One Year Later, Gulf Oil Spill Continues to Impede Gulf Progress – Page 3 – Black Enterprise

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One Year Later, Gulf Oil Spill Continues to Impede Gulf Progress

  • Regional Economy
    According to different resources, tourism has rebounded in some of the cities along the Gulf of Mexico. That is in part due to more than $117 million that BP set aside for Gulf Coast tourism in 2010. New Orleans, for example experienced a small economic boom the summer after the spill. Hotel occupancy in New Orleans was at 100% occupancy, according to Nola.com.
  • Yet, that boom wasn’t widespread or lasting and it didn’t change the circumstances of individuals who earned a living in the seafood industry. Approximately 71% of consumers are still concerned about the safety of consuming Gulf seafood, and 23% reported having reduced their seafood consumption as a result of the oil spill, according to the NAACP report.
  • Also, BP’s own figures on diversity suppliers reflect a disparity in opportunities afforded to minority contractors seeking to recover from the disaster, explained Ernest Johnson, NAACP’s State Conference President for Louisiana. Compared to $181 million in small business enterprise contracts awarded overall to address this disaster, reportedly only$7.6m was spent through minority contractors.
Marcia is a multimedia content producer focusing on technology at Black Enterprise Magazine. In this capacity she writes and assigns stories to educate readers about social media; digital integration; gadgets, apps, and software for business and professional development; minority tech startups; and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In 2012, she received two Salute to Excellence Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and was recognized by Blacks in Technology (BiT) as one of the Top 10 Black achievers in the tech arena for 2011 at SXSW in Austin, Texas. She has spoken about technology on panels for New York Social Media Week, at The 2012 Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Summit, as well as at Black Enterprise'ss Entrepreneurs Conference and Women of Power Summit. In 2011, SocialWayne.com chose her as one of 28 People of Color Impacting the Social Web, and through crowdsourcing she was listed as one of BlackWeb2.0's/HP's 50 Most Notable African American Tastemakers in Social Media and Technology for 2010. Since taking on the role of Tech editor in September 2010, she has conceived and produced five cover stories on Technology and/or STEM and countless articles, videos, and slideshows online.

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