Erie, PA (Washington: live in, mall, moving)

[astrogal]

Ohiogirl thanks for the reminder of 'school days"! I used to go to Catholic grade school....during the blizzard of 77 I had to walk home and had forgotten my pants....they let us out early cause it was getting nasty...my legs took 3 days to thaw out and I only had to walk about 10 blocks.

I remember a rumor about Cathedral Prep...if the Monsignor could walk to the school, then Prep would open.

I can only recall city schools shutting down like once or twice. A few years ago though we had a NASTY ice storm....they closed the schools but there was still people out and about.

But outside of that I could count on one hand the amount of snow days.

I moved out by the Peek when I was about 20...Wattsburg shuts down alot more then the other county schools....but they were in that weird extra lake effect snow zone......but even so....it always took alot to close down anything. When I lived out there the roads were plowed twice for the school buses and only once a day on the weekends.

I am moving to LA very soon...and I will miss the snow :-(

It really is beautiful here when you have a bad storm at night....everything is covered and all you can hear is the wind and pelting of snow.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by astrogal

during the blizzard of 77 I had to walk home and had forgotten my pants....they let us out early cause it was getting nasty...my legs took 3 days to thaw out and I only had to walk about 10 blocks.

Good times, the blizzard of '77 ... It was too nasty out to send us to school, but not too nasty out for us to drive to each other's houses every night for impromptu parties (I think all that time indoors was driving our parents crazy!), to drive across town to the movies, to spin donuts with my friend's dad's Chrysler station wagon in the intersection of 26th and Peach, etc.

Hopefully, you'll come back to visit in the winter for all that "fun"!

[otenglish]

I just moved back to the DC area having just spent two years at Mercyhurst in grad school. I grew up there - yea, it has bad Winters but no worse than Chicago or Cleveland. Frankly, if yoiu are going to school there, it is not a bad place. I personally prefer larger cities, since I'm in my fifties and single. Believe me, for single women, outside of drinking yourself silly, there is very little to do or see in the city. But if you want to go to school there or raise kids, its a good place.

The school opportunities are excellent - I say "opportunities" because if you want to excell, you can. There is a charter school with graduates that attend the best Ivey League schools in the country. Mercyhurst has the only graduate school of Intelligence Studies in the country. The people there are basically conservative - the city has a mean liberal streak fuelled by the prevalance of Ivory tower types - but generally the folks there are fine. I would not say that they are open to strangers as the social life is cliqueish and it is easy to become isolated if you are not there for school or job.

But unfortunately the vast majority of the residents don't emphasize education for their children and, thus, the huge ratio of uneducated, GED and high school diploma-less people compared to the meager college educated folks. Erie will never develop itself until it develops an educated workforce.

Housing is inexpensive and easy to find. I hope this helps. The school you have chosen - LECOM - is excellent.

[kpoeppel]

If you don't like snow, Erie is NOT the place to move!!

Yes, Erie is more Midwestern than East Coast, which I think is just fine.

As for the Iraq war, you'll see both yellow ribbons and anti-war slogans. It seems pretty balanced on that issue around here.

[Seaharbour]

Erie is a very beautiful place to live..lucky you! We used to go there alot when we lived in the area.

[kpoeppel]

I just wish the economy was better. There's a very prevelent "blue collar" mentality around here that doesn't value education or global competitiveness.

[Seaharbour]

Seems to be that way...alot of places anymore Kpo

[vwscottie]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

I just wish the economy was better. There's a very prevelent "blue collar" mentality around here that doesn't value education or global competitiveness.

The mentality is very blue collar, people complain about no jobs, but will fight a new plant being built here or there. The saying was always that Erie was at least 10 years behind the rest of the country in every sense. I miss my hometown and all the great memories I have there, but my fiance has a wonderful career here in Pittsburgh and there wouldn't be much for me to move back to career wise.

[Seaharbour]

Its not that far of a drive too, at least you can get back for a weekend or so here too, I know ALOT of people who have boats up that way, that go for long weekends to get away from it all!

[kpoeppel]

Look in the Erie Times-News editorial/opinion page, and it's just rant after bitter rant about globalization, NAFTA, Bush, etc, etc. A typical Times-News headline is "Plant Moving to Mexico" or "Workers Laid Off". Compare that to the Houston Chronicle which has headlines like "Local Economy Remains Hot" and "Jobs Waiting on Workers." Maybe it's not Bush or NAFTA that is the problem? Maybe it's the entitlement attitude that's so prevalent around here? I can't see a company being successful around here without it immediately being accused of "price gouging" or "unfair labor practices" or "environmental pollution" or "discrimination" or other nonsense. Profit in Erie (and Western PA in general) is like "blood in the water" for sharks...the local population will use any means necessary to get their hands on someone else's profits...all for the sake of "fairness" and "justice" of course. Perhaps that is why non-profit enterprises, like hospitals and universities, are the only big businesses we have left.