Have A Good Sandwich

Father Spoon pointed this story out via Twitter that Erie had received an anonymous gift of $100 million dollars to be dispersed to local Erie charities.

My first thought was, “Holy shit!”

My second thought was, “Who the hell does someone with $100 million know in Erie?”

My final thought rested on what a wonderful thing that was, that someone who either was from there or knows someone there (most definitely the former) has given something back to the city.  I was very happy for my hometown.

What saddened me was seeing how Erie is described around the world with the city being characterized as everything from a “rust belt city” and “northeastern US town(?!?)” to “poor Erie city”.   I wish it could be portrayed in a better way when the spotlight is upon it.

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

I was born and grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. So, every once in a while you’ll see a post on here about my native city. As such, this first post is a particularly sweet one.

Rick Filippi, businessman and first term mayor of the City of Erie, was indicted on 6 counts including criminal conspiracy, conflict of interest, and accepting improper influence. (Note the appalling JetTV website. <sigh>)

Way to go Rick!

For years, I’ve heard of crooked dealings coming out of the Mayor’s office. I know he has (or had) ownership in Sullivan’s, which wasn’t a bad bar to go to on the weekends. He was a personal injury lawyer to boot. Ick.

Erie has been decimated by inept politicians over the past 40 years. Mario Bagnoni and Jim Thompson, for example, have kept Erie shacked in the 1960’s for years. The same revolving door of politicians have inhabited the halls of city and county council, keeping old thinking firmly at the helm of the state’s fourth largest city. Sadly, it was the third largest when I lived there.

The one time a “fresh face” comes out and runs for office, he’s charged with wheeling and dealing to get a gambling facility put in. Phil Friedman, another upstanding area gem, says that Filippi was the victim of a shakedown. Yeah…. right. The Mayor of Erie is just the person I’d try to shakedown for cash. The city, sadly, is one major business closing (GE) away from complete disaster. Think Pittsburgh’s problems are bad? Go hang out in Franklin Terrace for a while.

I’ll be curious to see what happens to this one.