Last week, Zach Jenkins, director of the Haas Center at the University of West Florida, published a column that showed our region’s economic recovery has not equally impacted all segments of our community.
People in the most economic depressed neighborhoods have doubts the economy recovery even exists.
Jenkins wrote, ‘The Distressed Community Index for Northwest Florida communities demonstrates that such doubts are well-founded as recovery primarily benefitted the prosperous communities while distressed communities continue to lose jobs and businesses.”
When you look at two neighboring Pensacola zip codes, you can see the stark difference. The 32504 zip code covers Northeast Pensacola around Cordova Mall and the Pensacola International Airport. The 32505 zip code is west Pensacola, stretching north to the Brent and Ensley communities.
The poverty rate is more than double in west Pensacola. Employment has dropped 20 percent.
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These statistics are not that different from what Inweekly reported in The Shame Issue: Taking Lipstick Off the Pig – January 2013 and Black & White: Racial Disparity by the Numbers – February 2012.
Maybe this community is ready to deal with the real issues in the community.