Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
There’s a new election portal on the city of Key West’s website.
Henriquez said, “The city of Key West has launched a new election portal on the city of Key West’s website, so you can go on the website and just click your way through to get all the information that you need. It started earlier this month, so you’ll be able to see if anyone has announced for the city of Key West 2026 election. You would be able to see the campaign financials for each of the candidates. This portal is only though for the city of Key West elections. Just to let everyone know, any other elections within Monroe County will still be managed by the supervisor of elections. So if you have any questions or have trouble navigating through the system, you can call our city clerk qualifying officer. So you can call the city clerk’s office, and she will be able to help you with anything that you need. But as of January 1, we now have to report to the city clerk’s office.”
The mayor has open office hours on Mondays.
Henriquez said, “Every Monday we do have the office hours with the mayor. In the beginning, when I started this, I was a little concerned. I’m like, is anybody going to show up? But I will tell you, I had a gentleman come in at 1:15 yesterday. He wanted to get here before two o’clock, and the time before that was the same scenario. So it’s been very, very successful. I’m very happy that I was able to start that. I just invite everyone to stop by on Mondays from two to four with your concerns, ask questions or talk about important issues that may be affecting our city. There’s been some times where people have come in here and just ask, I knew you were tax collector before. Can you just help me? So I’m open. I’ve been serving, like I said, for over 31 years, and I’m here to serve the people. So far, that’s been very successful, and I’m happy to do this.”
There will be a meeting today at 2 p.m. in City Hall to talk about the possibility of resurrecting a parking garage on Simonton Street to serve principally the middle blocks of Duval. It would provide 85 more parking spaces.
Henriquez said, “Please, residents, business owners, stakeholders, you are encouraged to attend and learn more about this proposal. The original structure was built in the 1970s and was removed in the early 2000s due to the structural deterioration. Speaking with our former fire chief, he was reminding me that in fire station two right now, there are two elevators, one that would lead into the fire station and then the other one, it’s locked, but if you had to open that and the doors would open in that elevator right now, you’ll see the sky, but that was intended to go into the parking garage. So there’s always been plans when they rebuilt the fire station two to add the parking garage. So we’re exploring the possibilities of resurrecting a parking garage, and that would help alleviate ongoing parking challenges and to support our local businesses and their employees in the middle blocks of Duval Street. Please come out today, two o’clock. I know we’ll probably have a full chamber with the pros and the cons. We can work together and see how we can come up with the solution and maybe some of that funding can go towards transportation. So there’s a lot of opportunities there. We’ll see what the public has to say, but this is where we’re transparent and educating everyone, and we’ll see how we move forward from there.”
The Historic Architectural Review Commission will meet today at five o’clock.
Henriquez said, “Hopefully there’ll be lots of discussion there, but I do want to mention the HARC division will be holding now weekly officer hours every Wednesday from 8:30 to 12:30 beginning this week. So beginning tomorrow, between 8:30 and 12:30 you can take advantage of the open walk in time with our HARC professionals. You still can make an appointment, but if you want to come in between 8:30 and 12:30 you do not need an appointment, and you can walk in and ask your questions.”
Mile Zero fest kicks off today, and streets will be closed, including Duval Street and Green Street, from Telegraph Lane to Ann Street from 6am to 10pm.
Henriquez said, “I’m so excited to be on stage to welcome everyone, enjoy the rest of the week. We have a great lineup between now and Sunday. So I look forward to joining and listening to some of the music that they have coming here. It’s going to be cold, but we’re going to be out there. On Friday, the early bird cleanup will be hosted by First State Bank this week on North Roosevelt Boulevard. So we will meet behind First State Bank in that parking lot back there. And I will tell you, last week, we had it at the MCC church, and we broke records. We had 128 volunteers. I know it’s season, but we’ve never had that many unless it was the Jimmy Buffett weekend and Labor Day week, where I believe it was like 114 but we did reach 128 volunteers, and we’re just making a difference and picking up that trash and those cigarette butts. So every week, the more we pick up, the less trash we have on the streets. Have a great week. Bundle up, stay warm and be safe out there.”
For more information, click here: https://www.cityofkeywest-fl.gov/