Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Shannon NickinsonNovember 17, 2015

Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants the state university system to aim high. To achieve that he announced the “Ready, Set, Work” College Challenge this past week at the Association of Florida Colleges Trustee Commission meeting in Lake Buena Vista. The governor wants all 28 state colleges to participate by graduating 100 percent of their full-time […]

Shannon NickinsonSeptember 20, 2015

The Florida Children and Youth Cabinet recently voted to write state leaders urging them to prioritize early education and child services for “the first 1,000 days” – from pregnancy to age 3. Based on data from the Pensacola Metro Dashboard, only 66.2 percent of Escambia County’s 5-year-olds are ready for kindergarten; in Santa Rosa County […]

Shannon NickinsonSeptember 1, 2015

The Studer Community Institute’s Metro Dashboard aims to be a roadmap to help build citizen-powered change, to make Pensacola a more vibrant community for all of her citizens. That’s not a mix Pensacola always has gotten right. If we expect to build a community that brims with entrepreneurial spirit, values education, and increases middle-class jobs, […]

Shannon NickinsonJuly 28, 2015

Can we put our money where our mouth is? That’s the question the Studer Community Institute’s metro dashboard is meant to ask — and hopefully answer. The dashboard aims to be a road map to help build citizen-powered change, to make Pensacola a stronger, more vibrant community. A guide to know if our community is […]

Shannon NickinsonJanuary 5, 2015

The New Year’s resolutioners are so cute. They were all over town Thursday and Friday, walking the neighborhoods, prowling the produce department at the grocery store, listening to their “getting fit” playlists. They need our help. Because helping them helps the economy of the Pensacola metro area. “Say what?” you say. “Say amen,” I say. […]

Shannon NickinsonOctober 23, 2014

Santa Rosa County voters first had the chance to fund construction of a new courthouse in 2002. That measure failed, but the need to replace the nearly 90-year-old facility in downtown Milton, about 25 miles from Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle, has only grown in the intervening 12 years. And if it fails again on […]

Shannon NickinsonAugust 28, 2014

More than once over the six months I have spent reporting material for what became the Pensacola Metro Report, I’ve been asked what I thought the bottom line was from the report. The bottom line is that we have to do better. Back in 2001, I was part of the team that worked with the […]

Shannon NickinsonJune 3, 2014

When the First Amendment Foundation publicized its transparency scorecard last month, it found that on average, cities and counties in Florida had lots of room for improvement in sharing the workings of government with the governed. On average, local government websites earned 52 out of 100 possible points on a transparency scorecard. The scores were […]

Tag: Santa Rosa County

Shannon Nickinson: School, community collaboration key to educated workforce

Shannon Nickinson: Our children need more than a letter

Shannon Nickinson: Achieving community success takes more than lip service

Shannon Nickinson: Make smarter community investments for a better future

Shannon Nickinson: To get economy in shape, get body in shape

Shannon Nickinson: Our infrastructure is expensive and mostly invisible until it breaks

Shannon Nickinson: Pensacola Metro Report: We can do it, we can do better

Shannon Nickinson: Cities, counties do poor job of sharing information with citizens