Outside Erie

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 […]

Dennis Weed over at ErieBlogs reports today that a tenant has agreed to lease about 1,000 square feet of office space at the old Boston Store.
This is an encouraging piece of news — though it’s still not known what the tenant plans to do in the space. Perhaps someone out there has some insight.
Perhaps the […]

This has been the year of major new attractions in Erie.
2007 has brought the opening of Presque Isle Downs and the new bayfront convention center.
Both projects were highly anticipated and are designed to be anchor developments that will bring in visitors and new business.
Both are impressive in their size and scope.
But now that they are […]

Why is there so much attention getting paid to efforts to fix the federal Alternative Minimum Tax?
Check out these numbers from the TaxProf Blog.
The number of Pennsylvania taxpayers who got snared by the AMT in 2005 was 137,486.
If the law isn’t fixed in 2007, that number would balloon to 837,000.
That would amount to a lot […]

Major news today out of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership.
The business and economic development group has hired my former boss at the Erie Times-News, Jim Dible, to be its new CEO.
Dible, who recently retired as the paper’s publisher and has been a longtime member of the Chamber board, succeeds Jake Rouch, who has […]

I’m actually kicking myself right now for picking Julio Reyes’ comment this morning for Comment of the Week.
Why?
Because he later submitted an even better comment that spells out exactly how the city of Erie can and should be rebuilt — by business-minded investors who want to turn a profit by doing something different and unique.
Julio, […]

VisitErie has sent along the hotel-motel tax receipt figures through the end of October — and the numbers show that it’s been a good summer and fall for Erie County hoteliers.
Figures for the first four months of the 2007-2008 fiscal year (which begins July 1) are up nearly 10 percent.
The 5 percent tax on hotel […]

The media is awash in stories this weekend about shoppers who have loaded up their cards with wide-screen televisions, video-game units, and Christmas sweaters.
We’re reading about families planning their shopping trips with walkie-talkies and color-coded maps and watching video of people pushing their way through the doors of discount stores at 4 a.m. in search […]

A commenter on Ashley Weber’s “Green Apple” blog took a bit of a condescending tone when he questioned the Erie expatriate’s decision to leave Erie to pursue her career in New York.
Part of his argument: $100,000 doesn’t go very far in New York.
Yes, you can stretch $100,000 a lot further in Erie than you can […]

As Erie County prepares to hike up property taxes AND dip into the gaming money to help balance its budget — and the city’s budget woes continue to lurk — it’s becoming more clear that reform is needed.
Face it, folks, Erie isn’t growing very much. But the appetite for feeding local government budgets is getting […]