Latest Headlines
- Burger, Fries And Meth: Molino Man Charged With Drug Trafficking
- Rain, Rain, Won’t Go Away
- One Person Injured In Cantonment Fire
- Cantonment Man Charged With Stealing $104K While Working As Brinks Driver
- Jim Allen Elementary Names Students Of The Month
- Beulah Christmas Parade Rescheduled, Century Tree Lighting Ceremony Canceled Due To Weather
- Escambia Man Sentenced To 15 Years On Federal Drug Charges
- Century Backtracks On Community Center Rental Rate Hike
- Escambia Public Schools Hiring Additional Campus Security Officers
- ‘Don’t Try Nothin Stupid’: Report Details Failed Bank Robbery Attempt, Desperate Plea By Woman, 63
Escambia Commission Votes To Update Ordinances To Say ‘Gulf Of America’
July 11, 2025
Escambia County Commissioners voted Thursday night to change all references in county ordinances from “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.”
There are nearly two dozen ordinances — related to Perdido Key, dog parks, littering, and more — that mentioned “Gulf of Mexico.”
The change follows bills signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, which changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” in textbooks and state law, and a presidential order from Donald Trump.
“I agree. If you can’t change the hearts and souls of people,” Commissioner Lumon May said, “changing the name of a body of water aint’t going to change the climate.”
“Renaming it to the Gulf of America makes sense to me,” Commissioner Steve Stroberger said. “It’s a simple acknowledgment, to me, of who protects it. It’s us; it’s our gulf. It’s not about erasing history; it’s about who is safeguarding the shore. And it’s America that does.”
The county’s sign welcoming visitors to Pensacola Beach was updated to “Gulf of America” several weeks ago.
Comments
7 Responses to “Escambia Commission Votes To Update Ordinances To Say ‘Gulf Of America’”
I respect your right to call it whatever you want. I’ve always called it the Gulf.
At this BCC meeting, we learned it cost $2,500 to change one word on the beach sign.
With no state-mandated implementation deadline, why the rush? Now, every county agency’s documentation is out of sync with existing ordinances. Legal boundaries and public documents rely on the Gulf as a geographic reference. Are we replacing ALL of the K–12 reference books & textbooks—covering history, geography, science, and literature—that use the Gulf by name?
If every new president decides to rename it, will the BCC continue spending thousands of taxpayer dollars each time just to follow symbolic changes?
Let’s be clear: our tax dollars should go toward real community needs—schools, infrastructure, public safety—not cosmetic changes. Those can wait. Let’s prioritize what actually improves lives.
It is amazing to me that speed bumps cannot be added to a street without 80% consensus of residents owning property on the street, but an entire internationally body of water can be renamed by one person without polling residents in five states for their input.
True, effective, and purposeful name change efforts would be to unify the name of Saufley Field / Michigan / Beverly / Brent / Bayou / Perry Avenues-Street-Parkways-Lanes to a single road name that locals and visitors could follow with less confusion. Why add another name to the Gulf of Mexico and create confusion, wasting taxpayer funded time?
The cost of this silliness to local governments and businesses in order to do this name change is likely in the millions of dollars from Key West to Brownsville. (sign costs, map changes, legal papers).
For me, it is and always will be the Gulf of Mexico. No one person should have such authority.
It’s going to be expensive to change all the signs and markers and books and educational content and laws and agencies and projects and maps and references and textbooks and search terms and websites and businesses and restaurants and
Nothing says “no-nonsense traditional conservative values” like changing the name everybody has always used to refer to something
Americans will be the only people calling it that. Some of you, anyway. I never will.
I apologize if this offends anybody but in my opinion if we’re going to change names of bodies of water and other names of Federal Holidays and monuments that have been given for centuries then I think in my opinion we should name the USA, DSA because in my opinion we are no longer United we are Divided so we should call the USA, DSA the Divided States of America! This is my opinion and if i recall one of our rights are Freedom of Speech! I said what I said. Sorry not Sorry!
We ARE the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA