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Pensacola isn't too much yo write home about, it probably shouldn't win this poll in a slam dunk but people love beaches. I think I'd rather die than live in any of these places. I grew up close enough to the redneck riviera to not want to live there.
Pensacola isn't too much yo write home about, it probably shouldn't win this poll in a slam dunk but people love beaches. I think I'd rather die than live in any of these places. I grew up close enough to the redneck riviera to not want to live there.
Do they really call it the Redneck Riviera? That's certainly an interesting name.
Pensacola is my nearest "big city", so I go there often. I'm glad to have its amenities nearby, but it's not a place I would care to live. It doesn't have the same character or vibe as its Gulf Coast sister city Mobile, AL.
Pensacola - like much of Florida - has a large transient population which is exacerbated even more so by the large military presence. This inhibits the city's ability to have a well-rooted or firmly established feel.
I don’t think this is quite right. Yes, it’s somewhat transient due to the large military population. But I think it has a well-established culture and sense of place—certainly more than other beach towns like Gulf Shores, Destin, Panama City, etc., which are completely tourist oriented. Pensacola is big enough to be more than tourism and it’s not a glorified retirement community like many other Florida beach cities. It has a mix of Deep South, Cajun, military, and beach town vibes with a rich history.
Plus, Pensacola is on a clear upward trajectory. When I moved there in 2004, downtown/Palafox was basically a dead one-way street. Now it’s literally won awards for being one of the best streets in America, there are far more apartments in the surrounding blocks, and there are some good infill housing developments in neighborhoods surrounding downtown. There is a new and booming banking industry thanks to Navy Fed. Not to mention one of the best minor ballparks in the country right on Pensacola Bay.
Pensacola has problems—poverty, rising cost of living with and mostly low-paying jobs, and sometimes backwards politics—but having a local sense of place and identity isn’t one of them.
Closest I've been to Pensacola was Biloxi, and Block was stunningly scenic. Now Pensacola has much nicer beaches than Biloxi along with the bayous and pine forests of Biloxi, so Pensacola must be even more scenic.
I passed through Amarillo, and it was stunningly not scenic. So Pensacola it is.
Neither are my cup of tea, but I'd take Pensacola.
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