Van Cadenhead Leaves the Keys -- The End of an Era

The following tribute was published recently in Islamorada Community Alliance Newsletter and written by Sue Miller

When was the last time Van Cadenhead was not at an Islamorada Village Council meeting, Seat 1 Row 2, telling officials how to make Islamorada better? He has spent decades preaching about the dire need for workforce housing, planting more trees and controlling growth and traffic.

No one on the Village Council ever seemed to listen.

And now Van is heading north. No, he is not being run out of town, though some have tried.

In his own words, as a disabled veteran with limited resources, he has been priced out of Islamorada. Many folks in our town will miss Van, a quirky individual with a heart of gold who has been here since he was 7 years old, caring deeply about Islamorada and continually working to make it even better. He’s made many friends and perhaps a few enemies.

We may need a lot more voices like Van’s to help the Village Council head in the right direction. Let’s hope someone as wise and determined as Van will fill Seat 1, Row 2.

Last week Van stood at the podium and read his letter to the editor that he submitted to the Keys Weekly and the Free Press newspapers a month ago. They didn’t print it.

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Below find Van Cadenhead’s "Ain’t No Sunshine” letter to the editor. It is a harsh condemnation of business as usual by government and developers, and applies not just to Islamorada, but all of the Keys.

To the Editor:

Ain’t No Sunshine

The time has come for the bamboozled citizens of Islamorada to wake up, sit up and pay attention to what has been done and is being done to them. They are currently subject to the untender mercies of a heavily biased pro-development concrete coalition consisting of greedy, short-sighted politicians, developers, lawyers, and real estate agents less concerned with the quality of life of the residents and survival of the environment than the bottom line defined by Ben Franklin greenbacks.

It is disgusting, obscene, immoral, and unsustainable that the carrying capacity of these fragile islands has been ignored by the powers-that-be in favor of crass commerciality.

It is unfortunate if the State Attorney considers this lack of sunshine so perplexing and has better things to do than riding herd on a bunch of brazen, bold, belligerent black guards who blatantly flaunt their disdain for anything but money. Perhaps if they had been under scrutiny from the law for the past several years, this situation might not have reached the current critical mass.

These subpoenas (issued to the Village Council for alleged violations of the Florida Sunshine Act) must not be allowed by the public to turn into a namby-pamby whitewash of corporate criminality. The Cruise Ship Islamorada is sinking, and resolute government actions must be taken to save it from becoming an exclusive elitist enclave, descending from the Sportfishing Capital of the World to the depths of the horrible whoredom of property prostitution.

See you at the podium.

Van Cadenhead

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