damage.
The problem, of course, is one of SCALE. The cruise visitors we get cost us some money and effort to deal with, but they do spend a bit while here. Studies have shown that they contribute somewhere under 10% to our city’s economy – not a big component, but significant. To the businesses that have grown to rely on the tourists disembarking from the ships, it’s VERY significant. I have friends with businesses in Old Town that sweat the days when there’s no ship in port. You know — those days the rest of us love so much… (more…)
I Need A Job
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on May 10, 2012.]
I Need A Job
Two years ago I got the wake-up call:
“Dude, it doesn’t matter that your work garners awards from the CEO, that you have an impressive project resume, that you consistently do high quality work 40% more than you’re being paid for, or that you’ve shown 30 years of loyalty in the face of other opportunities. Our bean counters think we’ll show 0.00001% more profit if we send your project overseas and force you to `retire’ now instead of letting you move over to another needy project.”
Well, the call didn’t use exactly those words, but that was effectively the message.
I documented this (more…)