You Have the Conch Shell: Does Key West Still Care About Its “Crown Jewel”?

Ray Warren has some thoughts about what should be a public space: Truman Waterfront Park. And he isn’t wrong.

By Ray Warren

Ed. Note: Neither Above the Fold or the author want the powerboat races to go away. Just to fix what they broke and dont replace it with plastic grass. Follow Ray Warren at keywestprogress.com.

In 2018, the City of Key West released a polished promotional video calling the newly opened Truman Waterfront Park the “crown jewel” of its public spaces. Six years later, it is fair to ask whether the city still believes that — or whether the title has become a marketing slogan emptied of meaning.

Truman Waterfront Park truly is one of the few places on the island where working families, young adults working multiple jobs, and long-time residents can enjoy open green space and water views. Fifty or so weeks a year, it remains one of the most egalitarian and economically integrated places in a community defined by tight housing, high costs and long hours.

Which makes the city’s indifference toward a very specific and very predictable source of annual damage all the more baffling.

The annual beating

Each year, roughly a week after Fantasy Fest, the lawns and grassy areas of the park take a significant beating from the Powerboat Races, an event run by a private, for-profit corporation. The city knows it will happen. It has happened every year since the park’s completion in 2018.

Before that time, the racers used unimproved Navy property — hardscrabble terrain that was difficult to hurt. Once the landscaped park opened, no one seemed to account for how dramatically the equation would change.

By 2022, the scale of damage became impossible to ignore. Large portions of the lawns were killed or scarred by the tightly packed “village” of semi-trucks, campers, trailers, tents with hard flooring and constant vehicle movement. Despite that, when residents raised concerns, the head of Community Services insisted there had been no damage “other than normal wear and tear.”

Anyone who walked the park daily knew that wasn’t accurate.

So I began documenting it myself — in 2022, 2023, 2024 and again this year.

“Normal wear and tear” or neglect?

The city’s agreement with Race World Offshore has not changed much in six years. It states:

“RWO will not be responsible for normal wear and tear to the natural grassy areas of the park. In the event of serious damage by a vendor or racing team RWO will be responsible for the necessary replacement of the natural grassy areas.”

The problem is the interpretation of “normal wear and tear.” There is nothing normal about using landscaped public parkland as a dense parking and temporary-lodging facility for more than a week. After 7–10 days of heavy equipment, trucks, movement and load-in/load-out, the damage is lasting — and cumulative.

The city appears to believe that if the ruts are shallow, the harm is inconsequential. Locals disagree. For many Key West residents, “Major Field” and the other grassy areas of the park are the only front yard they have. The idea that an event “largely organized by the very rich for the very rich” can repeatedly damage that shared space without responsibility feels wrong.

“It’s not as if the park belongs to RWO,” Warren writes. “They merely loan it to the citizenry when they are not using it.”

Honest recognition needed

There are no free lunches.

Creating a high-density parking, retail and lodging zone on a lawn will cause damage. Repairing that damage must be budgeted by someone — the city or the event organizer.

The timing makes the impact worse. The races occur just before the winter tourist season, leaving visitors and residents staring at a torn-up landscape throughout Christmas, New Year’s and much of the winter. Natural recovery peaks only in the rainy summer months, just in time for the cycle to begin again.

Spot repairs, patch seeding and targeted sodding could make a significant difference. But it must be deliberate, consistent and properly funded. A TDC “infrastructure for tourist facilities” grant could help in the short term. Long-term responsibility is up to policymakers.

A fixable problem

People may love or hate the races, but the physical damage to Key West’s most prominent public park is real. No other event inflicts this level of harm on public infrastructure. Acknowledging and addressing it would be a “win/win” for everyone, Warren argues — preserving a beloved event while also respecting the public space that residents rely on.

Warren expects the races to continue. He is “accustomed to being evicted” from the park for 10 days. But he wants reassurance that the “crown jewel” will return to its intended form within weeks, not remain scarred for a year or more.

“If this recurring problem could actually be addressed,” he writes, “I think I’d relax enough to enjoy watching the boat parade.”