Outside Erie

One of the most disappointing parts of my trip back to Erie last week was driving by the Koehler Brewery site.
By now, it was supposed to be the home of a bustling mixed-use building that would bridge Erie’s center city to the St. Vincent area and would serve as a catalyst for other development.
Today, it […]

This week’s top comment comes from John Morris of Pittsburgh, who discusses the parallels between the issues plaguing the development of his city’s downtown and Erie’s downtown:
Pure logic and aerial views support the idea that there should be a much broader definition of what Erie’s downtown is.
This is core problem that has never been grasped […]

Phyllis Kuhn at the Lake Erie Research Institute reports this morning that the Hirtzel Foundation has given her organization a $250,000 grant to purchase a confocal microscope that can be used by medical and academic researchers in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Penn State Behrend has also provided more than $100,000 to house the instrument and employ technicians to […]

Lots of anger today over City Council’s decision last night to table a plan that would give the city $250,000 in upfront state money and up to $2 million more to help revitalize downtown.
Fellow GlobalErie blogger Jim Berlin (who has invested heavily in the redevelopment of Union Station) has a rant over on Berlin’s Wall.
And […]

We talk a lot in this space about Erie’s brain drain — the idea that a lot of the area’s best and brightest young minds leave the area for better opportunities elsewhere.
And one of the goals of this Web site is to help create an environment in Erie that creates more opportunities for those who […]

An anonymous commenter has floated a pretty grandiose idea as a potential new development at the vacant GAF site on the bayfront.
Here’s what he had to say about it:
I made a proposal about a year and a half ago to build a indoor white sand beach with palm trees, aquarium and restaurant complex on the […]

If you think the debate over plans to build a tires-to-energy plant on the Lake Erie shore has been intense, brace yourself for what could be an even more caustic battle over the possibility of wind farms on the Great Lakes.
The Washington Post reports on the early efforts to develop offshore wind farms in Michigan, […]

Excitement is raising for Erie supporters of a plan to develop a high-speed rail corridor through the Great Lakes region.
Jim Carroll of the Erie Times-News reported about a recent visit to Erie by Andrew M. Bremer, executive director of the rail advocacy group All Aboard Ohio, who talked about the potential of developing a rail […]

GlobalErie blogger Dale Hannah attended last night’s meeting on the proposed master plan for Erie’s bayfront.
You can read the full report on his blog, What If?

It looks as though the planners are pushing for a mixed-use project that would better incorporate the bayfront with downtown Erie.
Michael Kannard, the Planning Architect, outlined a preliminary Land-Use Plan […]

If you care about the future of downtown Erie, you might want to clear your schedule at 5 p.m. today and head down to the Intermodal Transportation Center.
That’s because the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority is meeting at that time to play host to its first meeting as part of a process to create a master […]