It’s no secret to anyone who reads this space that I am a fan of optimism, especially when it comes to a community’s vitality.
Hey, if we don’t toot our horn, you do you think will?
I don’t have a lot of facts and figures at my fingertips to back up my belief that overall Erie is a pretty good place to live, but I do have many small indicators.
One of the largest is the amount of people who stay in touch with this town, even long after they leave it.
Nomadic activity is as prevalent in the local television business as it was on the open prairie years ago.
Many young reporters and anchors with big city dreams start in smaller towns like Erie, work for a year or two and then start the long, slow climb up market sizes.
If you’ve asked the question, “Who are all these new people on TV that I don’t recognize?” consider yourself answered.
But even those with the smallest of stays find a way to stay in touch with a little town that has apparently touched them.
Sure, reaching out is a lot easier in a world of text messages and emails, but why would a brief stopover from someone not born or staying here bring out even the thinnest of attachments if Erie had nothing to offer?
That’s why I consider it something of a noble experiment when former Times News business writer Peter Panepento started a blog called Global Erie from his new home in Washington, DC.
(Hey! Read the rest of this before clicking http://www.globalerie.com/blog/)
Panepento spent six years in Erie covering subjects like job losses and brain drains and tax breaks.
He is now curious to start dialogues with people who now live both inside but particularly outside Erie:
Why did you leave?
Did you want to stay?
Could Erie have done anything to make you stay?
I’m predicting that he’s going to get a good response because I know that many people who stay here take a piece of this place with them.
For me, the short commutes, cheap prices, low crime, good schools, brilliant sunsets, grape vines in the fall, Frontier Park sledding and a dozen others are all good reasons to stay.
But others are driven to move on to bigger things.
But bigger AND better?
That’s up for just the kind of debate Panepento is looking to create.
HEY! Do Erie's pros outweigh her cons? Is there still hope in our little corner of the world? You know what I think. What do you think? Post it here!