What Key West The Newspaper Covers: Local Issues and How to Use It

Updated

Key West The Newspaper (thebluepaper.com) is a Key West and Florida Keys news outlet that focuses on local reporting and community voices. Its coverage is most useful if you want to follow environmental and water-quality disputes, housing and rental pressures, local government and public-safety decisions, and reader letters about Keys life. The site presents itself as “Key West and Florida Keys News,” and its homepage mixes featured stories with letters to the editor and community profiles.

What kinds of local issues does it cover?

The site’s visible stories cluster around a few recurring local concerns:

Environmental and water-quality stories

The homepage features reporting on a Clean Water Act lawsuit by FOLK against the City of Marathon, with help from a volunteer Florida geologist with hydrogeology expertise. It also highlights a story asking “What’s in the water?” about residents investigating green and sometimes stinky water. Another featured piece reports on a study of pharmaceuticals in bonefish near Key West, citing a bonefish with a schizophrenia drug at 296 times the normal human prescription level and eight antidepressants at 10 to 300 times human concentration, according to Florida International University associate professor Dr. Jennifer Rehage and FIU PhD candidate Nick Castillo.

Housing and rental problems

Letters to the editor address a housing crisis affecting military families, including a Coast Guard spouse describing hardship after more than 17 years of active duty. Another letter describes a 10-year rental being sold for a vacation rental. These are opinion pieces, not neutral reporting, but they show the site gives space to housing-pressure experiences.

Local government and public safety

Featured stories include a police shooting case where a jury did not accept the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s account, and a “Windstorm Fiasco” piece about Monroe County government and windstorm insurance costs. Another story discusses replacing Citizens with a fair insurance program. A profile of Sylvia Murphy, “The People’s Commissioner,” covers a local commissioner.

Community voices and zoning

The site includes letters to the editor and a piece on proposed zoning changes on Stock Island, described as a “blank check” for a few investors through the Safe Harbor Community Center Overlay. These are presented as community perspectives and local debate, not as neutral summaries.

How can you use the site to follow a local issue?

  1. Start on the homepage. The page shows featured stories, letters, and posts pagination. Use the featured story labels to identify the outlet’s main current focuses.
  2. Check the story type before relying on it. Featured stories read as reported pieces, while letters to the editor are opinion. For example, the military-family housing letter is a first-person account, not a news investigation.
  3. Follow recurring topics. If water quality matters to you, look for the FOLK lawsuit, the “What’s in the water?” piece, and the bonefish pharmaceutical study. If housing matters, look for rental-conversion letters and military-family accounts.
  4. Use the site’s social entry point. The homepage includes a “Like Us On Facebook” section, which can be a way to see updates if you already use Facebook.
  5. Expect local focus, not comprehensive coverage. The visible material centers on Key West and the Florida Keys, with Monroe County government, Marathon, Stock Island, and Key West locations appearing in the stories.

What should you keep in mind?

The site mixes reported features with letters and opinion pieces, so check the label on each item. The homepage excerpt does not show a full archive or a search function, so finding older stories may require pagination or the site’s Facebook presence. The page evidence also does not show pricing or login requirements, so do not assume the site is free or requires no login based on this description alone. For a quick read on local environmental, housing, government, and public-safety debates in the Keys, the homepage gives a usable starting point.