I’ve read most of the comments on the Access Escambia. For some this initiative is an opportunity to voice opposition to welfare.
Gang, Escambia County doesn’t have an abundance of welfare programs. We spend less than all but one Florida county on public health care. We pioneered workfare in the 1980’s. We’ve torn down housing projects and built Aragon Court and other upper middle class neighborhoods. We’re doing the same with Morris Court.
Yet our poverty has grown. Our median household incomes are pitiful. We are one of the poorest large counties in the state.
We have kids depending on schools for their meals. Our infant mortality (especially among blacks) is higher than the national average. You can blame the parents all you want…these young children are innocences.
You’re picture of Escambia County as some welfare state is wrong. Most of our poor work (unemployment is only about 3%). We are more like a Third World country – when it comes to the overall health of citizens.
We’ve ignored our poverty for decades – spent very little of our local resources on it – and now it’s biting us in the butt. Our emergency rooms are overloaded. Our schools have trouble educating kids from families where the adults can’t read. Employers shy away because the labor force may be cheap, but it’s also unskilled.
In 1900, we were labeled the next great American City….look at us now. We can improve, but not by ignoring our problems.