Outside Erie

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 […]

As Erie County, Pa., takes steps to boost its tourism and convention business, so, too, is Erie County, N.Y.
The Buffalo News reports today that Buffalo is seeing quite a healthy increase in tourism business this year.
The reasons are many — most notably the strong Canadian dollar, which is prompting more Canadians to cross the border […]

GlobalErie was a proud supporter of this weekend’s ImPAct Conference at the Bayfront Convention Center.
The event provided a wonderful opportunity for Erie to present itself to young professionals and leaders from across the state — though I hope yesterday’s hurricane remnants didn’t wash away their ability to check out the town.
I’d love to hear from […]

The Erie Bayfront Convention Center has three new conferences booked for 2009, according to VisitErie.
The Erie Kennel Club will play host to the AKC All-Breed Dog Show in January. The show is expected to create 600 room nights at local hotels and bring in about $420,000 to the community.
In June, the Automobile License Plate Collectors […]

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 […]