Outside Erie

Jim Russell, the author of the very relevant blog Burgh Diaspora, brought up some great points in a recent comment about Pennsylvania’s tax structure.

Russell argues that taxes, while important, are not keeping businesses from growing in Pennsylvania. The key, he says, is finding a competitive advantage and building on that advantage.

For articulating this against-the-grain point, Russell is our commenter of the week.

Here’s what he had to say:

I agree that lower taxes are preferable to higher taxes. But there isn’t any substantive proof that a lower state tax burden will benefit Pennsylvania’s struggling cities. If that was the case, then El Paso wouldn’t be struggling to bring its natives home or keep graduates from leaving.

Lowering PA taxes as to compete with Texas and Florida is impractical, but I consider the prospect. That puts all PA cities into play. As in Texas and Florida, there will be winners and losers based upon the same unique assets that advantage places such as Boston or Minneapolis.

At the scale of city taxes, businesses can locate or relocate just outside city limits to avoid municipal tax burdens. That threat has often resulted in bribes in the form of a tax reduction. Rust Belt cities and states have been employing this strategy for a long time, such as designating enterprise zones with competitive tax structures. It failed.

Almost every industrial city was built upon some geographic comparative advantage. When that evaporated, not even the carrot of lower taxes could stop the exodus.

I am suggesting that Erie and other cities struggling to make the transition to a post-industrial economy once again cultivate a unique comparative advantage. Once we do that, we’ll talk about tax reduction strategies to further fuel growth.

I have one idea that I consider to be a unique comparative advantage: Diaspora Networks. The Great Lakes are another that I’ve seen in the press lately. Concerning diaspora networks, one big reason for the rise of the Celtic Tiger is demographics. Pre-boom, Ireland was one of the youngest countries in the EU. The dependency ratio was relatively small, putting much less stress on government social services. But another factor was (and is) the strong ties of the Irish Diaspora to the homeland. On that count, I think Erie could copy the economic turnaround of Ireland.

As for Rust Belt cities like Erie currently experiencing better economic times, read Richard Longworth’s book, “Caught in the Middle.” A city I’m tracking is Milwaukee, which has a way to go but is making great strides.

Reader MGR brought up some great questions in his recent comment on the Kanzius cancer research:

I bet we could get this financed privately at a pretty minimal cost relative to the potential of the project and while retaining control. Because of the failure rate on research, this can be difficult, but as his project continues to clear hurdles, the likelihood that it will have some application is growing. If I am reading the reports correctly, it seems as if they are almost past proof of concept.

As someone who has followed this project closely from the very beginning, I can say that Kanzius has been approached by many investors, both locally and nationally, who have wanted a piece of this project. He has also felt along the way that he would have been giving up way too much control if he turned it over to private investors. In some cases, he has felt as though they were trying to take advantage of him financially.

After everything he has done to usher this project forward, Kanzius has a legitimate desire to want to make sure he doesn’t lose control of this process and see it fall into the wrong hands or be used with the wrong agenda.

It looks like the efforts to raise money through his foundation has worked well and that the project can continue move forward quickly under Kanzius’ watch. He has been very deliberate in how he has moved this forward — and he has used the media spotlight quite adroitly along the way to bolster support when he’s needed it.

All of that said, Kanzius has also been working to try to get government grant money to help support the project. He has been selective in this process, working to try to keep as much of the project based in Erie as he can.

What is stunning to many local observers is how reluctant local and state government officials have been to try to offer some grant money to this effort. After all of the money thrown at casinos, juice plants, and abandoned breweries, you would think there would be an interest in investing some government money in a project that could have an amazing public health benefit and could ultimately rebuild Erie’s economy.

Yes, there is risk involved. But there has also been risk involved in investing in guys like Herb Fiss, Ted Arneault, and Brad Fairfield.

Kanzius — unlike Fiss, Arnealut and Fairfield — already has a proven track record of building businesses in Erie. He’s smart. He’s earnest. And he’s legitimately trying to change the world.

As an aside, check out Scott Bremner’s report on WSEE about the Kanzius project. He has some great new information about where the project is heading.

If you were a follower of some of our former GlobalErie bloggers such as David VanAmburg and Mike Heid, you’re probably wondering what happened to their old blogs.

Well, they’re not gone forever.

You can still go back and look at their posts and comments on the GlobalErie Network page.

Just scroll to the bottom to the “GlobalErie Emeritus” section and you’ll find links to the old posts.

Ah, the good old days.

Nice work by Erie Times-News photographer Rob Engelhardt, who captured a point-of-view video of the new Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer.

Of course, you can’t ride the coaster just yet. But the GoErie video gives a virtual preview of what it’s like. The views look fantastic.

Here it is:

Popular Science is the latest major media outlet to pick up on the John Kanzius story.

The story doesn’t offer much by way of news, but it offers a cool, well-written perspective on Kanzius and his cancer-fighting machine.

Here’s the lede:

When a man with no medical degree and a diagnosis of fatal leukemia builds a cancer-curing machine in his garage, you might think it merely the desperate attempt of a dying man to escape his fate. And you’d be right. The weird thing is, it just might work.

… the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby will have any impact on the new horse racing track at Presque Isle Downs

… the ridiculously high gas prices will help or hurt Erie’s summer tourism market

… the same ridiculously high gas prices will encourage people in Erie to finally use public transit

… the recent tragedy in Springfield will remind folks to wear their seat belts. Always.

… Phil English should even bother trying to get the Sharon Herald’s endorsement this fall. Ouch.

… LeBron James always talks to his mother this way

Erie’s Jerry Uht Park doesn’t get a lot of love from the locals.

But the writers at ESPN.com had some great things to say about the seats along the first-base side of Erie’s downtown park.

The Web site ranked the 10 best views in all of minor-league baseball — and it puts the first base reserved seats at the Uht as No. 5 on the list.

That’s right, Erie sports fans. Some of the best baseball viewing seats in the country are in your backyard. And they’re virtually free on Buck Night. Here’s what the writers had to say about the Uht:

Because the architects who designed Jerry Uht Park needed to make the Pennsylvania ballpark fit within a preexisting city block, they had to be creative … very creative. As a result, the grandstands on the third-base and first-base sides bear little resemblance to one another.

On the third-base side, where there was ample room to build, the grandstand takes a familiar approach, beginning behind the box seats and continuing up to the press box and luxury boxes.

But on the first-base side, where 10th Street runs parallel to the base line just behind the boxes, there was no room to build a normal grandstand, so they stacked the second deck on top of the concourse and back rows of lower seats.

The result is a delightful bank of nicely elevated seats overlooking the infield along the first-base side.

Nice.

The Huffington Post has put together a really cool tool that slices campaign donation database for the 2008 Presidential election.

You can search by a person’s name to find out where he or she is donating money. You can search by occupation.

You can also search by city.

That’s where it gets fun for those of us who follow Erie.

The link I just gave you lists all of the contributions by those who list Erie on their disclosure forms. According to the data, 183 people from Erie gave about $123,000 to Republican candidates. another 190 Erieites gave close to $116,000 to Democrats.

That’s a pretty even split — and it also shows that Erie folks are far from big-ticket donors when it comes to the Presidential race.

So, the Pennsylvania State Senate had to spend time this week discussing a potential Constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage in the commonwealth.

Uh, so glad we’re spending time talking about outlawing a practice that isn’t even legal.

What, exactly, would such a move actually accomplish? Would it make Pennsylvania more competitive? Would it cure the commonwealth’s health-care issues? Would it improve the schools? Would it cut down on crime?

I think we know the answer to these questions.

Regardless of where you stand on gay marriage, it seems as though there are more pressing issues to deal with right now.

Do you agree?

You have undoubtedly noticed that this blog has a new look.

It’s still in beta phase, but if the reviews are strong, we’ll make it our official new design and roll it out on the other blogs in the GlobalErie Network.

In addition to the new color scheme and layout, we’ve set up a feed that allows users to see previews of the most recent comments and posts in the center column under my picture.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Is this a keeper?