Outside Erie

I’m back after fighting a pretty nasty illness for the past few days. Let me say it’s nice to have some energy again.
One thing I had wanted to pass along recently was a link to a program in Buffalo called Buffalo ReUSE. The organization works to combat blight in Buffalo neighborhoods by carefully tearing down […]

Dale Hannah at What If? has some interesting thoughts on how the city can improve its snow removal operations during major storms.
His solution involves towing illegal parkers and working with churches and other community groups to open up their parking lots during emergencies.
It’s a point worth pondering.
And it should be noted that Erie is far […]

Our neighbors in Buffalo, N.Y., have come up with a clever way to try to connect with some of its brain-drain victims.
The community plays host to an annual event called Buffalo Homecoming Weekend.
According to The Buffalo News, “The event touts the region as a place to live and do business in a bid to keep […]

The groundswell of discussion concerning the future of Great Lakes cities such as Erie is rising pretty rapidly.
We’ve written in the past that there is a gathering of Rust Belt/Great Lakes bloggers planned in Erie in July to talk about ways to use our blogs to promote growth and change in our region.
But there is […]

We’ve received a whopping 50 comments thus far for our call for six-word mottoes for Erie.
Later this week, we’ll pick the top 10 and then ask for your votes on which one should be our unofficial motto.
In the meantime, our friends at Buffalo Pundit have come up with some clever submissions for Buffalo’s motto.
Among my […]

The six-word motto concept is spreading.
I received a note this morning from Alan Bedenko, author of Buffalo Pundit, saying his blog is now asking readers for six-word slogans for our sister Lake Erie city.
Some early nominees:
Buffalo: home of the shrinking rennaissance
Buffalo: better than toledo, detroit, and erie
Buffalo: come see the erie canal or something
Wings, beer, […]

Jim Russell over at Burgh Diaspora has been spending a lot of time lately asking some important questions about the potential value of setting up formal partnerships between Rust Belt communities that would help further economic growth throughout the region.
Like we have here at GlobalErie, Russell has long seen value in tapping into expatriates who […]

The calls for an organized effort to bring together thinkers in Erie and other Rust Belt enclaves such as Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, and Buffalo is on.
And Erie looks like the central place for having that discussion.
As I’ve stated earlier, GlobalErie would love to play a key role in making this effort happen and in helping […]

An idea is getting thrown around by Janko, the blogger behind i will shout youngstown, to play host to a regional gathering of Rust Belt bloggers in Erie.

The idea is to get together thinkers in cities like Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Buffalo to talk about ways to discuss strategies to help each of these […]

Take a look at this statement:
“There is more that ails us than 45 separate governments inside one county. Our problems go beyond an overlapping collection of politicians, police departments, school districts and highway crews. We suffer from worse than a half-dozen competing development agencies shuffling pieces on the same chessboard.”
Sound familiar?
It certainly does. But the […]