History

• Presidio Santa Maria de Galve (1698-1719): the presidio included fort San Carlos de Austria (east of present Fort Barrancas) and a village with church; The average low in July is 75 °F (23.9 °C). Evening thunderstorms are common during the summer months. Temperatures above 100 °F (37.7 °C) are rare, and last occurred in July 2000, when seven days over 100 °F were recorded. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the city was 106 °F (41.1 °C) on July 14, 1980. Temperatures below 20 °F are rare, and last occurred in January 2003, when a low of 18 °F (-7.7 °C) was seen. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city was 5 °F (-15 °C) on January 21, 1985.
     The city receives 64.28 inches (1633 mm) of precipitation per year, with a rainy season in the summer. The rainiest month is July, with 8.02 inches (204 mm), while 3.89 inches (99 mm) falls in April, the driest month. The storm heavily damaged the bridge. It knocked 58 spans off of the eastbound and westbound bridges and misaligned another 66 spans causing the bridge to close to traffic in both directions. Over six billion dollars in damage occurred in the metro area and more than 10,000 homes were destroyed, with another 27,000 heavily damaged. NASA created a comparison image to illustrate the massive damage. Hurricane Ivan drove up the cost of housing in the area, leading to a severe shortage of affordable housing. In July 2005, Hurricane Dennis made landfall just east of the city, sparing it the blow it had received from Ivan the year before. However, hurricane and near-hurricane force winds were recorded in downtown, causing moderate damage.
     Although Pensacola only received a glancing blow from 2005's devastating Hurricane Katrina, light to moderate damage was reported in the area. Katrina also undermined a large percentage of Pensacola's tourist base from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

  Transportation

  Pensacola is served by Interstate 10 and the Interstate 110 spur connecting I-10 with downtown Pensacola. Major air traffic in the Pensacola and greater northwest Florida area is handled by Pensacola Regional Airport. Airlines currently serving Pensacola Regional Airport are Air Tran Airways, American Airlines, ASA, Comair, Continental Airlines, Continental Express, Delta Air Lines, SkyWest, and US Airways. Amtrak train service and Greyhound bus service are also available. However, Amtrak suspended service to Pensacola (and the rest of the Gulf Coast) because of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. As of January 2008, it's still unknown whether Amtrak service will be restored.
     The local bus service is the Escambia County Area Transit (ECAT). In December of 2007, ECAT announced that it would cut many of its routes citing poor rider frequency. However in January of 2008, ECAT announced that it would expand service to neighboring Gulf Breeze and change existing routes to more convenient locations.

  Demographics

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     As of the census of 2000, there were 56,255 people, 24,524 households, and 14,665 families residing in the city, and 402,000 people in the Pensacola MSA. The population density was 2,478.7 people per square mile (956.8/km²). There were 26,995 housing units at an average density of 1,189.4/sq mi (459.2/km²).
     There were 24,524 households out of which 24.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.2% were non-families. 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.92.
     In addition to the Christian majority, Pensacola is home to a small but significant Jewish community, whose roots stretch back to the mid to late 1800s. The first Florida chapter of B'nai Brith was founded downtown in 1874, as well as the first temple, Beth-El, in 1876. Paula Ackerman, the first woman who performed rabbinical functions in the United States, was a Pensacola native and led services at Beth-El. Apart from the Reform Beth-El, Pensacola is also served by the Conservative B'nai Israel Synagogue.
     The median income for a household in the city was $34,779, and the median income for a family was $42,868. Males had a median income of $32,258 versus $23,582 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,438. About 12.7% of families and 16.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.
     The population of Pensacola belies its standing within the state and the region. A longtime opposition to annexation in the areas surrounding the city has held its 2000 Census population figure at 56,255. However, the 2000 Census population of Pensacola Urbanized Area was 321,875, the eighth largest in the state.

  Law and government

  Council Members
  District	Council Member
  1	P.C. Wu
  2	Sam Hall
  3	Mike DeSorbo
  4	Marty Donovan
  5	John Jerralds
  6	Jewel Canada-Wynn
  7	Ronald Townsend
  8 (at large)	Jack Nobles
  9 (at large)	Mike Wiggins

  The City of Pensacola is governed by an elected City Council with nine seats, two of which are considered "at large." The city government also has an elected mayor; John Fogg has held that office since 1994.

  Politics

  Like other parts of the South, Pensacola was solidly Democratic for more than a century after the Civil War. Until the 1970s, most local elections were determined by the Democratic primary. However, since the 1960s, the staunchly conservative military and Bible Belt city has become dependably Republican. In August 2005, registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats for the first time in the area's history. As of August 2005, in Escambia County, 44% of the residents are registered Republicans compared to 39.91% of the population having registered as Democrats with another 13.21% having no party affiliation.
     In the 2004 presidential election, 65% of Escambia County residents voted for George W. Bush over John Kerry. The Pensacola area hasn't supported a Democrat for President since John Kennedy in 1960. In 1968, Pensacola and the rest of North Florida supported American Independent Party candidate George Wallace. Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, is the pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola.

  Regional representatives

  Pensacola is currently represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Jeff Miller (R) and in the U.S. Senate by Bill Nelson (D) and Mel Martinez (R), in the state senate by Charlie Clary (R) and Durell Peaden (R), and in the state house by Clay Ford (R), Dave Murzin (R), and Greg Evers (R).
     As of January 2007, Pensacola, and the rest of the State of Florida, are served by Charlie Crist (R) as governor, who replaced term-limited Governor Jeb Bush (R).

  Sister cities

  According to Sister City International, Pensacola has the following sister cities:
  
• Chimbote, Peru
• Escazu, Costa Rica
• Gero, Japan
• Gorlovka, Ukraine
• Miraflores, Peru
• Kaohsiung, Taiwan

City, schools, libraries and hospitals

Universities and colleges

Baptist Hospital – Baptist Health Care, (850) 434-4011

Gulf Breeze Hospital – Baptist Health Care, (850) 934-2000

Naval Hospital – United States Navy, (850) 505-6601

Sacred Heart Hospital – Sacred Heart Health System, (850) 416-1600

Santa Rosa Medical Center – FastHealth Corporation, (850) 626-5050

West Florida Hospital – West Florida Healthcare, (850) 494-4000

Nemours Children's Clinic - Nemours Children's Clinic, (850) 505-4700

Culture

Festivals and holidays

Major holidays in Pensacola include Memorial Day (GLBT), Mardi Gras, and the Fiesta of Five Flags. Celebrations of note in Pensacola are the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, the Seafood Festival, Gay Pride (Memorial Day Weekend), The King Mackerel and Cobia Tournament, Florida Springfest (although canceled in 2006, 2007, and 2008), Gracefest (a Christian music festival), Lobsterfest, University of West Florida Festival On The Green, the Bushwhacker Festival and the Bill Fishing Tournament.
   Historic Seville Square and it adjacents parks, Fountain Park and Bartram Park are the sites of most of Pensacola's festivals. In the summer on Thursdays and on the Thursday in the beginning of the Christmas season, the Pensacola Heritage Foundation presents local bands in it's famous gazebo for free and very popular concerts. In December the Pensacola Christmas Market is a popular event in Seville Square as is the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival and Seafood Festival are in the fall and the Cajun Crawfish Festival is in the spring. Festivals in Seville Square is a successful tradition begun by local preservations in the early 60's led by Mary Turner Rule Reed and the Pensacola Heritage Foundaion who started the movement to save and restore this square and Pensacola's old settlement around it.

City media

The largest daily newspaper in the area is the Pensacola News Journal. Pensacola is also home to WEAR-TV, the ABC affiliate for Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, and Mobile, Alabama, and WSRE-TV, the local PBS member station, which is operated by Pensacola Junior College. Other television stations in the market include WALA-TV the Fox Affiliate, and, WKRG the CBS affiliate, also WPMI, the NBC affiliate, which all are located in Mobile. Cable service in the city is provided by Cox Communications. Pensacola Magazine, the city's monthly glossy magazine, and Northwest Florida's Business Climate, the only business magazine devoted to the region, are published locally. Pensacola is also home to the 2006 ACM Radio station of the year CatCountry987, Which also has this years Nominee for On air Personality of the year with the CatPack Morning show.

Sports teams

Pensacola is home to several semiprofessional sports teams, including the Pensacola Ice Pilots of the ECHL, the Pensacola Lightning state runner up for NAFL, the Pensacola Pelicans of the American Association (of Independent Baseball) (AA), the Pensacola Aviators of the American Basketball Association, and the Pensacola Power of the National Women's Football Association (NWFA).

Music scene and subculture

Because it has few venues/music halls and a large elderly population, Pensacola's music scene is considered lackluster at best. Perhaps most consistently, however, the city has been home to a small, but fairly active Punk, Folk and Indie scene with bands such as This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. Country/Folk singer and host of the BBC documentary Searching for the Wrong Eyed-Jesus Jim White was raised in Pensacola before moving to Georgia after Hurricane Ivan. There is also a moderately sized gothic and Industrial scene in the greater Pensacola Area with events such as Freaky Fridaze held monthly at Bedlam, a popular nightclub in the downtown area.There has also been a recent growth in the hardcore metal scene in Pensacola, and shows of this genre are often held at the local American Legion post and The Red Door, a Christian-based showspace.
   Popular Venues include Sluggo's, the End of the Line Cafe, the Handlebar, and the Gutter Lounge; which has hosted shows by MC Chris and The Horror Pops. Because Pensacola is part of the greater Northwest Florida region, many people from Pensacola frequently attend shows and events in nearby Fort Walton Beach and Mobile, Alabama.

Further Information

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