Key West protesters say the highway checkpoints must go so the economy can come back
Magnus Nilsson, a charter fishing captain in Key West, says it’s time to reopen the Florida Keys to visitors.
That means taking down the two checkpoints at the entrances to the island chain, which the county installed March 27.
The economy can’t take much more of the tourist ban, Nilsson said, while holding a protest sign at the corner of North Roosevelt Boulevard and Palm Avenue on Tuesday morning. He was among about 80 local protesters, including business owners and bartenders.
“This is going to hell,” said Nilsson, who calls himself the Key West Fishing Viking. “I own a business and it’s going down. It’s terrible. It’s been a long time.”
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His orange poster said: “End the shutdown,” handwritten in black. Other signs demanded hotels reopen, along with U.S. 1, the only road into the Keys.
“Let people work,” another sign read.
“It’s illegal to begin with,” said Ed Swift, a founder and president of Historic Tours of America, which runs the Conch Train and bus tours that have all stopped with the COVID-19 pandemic. “You cannot block a U.S. highway.”
The state and county disagree, and no one from the federal government has ordered them to come down.
That’s because the county, state and the nation are dealing with an emergency, said County Mayor Heather Carruthers.
“I continue to look towards science,” Carruthers said Tuesday. “I continue to look at what the numbers are.”
But Swift says the Keys are committing “economic suicide” by keeping out tourist dollars with the roadblocks and closed hotels and other lodging.
Monroe County leaders have said the Keys will remain closed to visitors the rest of May and “potentially longer,” due to the threat of COVID-19. County leaders have credited the roadblocks with keeping the Keys’ infection rate relatively low in comparison to other parts of South Florida.
Across the Keys, beaches and parks have reopened, along with restaurant dining rooms, retail stores and, as of Monday, hair salons, barber shops and nail salons. Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, the most popular beach in Key West, reopened Monday as well.
But hotels, gyms and bars remain closed due to the pandemic.
While the Keys haven’t been a hot spot for the deadly disease, neighboring Miami-Dade and Broward counties have the highest rates of deaths and infections in Florida.
Miami-Dade continues to lead the state with the most confirmed cases and deaths, the state health department reported Tuesday, with 14,385 known cases and 505 deaths.
“We know it’s there and we want to keep it away from us,” Carruthers said.
The Keys have 95 known cases and three deaths.
Erin Futrell, a bartender at Irish Kevin’s on Duval Street, said the staff has been taken care of during the shutdown. But she still wants to be back behind the bar.
“I’m ready to go back to work,” Futrell said.
A few women turned out to mount a counter protest of the anti-roadblock crowd.
“Die for the boss,” one woman’s sign read. Another sign simply read, “No.”
