Independent Stories from the Gulf Coast

Reading Time: 8 minutesIn August 2017, the University of West Florida announced a partnership intended to change how students and professionals prepared for cyber threats. The UWF Center for Cybersecurity joined Metova CyberCENTS to establish the Florida Cyber Range, a virtual environment designed for practical education, training, testing, and research. The platform gave participants a place to work […]

Reading Time: 8 minutesFor two days in May 2017, colorful food trucks, television cameras, and teams of aspiring food business owners appeared across Pensacola. The activity was part of the eighth season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, a reality competition that tested each team’s cooking skills, sales strategy, and ability to adapt to unfamiliar cities. […]

Reading Time: 8 minutesFor generations, historians knew that Tristán de Luna y Arellano had attempted to establish a Spanish colony on Pensacola Bay in 1559. Documentary records described the expedition, and archaeologists had already found ships associated with Luna’s fleet beneath the waters of the bay. One important piece of the story, however, remained missing: the location of […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesPlaza Ferdinand VII is one of the most recognizable historic spaces in downtown Pensacola. Visitors pass its monuments, trees, and walkways while exploring a district closely connected to the city’s colonial past. Yet the plaza also witnessed one of the darkest events in Pensacola history. On July 29, 1908, a white mob removed an African […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesShort-term rentals sit between housing and hospitality. To an owner, renting a room or apartment for a few nights may be a reasonable use of private property. To a guest, it can provide flexible accommodation outside hotel districts. To nearby residents, frequent turnover may bring noise, parking pressure, security concerns, and fewer long-term neighbors. The […]

Reading Time: 7 minutesPensacola’s waterfront has never served a single purpose. It has been an Indigenous homeland, a colonial landing place, a commercial port, a military frontier, a workplace, a fishing ground, and a public landscape. The protected waters of Pensacola Bay gave the city economic and strategic value, but they also exposed it to hurricanes, warfare, changing […]

Reading Time: 8 minutesVacant lots are often treated as signs of decline. They may collect litter, attract illegal dumping, reduce pedestrian activity, and create uncertainty about safety. Yet the same land can become a useful neighborhood resource when residents, property owners, and local organizations work together. Small-scale urban renewal does not require a large development project. A modest […]

Reading Time: 9 minutesLocal politics may sound like something far away from student life, but many local decisions affect young people every day. City councils, school boards, county agencies, and community committees make choices about schools, buses, parks, sidewalks, libraries, safety, recreation, public events, and youth programs. Students live with the results of these decisions, even when they […]

Reading Time: 8 minutesForgotten cemeteries often look quiet, abandoned, or disconnected from modern life. Grass covers old paths. Names fade from stone. Some markers lean, crack, or disappear beneath trees and vines. To a passing visitor, these places may seem like empty ruins. But for local history, they can be powerful records of family life, community change, migration, […]

Reading Time: 9 minutesGrowing districts often face the same problem: development moves faster than transportation planning. New apartment buildings, schools, offices, shopping areas, and service zones bring more people into the same streets. At first, the pressure may feel small. A few more cars appear at school drop-off. A busy intersection takes longer to clear. Delivery vehicles block […]