Erie - The good and the bad (Edinboro, Girard: transfer, college)

[CynthiaRushton]

As a born and raised Erie woman, who decided relatively late in life to get a college degree (yes I am a baby boomer toward the early end) I can say, looking back, that when RONALD REAGAN took office, the U S economy went down the tubes, especially for the young(er) workers, because the last hired were the first fired. Now, IF you are fortunate enough to get a job, you had better be young, healthy (what a joke!), know all the buzzwords, kiss behinds, and, once you get in, start eliminating your competition for the jobs you REALLY WANT, and NEED, to stay alive. The city is taxing everybody and everything in sight, eliminating jobs right and left, trying DESPERATELY to avoid Distressed City status, and if you want to rent, make sure you are employed, nonsmoker, no criminal record, no pets, and make no waves or complaints about your landlord or landlady, even if they don't take care of their tenants and/or property, and/or are slumlords (and yes, there are a few of them, who stay afloat by being good buddies of the local magistrate). I am an educated, experienced woman who looks much younger than her age, but I am physically challenged and sensory impaired, though I can disguise my status as such long enough to fool someone who doesn't know me, and I am not afraid to stand up for what is right, fair, equal, nondiscriminatory, and moral. Yet, for all that, getting employment in my field of study (am Business Admin, specializing in Accounting and Financial Services, minoring in Spanish {am multilingual [7 languages]} and nearing graduation), I have a reputation as a Christian, intelligent, tenacious (determined/stubborn), wave making when I see unfairness or injustice older woman. Care to tell me just HOW someone like me can get a job in the field (other than temporary clerk, or other type of low pay, long hours, no benefits job (which is 75% or more of the jobs around here, with the others highly competed for, and often go to the younger, feel-they-are-entitled-to-everything-handed-to-them-on-a-silver-platter, healthy, book-smart, high GPA, legally, but not emotionally, adults)? Moving elsewhere, given my health conditions, is not an option. And I won't say something to someone that I don't believe, let alone practice, just to get a job, either. How about some folks bringing in the major industries to replace the older ones that have decided to maximize their profits by moving out, outsourcing, downsizing, or hiring the immigrants which the government (not just Bush, either) has subsidized for decades, while cutting our wages, insurance, pensions, vacations, and overtime to pay for the perks we once enjoyed, and are giving the immigrants, legal, or otherwise, hand over fist? Or is that asking too much? Perhaps if we had modern industries, hiring older, experienced workers first, younger ones after them, and THEN, IF there are any jobs left over (there probably wouldn't be, though), to the LEGAL, naturalized, immigrants, maybe THEN we would see a HUGE change in the economic situation of this country. To make sure the companies wouldn't just do the same old, same old they have been doing for the last 26+ years, make sure that they would have to forfeit ALL profits they gain from downsizing, outsourcing, hiring immigrants over natural born citizens, PLUS, half of their fat executive salaries, bonuses, and benefits if they resorted to those tactics/methods. But, of course, that won't happen as long as those who have the money have the power to control those that have neither. Yes, you can call this a blog/rant, but if you check information closely, you will find proof of what I am saying here from other sources. NOW, anyone care to answer me?

[bolillo_loco]

While you can blame the lack of jobs, wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, and a plethora of other economic problems on some political party, person, or whatever you wish to label it, the bottom line is that it’s the average American’s fault. If people wouldn’t have bought foreign products and insisted on genuine American made goods, the companies wouldn’t have fled the country for cheap labor, lack of EPA, and all that foreign countries offer in comparison to America.

Looking for the government to bail us out isn’t going to work. From all that I’ve seen, the government manages to take a job that belongs in the private industry and create some big huge expensive bureaucracy.

[vwscottie]

We just got back from Christmas in Erie. We saw the signs protesting the "tire plant" along Route 5. What culture shock it is driving around my home town only after being in Pittsburgh a bit over a year.

[gummer]

I have been living in Erie for 20 years and now I'm looking to get out. Don't be fooled by the low rents here. The cost of living here isn't cheap when you take into consideration that you can expect to earn nothing more than minimum wage. With a degree...50 cents to a dollar above minimum. I have worked for one cheap ass employer after another. Nobody wants to give decent health benefits. Nobody wants to give raises. As a manager of two major companies here, I earned 50 cents more an hour than regular employees. We have some of the highest car insurance rates in the country. We absolutely have THE highest heating bills anywhere. Anyone who lives in Erie knows Ken Springerth and they all know the phrase "heat or eat". Because you can't have both. National Fuel is your only option for heating and they raise their rates at least once a year. A few years ago they raised it 40%. Some people are paying close to $1000 per month during winter. I know because my house is one of them and we have a brand new furnace and insulation. Pennsylvania in general doesn't seem to have very many options with utilities. Erie pays higher costs on things than large cities. My living expenses far exceed my income and it has always been that way here. Erie is like a black hole that sucks you in and there is no escape.

I can't imagine who would classify this place as a good place to raise children. The people here are exceptionally rude. Most of the city is in abject poverty. You have to go outside to Millcreek or farther for a decent neighborhood. I have been to a lot of places and never saw a place that had more pregnant teenagers than Erie. It is insane. At least half the highschool girls have one to three children before they graduate. Perhaps that is a symptom of living in a place that has nothing to do but ****.

I don't think the education system here is very good. I grew up elsewhere thankfully. Being on the honor roll in an Erie school is like being the smartest kid with Down Syndrome.

I'm not sure why Erie isn't on the list of fattest cities in America. Perhaps because it isn't large enough to qualify. I have never before seen anyone put mayonnaise on hotdogs outside of this place. Everybody is obese and wears skimpy clothes like they are hot. Everybody wears pajamas in public. Quite a few suck their thumbs in public....I'm talking full grown adults. Quite a few talk to themselves. With the advent of bluetooth technology for cell phones, it has become impossible to tell the crazies from the not-so-crazies.

It wouldn't be a bad place to live if the local government could think of something else to spend a million dollars on besides a scoreboard for a sports team that nobody has ever heard of outside of city limits. A tough love attitude towards education wouldn't hurt. A zero tolerance policy. Employers who treated employees like they mattered. Paid them like they mattered. And something else to do besides bars, bars, and more bars.

[danwxman]

I love Erie and have had a good time each visit. I've never found the people there to be more rude compared to anywhere else.

[adoty25]

Thank you, danwxman. This is a bad, bad place to live in the winter, but in the summer it is literally a treasure. I don't understand the animosity, nay, the hatred, that people have displayed towards Erie on this website and on others that I shall not point you toward, because that would just be bad advertising. But what I have noticed on this site is that a majority of the people who responded about Erie are saying, "heat or eat," "eliminating jobs right and left," etc. Here's the real story about those issues:
1) Heat or Eat? Are you serious? I pay less for this apartment (which is BEAUTIFUL, very old and charming, clean, and all utilities included except for those that I will get to in a minute) than most people do for parking in a "real" city per month. And, my parking is included. ALL of these downtown places pay the heat as an included perk (which we do need, considering that we live in a place where it's COLD for seven months out of twelve). My gas bill is roughly $30 per month. That is for my cooking on the gas stove, and for the hot water. If you can't pay $30 a month towards a basic utility that people in most other places pay a FORTUNE for, then perhaps you should work a couple more hours per week.
And then..."eliminating jobs right and left?" Well, perhaps in the industrial field, which is bleeding jobs all over the whole country, not just here. There are some GREAT opportunities here in the health-care and educational fields. And while of course not everyone wants to or is qualified to work in either of those fields, for those who want to, it's a gold mine. And if you don't, public relations might also welcome you here. And if you just don't feel like working at all, then don't come here, because you will work harder digging your car out of the snow in the winter than you probably ever have before.
Seriously, I'm not exactly a native, in that I wasn't born here (Brooklyn, in case you were wondering). And I'm the first to admit that this is NOT a sophisticated, classy, white-collar town. But I will tell you the following: We are NOT unfriendly. We are NOT without things to be proud of, and we are NOT pretentious. No one here will be rude to you unless you really, really ask for it.
This city is a literal treasure in the summer. It's so cool because NO ONE has discovered it yet, and so we don't have that many out-o-towners here yet. We have bald eagles on the peninsula, and miles and miles of sandy beaches. The people who live here year-round think like this: "If you don't have a brutal winter, you don't appreciate the spring." Yes, our winters are very bad, but you can either look at it as depressing (as most people on this site tend to) or you can view it as inspiring and something that makes you appreciate the spring and summer more than you ever would have known how to before.
And yeah, there may not be that many manufacturing jobs left here, but move on, friends! I moved on when I got fired (YES, FIRED), from a prominent banking job here in Erie. I went back to school to get my MA (yes, did that right here,) and ended up getting paid to go to school and teach, which turned out to be my life's passion. I found that here in stupid, depressing Erie. The point is, you can have some rough times no matter where you live, and you can turn it around no matter where you live. I grew up and came of age in an "economically depressed" area, and I have been nothing but happy and successful here. I am going to move to Lexington, KY to get my PhD, but if I could get it here I would.
What I will miss the most from here is 1) the water. Absolutely it will be weird not having an open body of water that I can go out perch-fishing on whenever I want. 2) driving around Presque Isle in the very early spring looking for green stuff. We get green in mid-April, but I am one of those optimists who always looks for spring way before it gets to NW PA. 3) The frozen beach. It is completely otherworldly. You have never seen anything like frozen Lake Erie. I mean, the whole sea is frozen. And you're used to the sound of waves when you're at the beach - you never realize how weird it is to be at the beach without noise until you've been to the frozen beach. It looks like the moon, or a desert. I have some great pictures of it...although pictures don't do it. You have to live here, and understand what it looks like in all of its seasons. We have a beautiful place here, and you can't see it until you give it a chance in ALL the seasons.

[NWPAguy]

Did we even have real seasons this year? There was one week of spring in April and then May was FRIGID until the very end... then the cold snap broke and turned into record-breaking heat! Only lately have we had weather that might qualify as being "spring-like"... and it's in the end of June which makes this officially the summer!

Adoty25, you make some valid points about Erie and the surrounding area. It's for some people... not for all people. The relative lack of new housing construction, and the fact that Erie County's population has been steadily dwindling in recent times, shows that apparently the people who are smart and have a few bucks in their pockets generally tend to move away. That being said, there are a few good jobs for said smart people... in education and health care... or possibly governmental services. I doubt that the main employer in the area (retail services) provides many well-paying jobs.

Erie is going to die if PA doesn't get its act together. As a matter of fact, PA as a state is going to die eventually if the government doesn't shape up. It currently ranks 49th out of 50 states in terms of net influx of people (only West Virginia, a neighbor of PA, ranks lower)... and ultimately I think that most people who move to PA when they weren't originally from PA are coming from New Jersey or the New York City area to escape the "hustle and bustle" of those population-dense, traffic-infested areas. That's me... I'm a transplant from Jersey. Very few people who grew up in a different state CHOOSE to move to PA. Usually, in order to move somewhere, you have to have a good job which brings you there... that kills the deal for most people. However, if you don't need a good job, Northwest PA might be the perfect place for you. Housing is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP... and it's a sportsman's paradise. If you love hunting (especially deer hunting), fishing, and riding snowmobiles/dirt bikes, I doubt you could find a better place in the lower 48 for you.

I'm "moving on", as you said, to Texas. At least there I'll have opportunity to live a decent life... while still being able to ride my bicycle in shorts and a tank top in January. I'm sorry, but I've decided that I hate snow and cold. I used to like them, until I suffered through Northwest PA's eight-month frigid period and had to drive around constantly on snow-covered roads during snowstorms which brought 50mph winds. Give me 100-degree days over that anytime... yeah, that's brutally hot and uncomfortable, but at least I wouldn't have to skid around on an icy road, nor spend ten minutes brushing snow and scraping ice off of my car (and an hour shoveling out my driveway), when it's 100 degrees outside.

[Ohiogirl81]

Thanks for the laughs, Gummer. If you think all the gripes you listed about Erie are unique to the city, you need to get out more.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to talk to myself while I suck my thumb ... all at the same time. See what an Erie education can teach you?

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by NWPAguy

Did we even have real seasons this year? There was one week of spring in April and then May was FRIGID until the very end... then the cold snap broke and turned into record-breaking heat! Only lately have we had weather that might qualify as being "spring-like"... and it's in the end of June which makes this officially the summer!

Adoty25, you make some valid points about Erie and the surrounding area. It's for some people... not for all people. The relative lack of new housing construction, and the fact that Erie County's population has been steadily dwindling in recent times, shows that apparently the people who are smart and have a few bucks in their pockets generally tend to move away. That being said, there are a few good jobs for said smart people... in education and health care... or possibly governmental services. I doubt that the main employer in the area (retail services) provides many well-paying jobs.

Erie is going to die if PA doesn't get its act together. As a matter of fact, PA as a state is going to die eventually if the government doesn't shape up. It currently ranks 49th out of 50 states in terms of net influx of people (only West Virginia, a neighbor of PA, ranks lower)... and ultimately I think that most people who move to PA when they weren't originally from PA are coming from New Jersey or the New York City area to escape the "hustle and bustle" of those population-dense, traffic-infested areas. That's me... I'm a transplant from Jersey. Very few people who grew up in a different state CHOOSE to move to PA. Usually, in order to move somewhere, you have to have a good job which brings you there... that kills the deal for most people. However, if you don't need a good job, Northwest PA might be the perfect place for you. Housing is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP... and it's a sportsman's paradise. If you love hunting (especially deer hunting), fishing, and riding snowmobiles/dirt bikes, I doubt you could find a better place in the lower 48 for you.

I'm "moving on", as you said, to Texas. At least there I'll have opportunity to live a decent life... while still being able to ride my bicycle in shorts and a tank top in January. I'm sorry, but I've decided that I hate snow and cold. I used to like them, until I suffered through Northwest PA's eight-month frigid period and had to drive around constantly on snow-covered roads during snowstorms which brought 50mph winds. Give me 100-degree days over that anytime... yeah, that's brutally hot and uncomfortable, but at least I wouldn't have to skid around on an icy road, nor spend ten minutes brushing snow and scraping ice off of my car (and an hour shoveling out my driveway), when it's 100 degrees outside.

Pennsylvania does have a net loss of domestic population, but that has been slowing every year since 2000. Several states now have a much larger domestic loss, including Ohio and Michigan. If you look at the trends, in a couple years Pennsylvania will likely have a net gain in domestic population. Overall, Pennsylvania's population is growing by about 30,000 each year.

[gummer]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Thanks for the laughs, Gummer. If you think all the gripes you listed about Erie are unique to the city, you need to get out more.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to talk to myself while I suck my thumb ... all at the same time. See what an Erie education can teach you?

America is globally ranked 18 out of 24 countries for educational standards. Within America, Erie is well below national averages. Next......