Outside Erie

This weekend’s thread about authorities in Erie prompted me to do some poking around to take a closer look at who is serving on the boards of directors of Erie’s various authorities. I also spent some time researching the makeup of the boards of directors of several Erie business groups, nonprofit organizations and foundations.
You can […]

About 1,000 people are coming to Erie this weekend for the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association conference.
According to figures from VisitErie, those visitors to the gathering at the new Bayfront Convention Center, will bring about $600,000 in business to the area between now and Sunday.
Another big event is coming to town beginning next Thursday, as well. […]

Erie is getting quite an array of big-name visitors during the next week.
Of course, former President Bill Clinton and current Presidential hopeful Barack Obama are going to get a lot of attention for their back-to-back visits to Penn State Behrend.
But Wednesday’s GE shareholders meeting will bring a constellation of powerful businesspeople to town — even […]

In the face of all of the questions about the bayfront convention center, we can’t deny that — for one day in April — it is doing exactly what it should.
On April 23, General Electric Co. is bringing its annual shareholders meeting to Erie.
Wherever you stand on the convention center, this is an event that […]

The comment by former Erie County Executive Judy Lynch has sparked a great debate about whether government money should be used to front the costs of projects such as the bayfront convention center.
There is a strong sentiment that Erie will never get the bang for its buck for investing in this project.
And there are many […]

President George W. Bush gave his final State of the Union address last night — offering his assessment on the health of our nation.
While it’s clear from most observers that the state of our country isn’t as strong as it has been in past years, when I think about the state of Erie, the answer […]

Too often when we debate a topic, people take an all-or-nothing approach.
You either line up with the Democrats or the Republicans.
You either favor manufacturing or tourism, it can’t be both.
You either support the bayfront Convention Center wholeheartedly, or you think it’s a complete waste.
You either drink Coke or Pepsi.
But when people line up fully behind […]

VisitErie today has a list of new conventions and events that are coming to Erie between March and October.
The economic impact of these events — an estimated $13.1 million — is nothing to sneeze at. Every dollar counts, though as we’ve discussed earlier, Erie cannot count just on visitors’ dollars to grow its economy.
Still, the […]

The past year brought some huge new developments to the Erie region.
The ribbon was cut on the new bayfront convention center, which during the coming year will bring big events such as the General Electric Co.’s shareholders meeting and the Pennsylvania ImPAct Conference to town.

Lake Erie Biofuels began production at the old International Paper Co. […]

Happy New Year, everyone.
The past year has been an eventful one in Erie. It marked the opening of the new casino and convention center, arrests in the Brian Wells case, and progress on the airport runway extension.
It also brought some pretty intense debates about a new tires-to-energy plant, a community college, and the prospect of […]