After many months of trepidation -- truly -- I got a job! I'm going to be working at the Beaumont Enterprise, located here. The paper has a circulation of about 56,000 daily and 65,000 Sundays, if this site about my current job is to be believed. (If you bounce around on that site, by the way, you'll find a not-so-fab mug of me and a cheesy quote.)
Beaumont is a city of about 112,000 people, according to U.S. Census estimates. Median household income (median being the figure in the middle if you line them all up end to end, for those who haven't had stats in a while) is $32,559, which is about 22 percent lower than the median U.S. income of $41,994. It's a cost of living radically different from San Francisco, where the median income, $55,221, is about 31 percent higher than the U.S. median.
The town is 46.4 percent white, 45.8 percent black and, rather obviously, less than 4 percent of any other one race. In the 2004 presidential election, 48.4 of voters in Jefferson County -- that's where Beaumont is -- cast ballots for President George W. Bush, and 51.3 percent cast ballots for Al Gore. Among the 53,000-odd straight ticket voters, 31 percent chose the Republican Party; 68 percent chose the Democrats. The Convention & Visitors Bureau is here.
It's home of the Spindletop gusher, Lamar University and, odd as it may seem, my favorite martini bar, easys -- which also, it turns out, has a kickin' Web site.
I start Oct. 3. Between here and there lie more San Francisco outings, a trip to India and yet another wedding for a good friend from Waynesboro, Pa. Stay tuned.
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