The holidays are an optimistic time. With a new, white blanket of snow comes a cleansing feeling, and with a New Year always comes a feeling of another chance, of a new hope that what is to come will be better than what has been.
Believe it or not, optimism is also seen one of the driving forces in any economic revitalization for Erie.
“C’mon Scott, we can’t just wish ourselves more jobs.”
Oh, yeah? Don’t be so sure.
A couple from Missouri moved to Erie two years ago to start a small company. They moved here because as outsiders they saw potential here, and they saw a support network for what they wanted to achieve.
Shawn Vaught knew his way around trucks, and electronics. He heard the complaints that diesel engines don’t run very well, aren’t fuel efficient and so aren’t cost effective given current gas prices.He doesn’t like America’s dependency on foreign oil.
So he developed computerized electronics, a black box that would bolt on an engine and oversee how a diesel system runs, making it more efficient and even able to handle the new breed of bio-fuels to come.In some ways, he built a brain for truck engines.
The reaction has been amazing; even the Army is on board hoping to use the new technology on the new breed of Humvees to be unveiled in a few years.
Progressive Engineering is now in a brand new building in Fairview and the future for more jobs looks bright, because a young couple looked around the country and believed, really believed, that the answer was going to be found in Erie.
There are other signs.
Airport officials are close to inking the deal to take control of a former Soviet air base in Germany, key to plans to build a cargo link between central Europe and Erie. There are people who believe, really believe, that being a small airport can give us a tactical advantage of shorter wait times to ship perishable or other same day cargo through customs.
More than sixty acres of the former South Yard at the I.P. property is being remediated for industry. It will be one of the largest brown field sites available for development in the area, complete with rail spur, water and power. With that site, 17 acres at the old Practice Tee driving range and nine acres at the old EMI foundry, Erie now has a small, medium and large portfolio that can be used to lure almost any size business, something that never existed here.
“Without available property you aren’t even in the game,” GEIDC executive director Monica Brower told me once.
Are there challenges?
Of course there are.
Will there be disappointments?
Certainly.
But I tire of those who stare at the air in the glass, unwilling or unable to see the water that also clearly exists there.
The next time somebody asks you about living here, forget the snow and the losses and the negativity.Erie has low crime, solid workers, good schools and a Great Lake.
It is optimism that shapes our ability to believe, and that shapes our willingness to go out and make it happen.
What can we do to bring jobs here?
Nothing, unless we really believe that it is possible.
Hey! I strongly believe in your ability to comment on this site, but the comments section has been downsized.
If you feel good about it, beam me an email at scott.bremner@35wsee.com, write "Comments" in the subject line so I won't miss it, and I'll be happy, really happy, to post your thoughts.
UPDATE Shortly after posting this I learned that Bush Industries is laying off one third of its Erie County work force, about 80 people. Does that change what I've said above?
Not one word. In fact, it makes it more imperative.
COMMENTS
Hey, Scott
I really think the lack of comments is due to the tech glitches that occured earlier this year. First we couldn't get past the verification key, then Peter left town and the whole site took a big hit!!!!
Folks probably lost interest in reading the blogs and not being able to comment, just gave up. The problem now is to jump-start the process again.
I don't believe the problem has anything to do with your blog, but in the fast-paced world we live in, if you blink, you lose.
GoErie blinked
Dale Hannah