Round-up, 10.04.09

A few items we wanted to highlight today:

Tragic event involving PPD officer. As many readers likely know, Pensacola Police officer Jerald Ard, 35, struck and killed a bicyclist with his police cruiser early Saturday morning in Brownsville. Officer Ard was pursuing the individual when, according to the Department, the man “crashed his bicycle and fell into the path of Ard’s vehicle.” Officer Ard, a four-year veteran of the Department, has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation into the incident by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This looks very bad — but we will withhold judgement until the FDLE concludes its investigation. For more, see the News Journal story, WEAR’s coverage, WKRG’s coverage, and WALA’s coverage.

Music venues. In lighter news, PNJ business reporter Carlton Proctor writes about the up-and-coming music scene in downtown Pensacola. He mentions the recent openings of Blazzue’s and The Ready Room (under Will Call Sports Grille in the former Starbucks Billiards location), as well as the forthcoming Vinyl Music House project, to be located in the Masonic Building adjacent to Hopjacks.

Anyone who attended Gallery Night several weeks ago saw that downtown Pensacola is, without question, getting better by the day. City Councilman Larry B. Johnson said at the last City Council meeting that he had never seen so many people downtown on a Friday night. Neither have we. It’s great to see a lively atmosphere after 5:00 PM on Palafox. Pensacola’s poor nightlife over the past several decades has been a key factor in the decision of so many young people to leave the area. Now if we can just get them some jobs…

IN coverage of quality of life poll. Last week, we wrote at length about the 2009 Better Pensacola Forum quality of life poll. The Independent News devoted much of its paper this past Thursday to coverage of the poll, and we wanted to highlight their coverage as well. Links: Cover Story, “Outtakes” column, and more.

Garden Street property occupied. Also, we are pleased that Summit Bank has decided to expand into the Pensacola area, and to locate its new branch at 109 East Garden Street, a historic firehouse that’s been converted for office use.