Application to mail at Periodicals Postage Rates is Pending in Pensacola, FL
This Community Newspaper is a weekly publication of Escambia Santa/Rosa Bar Association Page 1 Vol. 15, No. 34 VISIT THE SUMMATION WEEKLY ONLINE: www.esrba.com August 25, 2015
4 Pages
Around town with DeeDee Davis By Josh Newby
DeeDee Davis loves Pensacola, as she will exuberantly tell you herself. Here full-time since 1983, she first fell in love with our corner of the Gulf Coast during her summer vacations from Auburn. She would often frequent Navarre Beach and enjoyed so much our emerald waters and quaint neighborhoods that she decided to become a resident herself. She has been a state representative, an educator, and now spends her time in commercial real estate and volunteering to give back to the city she loves. You can find her at most fundraisers and cultural events when she’s not busy working to help usher in downtown’s continuing renaissance. Starting this month, DeeDee Davis will contribute a monthly column to Pensacola Magazine. On behalf of the entire staff of Ballinger Publishing and our many readers, we welcome your wit, insight and experience, DeeDee. You’ve been in Pensacola a long time. What are some of the more significant changes you’ve noticed? I love seeing what’s happening to downtown. I love downtown Pensacola. I love seeing it come alive. We’ve become a real city downtown. The rebirth is so exciting and encouraging. It’s a big change from five years ago. It’s been coming but I think the right dynamics and individuals are in place—a strong mayor and strong businesses that believe in downtown. The Studers have put their resources here even though they can go anywhere and I’m so glad they have stayed here. The university is also a big player. I love seeing the team grow. I also think that changing to a strong mayor form of government allowed for a lot of these changes. It changed the whole mood and energy of Pensacola. I understand you were a state representative. Tell me about that. It was natural for me because I had taught government for 25 years. It was very comfortable for me to move into that arena. It’s interesting going in as part of a minority party, because I was an elected Democrat. The Republican tidal wave was already in place at that time. It’s hard to be effective unless you have a lot of courage to be the bomb-thrower. The minority party is a watchdog party, and so it was different for me. But I did enjoy it very much. It was part of a learning experience. You’re very passionate about education, right? It was what I always wanted to do. I had thought about maybe going into law, but I really wanted to teach, so I took the best of both worlds and taught law-related subjects. I taught high school all those years. Education is the breeding ground for change and it is what has made me align more with the Democratic party. Thomas Jefferson felt that, despite the words, all men may not be created equal, but the place where they get an equal opportunity is in the public school system. So I believe very strongly we need to do everything we can to make the public school system as good as we possibly can.