Jimmy Weekley Backs Waterfront Co-op Plan

Tomorrow is the election. Yesterday I emailed Jimmy Weekley and asked his position on our goal to keep Waterfront Market open and our proposal to make it community owned. Here is what he responded:

Mike,

Thank you for your support and I look forward to working with you and the co-op to make it a reality. I appreciate all of the work that has been done and I will support your efforts.

Jimmy

Whatmore, Jimmy Weekley has spoke with several members of The Friends of Waterfront Market steering committee, and discussed our goal, our plan, and our proposal, and he has confirmed his position with them.

In other words, Jimmy Weekley has publicly come out in support of keeping Waterfront Market open, and the Waterfront Market Co-op plan and proposal.

At the beginning of our campaign to keep Waterfront Market open, the question was put to me:

"Do think [Waterfront Market's] future lies safer in the hands of a man currently raising a family here, or a man who owns a competing grocery store in old town?"

Two things happened to make me decide my answer.

One is, from my point of view — without actually ever doing anything to actually keep Waterfront Market open — Mayor McPherson attempted to "steer" the situation to his and his friends' own financial advantage.

Two is, when the deal fell through, Mayor McPherson then publicly mis-represented the turn of events, declaring it Buco Pantelis' fault the deal fell through because " Pantelis refused to signed a non-competition agreement."

I was there. I watched those two turn of events unfold. The first was a sham, as Buco explained on the radio last week; the second was pure CYA. (If you don't know what CYA means, google it.)

So here is my answer: I believe our future is better in the hands of the man who owns a competing grocery store, who has publicly come out in support of the co-op, and who I believe brings with him a new sense of humility and a re-newed sense of responsibility to the Island community of Key West.

In the election tomorrow, I vote for Jimmy Weekley.