Pensacola - Rick's Blog

Big Tuesday for City of Pensacola and Baptist Health Care

Yesterday, Baptist Hospital announced a new $6-million investment in the commerce park at the entrance to the Pensacola International Airport. The Baptist Medical Park-Airport will…

Pensacola Speaks: History of downtown Pensacola and Seville Quarter

On News Talk 1370 WCOA’s “Pensacola Speaks” this afternoon, I will have Wilmer Mitchell, attorney for Bob Snow who created Rosie O’Grady’s and the Seville…

State reports new job creation in 2015, Pensacola MSA 2,700 new jobs

The Tampa Bay area led the state in job creation last year with 41,400 new private sector jobs added over the year. Florida has added…

Spencer challenges LBJ viewpoint, defends Urban Design Associates

Pensacola City Councilman Brian Spencer believes that his fellow councilman and business partner, Larry Johnson, was off-base in his criticism on the council’s decision to…

Good news from the blog, Oct. 10 edition

Escambia County Hires Veterans Services Officer Written by Rick Outzen on 04 October 2015 Press release: Escambia County is pleased to announce the hiring of…

City staff adds new wrinkle to zoning change for Pickens School neighborhood

The Pensacola City Council is set approve a zoning change to the neighborhood around the old Pickens school—the site where Manna Food Pantries wanted to…

On Pensacola Speaks: author tells how Pensacola resisted slavery before the Civil War

Today, I will interview Matthew Clavin, a history professor at the University of Houston, on his new book, “Aiming for Pensacola: Fugitive Slaves on the…

Sarasota deregulates all taxis, paves way for Uber

Yesterday, Sarasota city commissioners unanimously voted ended its months-long debate as to how to regulate Uber, and instead, voted to strip existing regulations on taxicabs….

CRA to seek more public input on Hawkshaw parcel

For the second time in two months, Councilman Charles Bare made the motion to turn down all the proposals for the Hawkshaw property on south…

Fountain cries foul

City Chief Operations Officer Tamara Fountain issued this evening a statement to the Pensacola News Journal accusing reporter Will Isern of printing “allegations and innuendo”…

Baldwin on ESPN about Confederate flag

Two weeks ago, ESPN came to Pensacola to interview Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin, Jr. He was putting on a football camp at Legion…

Mayor’s office sneaks in bad news updates at end of five-hour meeting marathon

The Pensacola City Council met for nearly five hours yesterday: agenda review, CRA meeting and council workshop. At the very end of the last meeting,…

Hayward proposes $211 million budget for FY 2016.

The City of Pensacolaâ€™s fiscal year 2016 budget, totaling $211,183,000, has been uploaded to the city’s website. As we reported earlier, Escambia County Property Appraiser…

CRA contributes to West Moreno Strategic Plan

By Claudia Carlson Plans are underway to improve West Pensacola with the help of Live Work Learn Play (LWLP), an international real estate development and…

FDLE report: State has lowest crime rate in 44 years

Florida Department of Law Enforcement released its 2014 Annual Crime in Florida report today. The report shows Floridaâ€™s crime rate dropped 4.9 percent compared to…

Cuba impressed by Pensacola delegation

Two weeks ago, Inweekly reported on a local delegation that visited Cuba seeking to build relationships and test the waters for possible business opportunities (“Creating…

Convention Center deja vu

The success of Pensacon has reignited a discussion for a convention center. It’s a worthy topic. The fourth-cent of the bed tax was originally presented…

The ideas of City’s consultant on homelessness questioned

The Huffington Post published an article (“How A Traveling Consultant Helps America Hide The Homeless“) yesterday that questions the ideas of Robert Marbut, the national…