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Old Posted Jan 27, 2009, 5:57 AM
Muskavon Muskavon is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 451
BBird, it is a raw numbers population-only game in this scenario, as you know, but still surprising everytime I look at it. Clearly the reality is Mobile aspires to be "big city" and is achieving it rapidly while P'cola is made up of low-income, lack-of-vision, almost (or really) criminal leader nuts who have spent 100 years running off any hopes of developing a great port, bringing in great industry, etc, etc. I doubt a comparison can be made on the basis of earnings, income, assets, and so-forth. That's why 'Cola has that "small-town" feel and look to anyone living in it or looking in on it. Heck, Tally and Montgomery seem much bigger. They have the money industry (government) to put up the real-estate assets that look impressive at first glance. And they have the widely known name as state capitals. But they aren't as populous any way you slice it outside of "city limits".

But, with all that said, those population numbers are not any more a farce in describing the actual population of Pensacola's base than any other population stat. People see the lack of tall buildings, the lack of personal income in the masses, the sorry state of economic progress, the 56k population of the tiny city limits and assume this area has a Biloxi/Gulfport type of mass. It isn't even close. 231k vs. 453k in raw numbers. But to further prove that point...take my challenge.....Drive every heavily commercialized, residentially densed or multi-laned road in the Biloxi/Gulf Port/Ocean Springs/Long Beach/Pass Christian area. See all you can see north and south of I-10. You can pull this off in under 3 hours. Try the same in Greater Pensacola. If you can do it between dawn and dusk...you either ran some red-lights or aren't familiar enough to know how many roads you are missing. And the difference won't be just because traffic sucks.
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