Berlin’s Wall

It struck me today as I visited the (very cool) Extreme Home Makeover activity on 21st St. that what is going on down here at Griswold Park is pretty similar:  taking a deserving site and making it a whole lot better.

Union Station was the hub of life here for many years and contributed greatly to this community. 

It is where the early generation immigrants landed when they arrived to live in America.

It is where GE’s guy got off the train on his way to find land in Cleveland to build the locomotive works (and thankfully changed his mind).

It is where the greatest generation left to fight in Europe and Asia (with some never coming back again).

And we are now trying to make it, and the surrounding neighborhood, the center of life in Erie once again.

So, if you get a chance–maybe on your way to or from the home makeover site, stop down and see these guys busting their butts here too. No cameras, no celebrities, but good people hard at work for a worthy cause: to help “makeover” Erie’s downtown and give it new life.

Thanks again to all those who are making this happen.

JB

Just got back from a great week in New York with my brother, Doug, my lovely niece, Erin, and some wonderful friends from the past (Aztech Goofy and his lovely wife, Riva and their beautiful daughter, Erissa–see Doug’s blogs for more info about them : ).

Got to give a couple of talks about Union Station and the revitalization of downtown Erie to some NYC businessfolks sponsored by Inc. Magazine.

Got to help my son, Derek, move (and unpack : ).

Got to go to the beach with our brother-in-law, Eddie Phelan, and his beautiful family. That’s Doug’s nephew, Dylan, with us at the beach.  What a great kid. Smart, sharp and a budding yo-yo master besides : ).

Got to eat an 8 lb lobster (DEE-licious).

Got to visit the old neighborhood and see some old friends.

Got to drive a Tesla–a driving experience like no other!

Wonderful time.

Off to Mongolia on Friday for the Mongolian wedding of our IT guy, Chinzo, and his beautiful wife, Tem. Meeting up in Beijing with my daughter, Melissa and her boyfriend, Brian. Should be a cool experience.

Family and friends. Hard to beat!

…to all you Dads out there.It is BY FAR the toughest job any of us will ever have, as well as the most important thing we ever do.Happy Father’s Day!JB

What a terrific event. Every year the Manufacturers’ Association comes up with wonderful, interesting, relevant speakers (thank you), and Dubya did not disappoint.  He was engaging and relaxed, thoughtful and humorous. He did a good job.

I know he has his critics, though I believe it is too early for history to have rendered its verdict on his presidency.  But I’ll tell you one thing, he is straightforward and sincere in his beliefs, and that came across very clearly in his remarks last night.

Couple of comments from my point of view:

I do believe that he tends to oversimplify the world into good and evil. But at some point (the attacks of 9/11 may well have been that point) you don’t have the luxury of  nuance and complications, and you just have to act. You may not act 100% correctly all the time (who of us does that even in the best of times?) but you have to use whatever tools are at your disposal to do your job–to protect our nation, our people and our way of life from those who clearly want to destroy it. May be an oversimplification, but I am sure he is on the right side of that ideological struggle, so I’m ok with that.

The other thing that I have long felt is based on my own, miniscule experience of running a business: It is real easy to sit in the stands (or to lay on the couch) yelling at the “stupid” quarterback “Hey, he’s wide open. Can’t you see? Get him the ball, a**hole”.  But it is quite another thing to be that guy, out on the field, with the ball in his hands, a million things in your head, chaos all around, time running out, 4 giant athletes charging hard to knock your head off and do the job. It is easy being the Monday morning quarterback. Not so easy doing it in real life.  And just think of all the issues and responsibilities and events and people that you’ve got to deal with being the President of the United States!  We need to cut ANY of these guys some slack. 

On the door to my office I’ve kept a photograph of President Bush,  Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudy Giuliani greeting/consoling one another the day Bush gave that speech at Ground Zero just days after the attack. I use that to remind myself every day that the problems I deal with here, which can seem difficult and ARE meaningful, and DO affect the lives of our employees and customers, are NOTHING compared to what these men (real flesh and blood human beings, doing the best that they can) had to deal with during that terrible time.   Helps keep things in perspective for me.

Bush may have his critics, and they may have some valid points. But as he said, he kept the country safe for his remaining seven years, and that’s something.  You’ve got to give him that. 

History will be the judge of the rest.

Thanks,

JB

Oberstar: Highway Bill to Redesign DOT

by R.G. Edmonson |

Jun 9, 2009 2:56AM GMT The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

T&I Committee chair plans speedy push to move massive highway bill through House

Future transportation policy will break down the Department of Transportation’s “Stonehenge” structure — restructuring a group of monoliths — Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., said June 8.

Even the real Stonhenge has some monoliths connected by lintels, which is something the modal monoliths don’t have at DOT, Oberstar told the Propeller Club of Washington.

Oberstar is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is finishing its draft of an 800-page bill to restructure DOT and develop a comprehensive national transportation policy. The bill will be introduced before the end of this month, he said.

DOT will have a high-level chief of intermodalism and a policy council of all modes that will meet regularly.

“Today they don’t sit around a table to have coffee,” Oberstar said. “We must step outside the insular modal system and facilitate the efficient movement of goods. We must avoid the inefficiencies of the traditional modal structure.”

Maritime transportation will not be overlooked in future transportation policy and strategy, Oberstar said. “We’re going to transform the future of transportation in America, and put maritime in the front ranks.”

Oberstar called the current state of the U.S. merchant marine “despicable — we should be No. 1,” and said that the U.S. has to improve maritime training to build a “graying” maritime workforce.

The U.S. should take steps to protect U.S. flag ships from Somali pirates. Marine safety should become a core mission of the Coast Guard.

“We also need to embrace short sea shipping. This is one I think has great promise,” Oberstar said. He said the Harbor Maintenance Tax is a barrier to entry that should be eliminated, and Congress should consider tax credits for trucking companies that shift freight from the highway to water.

“It’s difficult to get financing for short sea shipping vessels because the vessel interests are not sure that the water highway will actually work,” Oberstar said. “But it stands to be good public policy to get thousands of trucks off the highways and even some railcars off the rails.”

Interesting article by Fareed Zakaria in this week’s Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/200049

Last night offered an absolutely unforgettable evening to those of us fortunate enough to be able to attend the Dave Brubeck Quartet concert up at Mercyhurst.

Yes, THAT Dave Brubeck!

At 89 he still plays magnificently, and leads the quartet of Bobby Militello (yes, from Buffalo!) on sax and flute, Michael Moore on bass, and Randy Jones on drums.  Later in the evening they were joined by one of Brubeck’s sons, Matt, who plays the cello (have you ever heard blues on the cello?)  I am by no means a jazz expert, but it sure seemed to me that all of them are world class, and loved working with the living legend,  Brubeck, and then with his son joining them onstage, it had to make a papa proud : )

I only found out about the concert at the last minute, having tried to get into Jr’s Last Laugh to see the comedian, Sinbad, only to find out Jr’s was sold out. I took a chance and went up to the D’Angelo theater (even though that was sold out too) and was lucky enough to find someone whose friends could not make it up as planned from Maryland for the show (thank you!) and got in.  1. What a cool thing for Erie to have such internationally acclaimed performers here the same night (please, no more saving “there’s nothing to do in Erie” ok?), and 2. I think everyone in the audience last night felt that they truly were in the presence of greatness seeing this living legend perform at such a masterful caliber. Wow!

Anyway, thanks to Nick Scott (Nick, it turns out, besides all his other talents and skills, is also a trained pianist who met Brubeck down in the Virgin Islands years ago when he saw him at a restaurant, and walked over the piano near where Brubeck was eating and started playing “Brubeck” for him.  Truly an entrepreneur’s boldness, Nick : ) Nick then got to meet him when Brubeck stood up and applauded and asked Nick for HIS autograph.  And Nick has kept in touch and was able to bring his friend, Dave, here years later for this show.

Thank you, Nick. Just another of the many ways your vision, creativity and boldness make Erie a wonderful place to live and work.

So, I’d say that for Nick’s vision, and can-do spirit, as well as for the Brubeck Quartet’s performance of the evening, I felt that I was in the presence of 2 kinds of greatness last night : )

Thanks again,

JB

By William Falk.  Reprinted without permission (I hope he does not mind : )

“It would be reasonable to assume that a declining old fogy such as myself–with my 50-something body creaking and wheezing like a car with fading paint, fins and a clogged carbeurator–would be far more vulnerable to swine flu than my bright-eyed teenage daughters.  Not so. Two-thirds of the 5,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. thus far, the Centers for Disease Control revealed last week, have struck people between the ages of 5 and 24.  Less than 1 percent of those infected were over 65. What gives?  Many older people, blood studies show, have partial immunity to the swine variant because of a lifetime of exposure to similar flu viruses.  The epidemiological quirk may be counterintuitive, but from my perspective as a parent, not so surprising: Every day I am reminded how vulnerable the young are to hazards to which, due to inoculation provided by decades of hard experience, I am now immune.

The mean-spirited judgment of others is deeply wounding when you’re 13; at 54, not so much. At 17, the outrageous unfairness of life is not a simple reality, but the source of recurring anger and humiliation and self-doubt. Over time, repeated exposure to these psychic pathogens renders them less toxic; you learn to maintain your equilibrium.  What you can’t do, unfortunately, is distill that process into a vaccine to administer to your children.  Only through their own mistakes and heartache do they develop antibodies of their own.  It is the hardest thing about being a parent, watching your children struggle and suffer, learning what you already know but cannot, for the life of you, pass on”.

–William Falk 

At Union Station is now open for the season. Stop down and enjoy great beer, great food and a unique outdoor atmosphere.

You can also check out the progress at Griswold Park and stop into the Hookah Cafe for another unique Erie experience.

Very cool place!

See you there!

JB 

With Chrysler in bankruptcy and a GM bankruptcy likely, I was wondering how that will affect the many suppliers of those auto giants.

If you or your company will be affected by this, can you please write in and let us know how?

Thanks,

JB