Pensacola year in review: A look back on hot stories and topics that impacted us most

As the year comes to an end, we look back to which stories and topics resonated the most with our readers.

The list is a culmination of our most-read stories and topics we found ourselves coming back to cover as the issue continued to impact the community.

Hot Topics

Food and Drink

If you follow our weekly round-up of subscriber-only stories, you’re probably not the least bit surprised that food and drink stories dominated our list of most-read stories. Week after week, readers were tuned into new restaurant openings, closings and inspections.

In 2022, closings were huge. We said goodbye to Pensacola staples like Franco’s Italian Restaurant and the popular steakhouse chain Saltgrass. Fortunately, stories about the new restaurants replacing them were just as big.

This year we wrote about South Market’s move into the former Saltgrass Steakhouse location on Gregory Street, the first Juan’s Flying Burrito location opening in Pensacola, new food truck courtyards and over 60 more.

Full story:Pensacola Chef James Briscione triumphs over Iron Chef Bobby Flay on Food Network

Restaurant openings and closings weren’t the only newsworthy stories this year, however. Pensacola popped up on the national food scene more than once.

In March, Angelena’s chef James Briscione appeared on an action-packed episode of Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay — a show where celebrity Iron chef Bobby Flay faces off against chefs in a cook-off.

And finally, local chef Edward Lordman brought the heat to another Food Network cooking competition show called “Beachside Brawl.” The six-week series recruited chefs from all around the country to settle one debate: Which coast does summer food best?

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels will always be an important topic for Pensacola residents. This year was bigger than most for a few reasons. The Blue Angels held their homecoming air show onboard NAS Pensacola for the first time since 2019. While the base remains closed to everyone but Department of Defense ID cardholders, it's a sign that talks to reopen the base to the public are still in the works.

Secondly, the Blue Angels named the first woman F/A-18E/F demonstration pilot in history. Lt. Amanda Lee was selected as one of two new pilots in July. Although hundreds of women have served with the Blue Angels in a variety of capacities over 55 years, Lt. Amanda Lee, of Mounds View, Minnesota, will be the first woman to serve as a demonstration pilot.

Full story:Blue Angels name first woman F/A-18E/F demonstration pilot. Lt. Amanda Lee makes history

Pensacola abortion clinic closes

In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with a 5-4 vote. This bombshell decision paved the way for some states to swiftly enact legislation to ban the procedure. Here in Pensacola, it put the spotlight on the only operating abortion clinic on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Tallahassee, American Family Planning.

Just a month before Roe v. Wade was overturned, the clinic was ordered to close by the state of Florida after three women were hospitalized in the previous nine months and required major medical intervention to survive.

Pensacola's history:Pensacola was once the anti-abortion battleground as bombings and murders rocked nation

In August, the News Journal reported that Florida was seeking to revoke the license of the clinic and levy up to $343,000 in fines against the facility.

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration filed a 97-page complaint that made the same allegations as the May emergency order and included other violations such as failing to document the consent of seven patients being administered ketamine and failing to keep ultrasound photographs in patient records.

The clinic currently remains closed as the case is pending a four-day hearing set for Jan. 17.

Elections

If you somehow missed the commercials, calls, texts, road signs, mailers and everything else, 2022 was an election year. In Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, it was a relatively low-key year but here are some of the races of note.

Pensacola mayor was perhaps the headlining race. D.C. Reeves won with enough vote share to make a runoff unnecessary — earning a total of 7,529 votes, or 51.44% — marking the first time this has happened since the implementation of the city’s 2010 charter.

In the Pensacola City Council District 6 race, political newcomer Allison Patton unseated incumbent Pensacola City Councilwoman Ann Hill.

Primary results:Florida primary election 2022: Pensacola has new mayor, recount in SR and runoffs galore

Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay was reelected for a second term after securing 45.12% of the votes, beating challengers Mary Johnson and Dan Stillings.

Robert Bender won reelection for the Escambia County Commission District 4 seat.

And in a true nail-biter, the Milton City Council Ward 2 seat race came down to a single vote between candidates Marilynn Farrow and former Milton Mayor Wesley Meiss, triggering a recount.

Machine and manual recounts failed to change the final votes, which pushed the official certification to Nov. 18 after all of the overseas ballots could be counted. Farrow was ultimately certified as the winner, taking 1,409 votes to Meiss' 1,407.

Education

Where do we start with this one? Between teacher shortages, bus driver shortages, book bans and more, education was a hot issue throughout the nation as it became a political battleground.

The entire Florida Panhandle experienced a bus driver shortage, but in Escambia County, the situation was dire. In July 2021, the school district went as far as moving up the start times of its schools by as much as 35 minutes in anticipation of the shortage.

Fast forward to October and the situation wasn't much better. Six bus drivers quit after the Florida minimum wage increase went into effect, pushing pay up to $11 on Sept. 30, allowing bus drivers to find comparable pay for less demanding work. This brought the number of bus routes without a driver to more than 100 on any given day.

Full story:Escambia and Santa Rosa school districts hired hundreds, but still need more teachers

Schools all over the country lost teachers due to the social and emotional effects of COVID-19, and public schools in the Florida Panhandle weren’t spared.

In June, the number of pandemic-era job vacancies were at an all-time high in Escambia County, and in May, there were 294 open instructional positions open in the Santa Rosa County School District.

Santa Rosa County approached the issue with projects like STAR (Scholar Tutors Accelerate Reading) — a program of the Teacher Academy which allows high school students to take courses to learn the basics of being a professional teacher.

By August, Escambia County still had 59 vacant teacher positions while Santa Rosa County had upwards of 100 unfilled teacher and support positions.

Separately, In early October the News Journal reported that Escambia County had placed over a hundred "questionable" books in a restricted section as the school district worked to review them. This restricted section required that students present an "opt-in" form signed by a parent to read the books.

Weeks later, the school board looked to reverse the policy after a blowback from the community. The Escambia County School Board instead created a new policy that allows challenged books to remain on shelves and not in a restricted section while they are under review, unless the reason for the challenge is alleged pornographic content or violation of Florida statute.

Most popular stories

Escambia teacher says photos of Black leaders removed from his class

In August, we wrote a story about an Escambia County public school teacher who resigned after he experienced what he described as racist behavior by a school district employee.

The teacher, Michael James, emailed a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Escambia County Superintendent Tim Smith in which he wrote that a district employee removed pictures of historic Black American heroes from his classroom walls, citing the images as being "age inappropriate."

Full story:Staff allegedly took down an Escambia County teacher's posters of Black heroes. He quit

Follow-up:Escambia school district refutes teacher's account of removal of Black leaders' photos

Images that were removed from the bulletin board at O.J. Semmes Elementary School included depictions of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriett Tubman, Colin Powell and George Washington Carver.

After an investigation, the school district refuted James’ claims and put out a statement indicating that the posters were removed because the “language and reading levels on the posters were too complex for this particular group of students.”

According to the district, the posters were left in the classroom for James to use as he so chose.

Amazon distribution facility is coming to Santa Rosa County. What do we know so far?

In July, we reported that Santa Rosa County could be welcoming another vendor to its industrial parks in the form of the globally recognized company Amazon.

The county's Planning and Zoning Director Shawn Ward confirmed to the News Journal that site plans for a planned distribution warehouse were approved by the county early in June, and building plans are currently under review.

Ward could not confirm the facility was to be operated by Amazon, but District 4 Commissioner Dave Piech told the News Journal the company was the one spearheading the project.

Full story:Amazon distribution facility is coming to Santa Rosa County. What do we know so far?

Pensacola's 'Mr. Bus Driver' has millions watching on TikTok, but his No. 1 fans are students

Bus drivers may seem like unlikely candidates for stardom. But Pensacola's Cordarius Jones, known as "Mr. Bus Driver," is making quite the name for himself.

Videos the 29-year-old has made and posted on social media about life as an Escambia County School District bus driver have been seen by millions. Just one of his TikTok videos alone amassed 2.9 million views.

But even more importantly, Jones goes above and beyond his job's duties in how he cares for the elementary and middle school students who ride his bus, trying to give them a daily dose of kindness whenever those big doors swing open and they step onto his yellow bus.

Full story:Pensacola's 'Mr. Bus Driver' has millions watching on TikTok, but his No. 1 fans are students

Some Navarre High students couldn't get prom tickets, so parents organized their own.

The coronavirus pandemic caused an onslaught of closures, rescheduling and cancellations. Among the many casualties was a school function many have cherished, even into adulthood — the prom.

In April, Navarre High School hosted its first prom since 2019, creating a rejuvenated sense of stress and excitement for teenagers in the Navarre community. Except for one problem.

"So, my daughter came home and told me that she didn't get a prom ticket because they were sold out," said Kristen Petersen, mother of a senior at Navarre High School.

Full story:Some Navarre High students couldn't get prom tickets, so parents organized their own.

Petersen said her child's experience has not been unique. She said the school chose to hold its prom at the University of West Florida in a venue that holds roughly 500 people. But the population of the upper classes is far greater than that amount, she said.

The solution? Petersen and other parents in the community banded together to offer an alternative prom to those who couldn't get a ticket from the school.

D.R. Horton built a driveway through his property, so a Santa Rosa man put a pig pen on it

A Chumuckla area man went hog wild after he said the massive homebuilding company D.R. Horton built driveways for new homes through a right of way he owns without his permission.

In all, Bill Lewis owns about 7 acres of right of way along both Dewey Jernigan and Ten Mile Road in the Chumuckla area.

He said after the company built through his property, there were some discussions of selling the land. But once the offer came back too low, Lewis built a pig pen on the driveway of one of the houses in order to bring D.R. Horton to the negotiation table.

Full story:D.R. Horton built a driveway through his property, so a Santa Rosa man put a pig pen on it

Court clears way for Pensacola family to cut down 63-inch diameter heritage live oak, but family settles for legal costs

A years-long legal battle between the city of Pensacola and property owners Larry and Ellen Vickery over a massive heritage live oak tree was finally settled this year.

Since 2019, the city and the Vickerys have been battling over whether the Vickerys could down the tree to build a new home on the vacant property.

The lawsuit was a test case for a 2019 law that allows residential property owners to bypass local tree removal permits and their fees if they get a certified arborist or landscaper architect to document the tree in question is a danger to people or property.

The city won an initial legal challenge of the tree's removal but lost two subsequent appeals, with the final ruling agreeing that the Vickerys had followed a state law as written and could remove the tree.

However Larry Vickery told the News Journal in November that despite winning the legal war with the city, they weren't willing to fight another battle with the city over recovering the legal cost.

The city and the Vickerys signed an agreement that guarantees the tree will not be cut down in exchange for the city paying the Vickerys' legal fees in the case.

Full story:Court clears way for Pensacola family to cut down 63-inch diameter heritage live oak

Pensacola named No. 3 best place to retire in the U.S. What makes us stand out?

Pensacola was named the third best place to retire in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

The list, which was released in November, was created after analyzing 150 metro areas in the U.S. the find the best places to live based on quality of life and the job market in each metro area, as well as the value of living there and people's desire to live there.

Full story:Pensacola named No. 3 best place to retire in the U.S. What makes us stand out?

Pensacola was No. 44 on the Best Place to Live list, No. 6 on Best Places to Live in Florida and No. 17 on Safest Places to Live.

So why is Pensacola so high on the list? It might have something to do with the cost of living. Because of a nationwide real estate boom that has led to rising home prices, U.S. News & World Report weighted housing affordability more heavily this year than any of the other five factors that determine the rankings.

From camper to class act: Pensacola couple converts '70s Airstream into mobile hair salon

Pensacola couple Brittany and Jeff Bere built Tiger Moth Hair as a "labor of love," combining all their interests and passions into a chic, mobile hair salon at 1500 N. Palafox St.

It’s hard to miss the 1975 Airstream Sovereign parked in a rented-out corner of the parking lot of Mako Athletics, where the couple also doubles as fitness instructors.

Full story:From camper to class act: Pensacola couple converts '70s Airstream into mobile hair salon

Jeff Bere, founder of Losobe Woodworks, has had his hand in designing projects for some of the most aesthetically pleasing places in Pensacola, such as Perfect Plain Brewing Co., Odd Colony Brewing Co., Mako Athletics, End of the Line Café, Hula Moon Tattoo Studio and Wilfrid’s Barber and Fine Goods.

Tiger Moth Hair was a little different though, since it was the first time he and his wife designed a project of that caliber together.

As a drug dealer, he destroyed communities. Now, this Pensacola man is building them up.

Back in the day, Chip Simmons and Hassan Hills had something of a professional acquaintanceship.

Simmons was a young police officer and Hills was a teenage drug dealer. The way they saw it, they each had a job to do, and over the years, their trades caused them to cross paths several times.

Full story:As a drug dealer, he destroyed communities. Now, this Pensacola man is building them up.

Simmons either investigated or arrested Hills on multiple occasions and was part of the federal narcotics task force that helped put Hills in prison on charges related to conspiring to possess powdered cocaine and crack cocaine and close to 200 pounds of marijuana.

But when Hills was released from federal custody last year, Simmons was one of the first people he called. And Simmons, now the Escambia County sheriff, did more than just answer the call.

Simmons agreed to help Hills achieve his new calling — to strengthen the communities he had harmed by distributing drugs as a young man.

Navarre, Destin, Gulf Breeze residents are the stars of upcoming 'Jaws 2' retrospective

Full story:Navarre, Destin, Gulf Breeze residents are the stars of upcoming 'Jaws 2' retrospective

In the late 1970s, the filming of the "Jaws" sequel, "Jaws 2," took the Florida Panhandle by storm when filming found its way to the Destin and Navarre Beach area.

Flash forward to 2022, and a four-person team took on the task of retelling the story of the filming, and how the decision to come down to the Panhandle affected the people who lived here in a documentary titled, "Back in the Water."

The film focuses on the perspective of locals who were involved in the filming process.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola's top stories of 2022: A year in review