Watching Paint Dry
As some of you are already aware, I’m a native of the ass-backward “All-American” city of Erie, Pennsylvania. For those of you who have never been there, let me tell you that you are truly missing the jewel in the Pennsylvania crown.
To get a feel for just how riveting a town Erie is, all you have to do is go to GoErie.com which is THE source of information in greater Erie County. I visited GoErie a couple weeks ago to look for an obituary and thought a couple days ago, “Hey, I’ll go there and see what’s happening. With all the happenings there, it might make for some blog entries.” The place is so damn exciting that you can’t see what’s going on anonymously… you have to view with an account! Oh, the insanity!
Not swayed by my ever-so-brief testimonial that Erie is the place to be?
Then go here and check out all the action.
Don’t forget to tell them Woy sent you.
Technorati Tags: goerie
That’s pretty much why I started a news and events blog centered on Erie 5 years ago. And that why it getting thousands of visitors.
First, thanks Dennis for dropping by and leaving a comment.
After writing and posting this entry, I started to think that it may have been over-the-top. More than anything it was to highlight the disaster of GoErie.com, which ever since I can remember (the turn of the decade?) it has been a horrific website. While it’s fair to say that many newspaper and traditional media websites are generally bad, Erie’s major news source website has been abysmal. Couple that with the fact that it now requires registration makes it just plain ridiculous. Instead, I may have really taken the idea that nothing ever happens there a little too far. My Dad certainly would give me hell since he still lives there. While that might have been much, I still assert the city is very much ass-backward.
I had a very enjoyable and safe childhood growing up in Erie. I look back on those days with very fond memories. As I moved into adulthood after attending college in Erie, I realized that my future lay elsewhere and left.
Any positive memories consistently become damped and discouraged as I come home and witness the blight of downtown (witnessed by taking 26th St. all the way from Fairview to Peach). When I hear that the biggest issue facing City Council (albeit years ago) was whether or not fluoride should be put into the water… that funding absolutely needs to be cut for lifeguards at Presque Isle (one of the best things about Pennsylvania, let alone Erie)… or even when a young energetic mayor is /finally/ elected, he turns out to be nothing but a corrupt political thief. It’s enough to make you cynical about my birthplace, and I haven’t lived there for years. I do, of course, hold a soft spot in my heart for the place I’m from and love deep down.
I’ll sum it up with an excerpt from an e-mail I exchanged with one of your co-founders:
“While there’s certain pieces I miss, I sadly really don’t miss it and have
no desire to return. I’ve learned so much about how many problems
Erie has in a variety of aspects… and I really hope ‘young people’,
re: non Mario Bagnoni era individuals, can make huge changes to the
culture, government, and business climate there. Then, Erie can realize its potential.”
Efforts like your site are truly an innovation for Erie being very well done and performing a great service for Erie. When I first saw erieblogs.com materialize almost two years ago, I was ecstatic that Erie was on the forefront of a new web phenomenon. With more people like you, Erie can continue to improve. Nice job!
erie > cleveland… so um… so there’s that!