Outside Erie

Jim Russell’s CleveBurgh Diaspora has an interesting critique of the leaders of so-called Rust Belt cities.

It seems the critical comments (which he attributes to colleague Richard Herman) frequently thrown at Erie’s political leadership extend into neighboring cities, as well.

Two excerpts worth noting here.

The first:

In defeat, and afraid to compete globally (immigrant talent—bad, free trade —- bad, foreign direct investment — bad), the rustbelt is largely devoid of any global engagement strategies for growth (there is opportunity in them thar hills over yonder).

The second:

It’s not likely much of our leadership reads at all, travels outside their time zone, glanced at how the rest of the world deals with change, etc……

We have the tools to win. We just do not have the will.

Harsh words. Are they true?

There’s a lot of poetic waxing going on these days about the sale of Anheuser-Busch to the Belgian company InBev.

One of the classic American brands is now in the hands of a foreign company.

They are not all gone, of course. You can still drink a Coke, hop on your Harley, or flick your Zippo lighter.

For as long as I’ve been aware, Budweiser was THE American beer. Sure, there were many better brews out there. But Budweiser was the king.

Now, it’s just another brand that has been taken from its roots.

Clearly, this is a major loss for St. Louis, which has long been associated with the company.

When you think St. Louis, you think the Gateway Arch, the Cardinals, and Budweiser.

In a way, losing Bud to the Belgians is like seeing Albert Pujols taking a better offer from a team in Brussels.

I know that folks in Erie can relate. After all, the city has seen more than its share of similar losses.

The closest it comes, in my mind, is the loss of Hammermill Paper.

Many people felt betrayed when Hammermill was sold to International Paper back in the 1980s. The betrayal was cemented when IP pulled the paper-making operation from the Lake Erie shore in 2002.

It seems unlikely that Budweiser will ever be yanked from St. Louis.

Then again, it seemed impossible to imagine anyone other than the Busch family owning the quintessential American beer brand.

I was reminded of Dale Hannah’s recent post political plea bargains on What If? over the weekend when I read some of the stories about the state employees who are facing charges that they were part of a scheme to give improper bonuses to employees of the Pennsylvania Legislature.

I’ve written before about how public officials should be held to a higher standard when it comes to following the law and not abusing their power.

Hannah’s post had a similar tone in questioning the recent case involving former state Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones of Erie. I invite you to check it out — and to read the comments, as well.

One of Hannah’s readers, Ron, had what I think is a great idea for making public officials more accountable. He proposes jacking up the penalties for public officials who abuse their power:

For instance, if you use your power as a Congressman/woman to commit an offense, you should receive at least 1.5x the jail time/fine that you would have received for the same crime that a normal citizen would have received. Those who make our laws have the utmost responsibility to abide by them, and to abuse your power and break the trust of the people is a crime itself. I think if you want to seek public office, you need to remember that you work for the people, not for your own gains.

Would this work? Should public officials be held to a different standard? As always, I welcome your thoughts.

Dale Hannah reports on the opening night of the Rust Belt Bloggers Summit on What If?

An excerpt:

Some of the initial discussion focused on technique, gaining credibility, changing the “underdog” attitude that seems to permeate the minds of residents of the Rust Belt cities and towns. The power of the blogging world to reach those in positions of power was also discussed.

Boy, it’s been a good week for Waldameer and its new roller coaster, the Ravine Flyer 2.

I mentioned earlier how the new coaster was rated the fourth-best ride in the world by CoasterFanatics.com.

Today, the coaster is getting big play in the New York Times in a story about old-fashioned roller coasters.

It includes a great video about the coaster.

This week’s top comment comes from Mike, who opines about what he thinks is the difficult to break network for leadership positions in Erie.

There is a grain of truth to what Mike says, though the more I think about it, such networks exist in pretty much every community.

That said, there seems to be a recycling of folks in parts of the Erie leadership structure — at the expense of other smart people who could make a difference.

Here’s his comment:

It’s unfortunately true about the networks in Erie. They seem to run deep in this town, and you don’t always have that in other cities. That doesn’t mean that Becca Martin isn’t a good worker, but it helps to be “in” with the right people in Erie. Looking at the people on boards in Erie that have been listed on this site and the repeat names that show up helps illustrate that.

That irritates a lot of young people in Erie. Could a recent graduate from one of the local colleges with a degree in finance or economics, or an MBA graduate do just as good a job as Becca Martin, or even better? Maybe, maybe not, but we’ll never know because they are never given the chance to prove themselves (at least not in Erie), where there are some that are given opportunity after opportunity.

I’m not trying to bash Martin here, but Erie is definitely a city that could use some new blood in government/economic development positions.

Jim Martin at the Erie Times-News has an interesting story this morning about Becca Martin’s decision to leave her economic development job in Michigan and return to Erie.

Becca Martin, you might remember, left her job at the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership last summer to take a position as the head of the chamber of commerce in Ludington, Mich.

But homesickness is bringing her back, according to the ETN piece.

And she has her eye on two openings in Erie that are not identified in the piece.

One prominent opening in Erie’s economic development system is the soon-to-be-vacated position of chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corp. of Erie County.

Monica Brower, the current CEO of the organization, is leaving to take a position with Alcoa in Pittsburgh.

There’s no indication that Martin is in line for that job, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that she would consider putting her hat in the ring, given her experience with the Chamber and the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority.

Martin’s decision brings back memories of a similar situation involving Ralph Pontillo a few years ago.

Pontillo, the longtime president of the Manufacturer & Business Association, left the organization briefly in 2004 to take a job as the head of a prominent trade group in Houston.

But after just a few months down in Texas, Pontillo decided that he belonged in Erie and came back.

Unlike Martin, however, Pontillo was able to return to his former job.

Pittsburgh City Paper has taken note of this weekend’s Rust Belt Bloggers Summit in Erie — and is pointing to this Web site as an example of the type of discussions that are taking place on locally themed blogs in the Rust Belt region.

Here’s the opening to the piece, which is online today:

Looking quickly at the blog’s message board, it’d be hard to believe they were talking about any place but Pittsburgh.

“There is more inbreeding and incest in all these governmental agencies and authorities than in most royal families,” one reader posted on June 28.

“If there is one thing we do better [here] than anybody else, it’s shady backroom dealing,” another wrote on July 2.

The blog in question is Outside Erie (www.globalerie.com/blog/), maintained by Erie expatriate Peter Panepento, but the discussion could just as easily come from any number of other Rust Belt cities’ blogs with equally striking similarities.

This weekend, many of the writers who blog about similar issues in neighboring cities such as Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Buffalo will be coming to Erie for the first-ever Rust Belt Bloggers Summit.

The opening gathering is Friday night at the Brewerie. Erie natives such as Jim Russell and Douglas Derda (both of whom are writing from their new homes) are expected to be there.

So, too, are GlobalErie writers Ian Enterline and Dale Hannah are also expected be a part of the weekend’s events. Ian and Dale will be writing about what they learn throughout the weekend.

Unfortunately, I can’t get the time to be there myself. But I’m looking forward to finding out about some of the key issues that are identified by the folks who come in for the event — and to seeing if we can find some shared items that deserve attention throughout the larger region.

Should be interesting.

The Cook Political Report is still forecasting a victory for incumbent Rep. Phil English in the race for Pennsylvania’s 3rd District seat in Congress.

But English’s lead over Democratic challenger Kathy Dahlkemper is a bit shakier than initially thought.

Cook rates the district as “Lean Republican”, meaning the race is “leaning” toward English.

It had previously rated the district as “Likely Republican.”

In other words, English is still in the lead, but he is far from a sure thing.

Allstate Insurance does an annual list of the safest and most dangerous U.S. cities for motorists based on accident statistics.

Sioux Falls, S.D., tops the insurance company’s list of safest cities this year. And it’s a good thing my Erie Insurance policy is up to date, because Washington, D.C., comes in at the very bottom of the rankings.

Sadly, Erie is not large enough to make the Allstate list — but this ranking did get me thinking a bit about how our fair city would rate if it was included.

My sense is that it would rate fairly well. Drivers in Erie (aside from the guy who swerved in front of me on I-79 a couple of years back) are usually pretty passive and polite.

I’ve lived in other cities — namely here and in Boston — where even the most simple trip is cause for stress due to the aggressive nature of other drivers and the amount of overall congestion.

Do you agree? Is Erie a safe city for drivers? Are there other cities that are better or worse, based on your experience?