<Back

Citistates Reports | Erie Peirce Reports

ERIE TIMES SERIES

SECOND STAGE OF CITISTATES GROUP CONTRIBUTIONS

Appeared in the
Erie Times over
the weekend of
September 5-7, 1998

(Note: The first stage of articles for Erie, setting the stage for major deliberations by the Erie Regional Government Opportunities Task Force, appeared in the Times in spring 1998. Their text appears at the bottom of this file)

ARTICLE ONE:

The sun, the moons, the stars seem lined up for dramatic forward strides for the Erie region — a moment of rare opportunity to modernize its governments, undergird its economy, improve its quality of life, and prepare smartly for the 21st century.

Here are the elements, as we see them:

• The strongest economy in many years, with unemployment at 5.9 percent and retention of manufacturing employment some 10 percent above the national average.
• The wave of confidence generated by the surge of renewal in downtown Erie and the almost miraculous rebirth of the waterfront.
• An array of strong inputs for local government, among them the less than a decade old Erie Area Council of Governments implementing a growing series of interjurisdictional agreements, and the Pennsylvania Economy League analyzing local governance in a highly professional manner
• The business-led Erie Conference on Community Development, developing new and progressive approaches to longstanding problems.
• A newspaper, The Erie Times, progressive in tone and interested in regional reform.
• Some fortuitous politics. Tom Ridge, a governor who hails from Erie, is likely to gain a second term this fall and interested in using Erie as a laboratory. And there’s an opening for more work for reform, unclouded by fears about reelection, by an Erie mayor who can’t succeed herself and county executive who’s decided on her own not to seek another term.
• Formation in 1997 of the Regional Government Opportunities Task Force (RGOTF) — a group of citizens and business leaders who dared to say, even by the name of their project, that the governance in Erie city and county is a long way from perfect, and that solutions need to be thought through on a regional basis instead of the cumbersome let-every-city-or-borough-or-township-decide approach so familiar in Pennsylvania politics.

(Let us add, quickly, some “truth in advertising”: it was the RGOTF that brought us to town and asked us to write these articles as independent journalistic evaluations of potentials for progress here. The RGOTF also commissioned our colleagues, the formidable duo of John Parr and Peter Kenney of the Center for Regional and Neighborhood Action, to work with the RGOTF and prepare the full report on potential local government reform.

Perils of complacency. There is, to be sure, a disturbing habit in many communities when things are going well enough - too many people think: “Let’s rest on our oars. What’s the problem?”

It would be all too easy to approve a few superficial reforms and hope for the best. That’s the path chosen by far too many communities across America that are destined to remain very ordinary places — or even worse, slide into decline.

Indeed, far too many of America’s success stories are about comebacks instead of having acted smart in the first place. Cleveland apparently had to jump into bankruptcy and let the Cuyahoga River catch on fire before it could mount the effort, now a quarter century in the making, to revitalize its downtown, rebuild its theater district, and now save its imperiled neighborhoods. New York came close to drowning in red ink and waves of ugly crime before the reforms that have now put it on an upward trajectory.

As friends of Erie, we hope the community can act up-front, proactively, to keep its governments responsive, its economy strong, its quality of life high.

Vital signs. Just look at the vital signs — beyond those we listed at the start of this article. Beyond the recent symbols of progress— the new library and the permanent celebratory monument of the Bicentennial Tower — lies Presque Isle, looming mysteriously in the mists beyond the bay, a temptation for any visitor to explore.

The crime rate’s low, while cultural opportunities are high. The region’s air is clean and fresh, its water abundant and drinkable.

Education ranks high in the region’s priorities, and college-level opportunities are growing steadily.

The region is home to an extraordinary collection of successful manufacturing enterprises. The giant GE plant is still stunning in scale. Hammermill, now run from elsewhere, hums along, as do hundreds of lesser-known but vital industrial operations making things people need, from plastics to plumbing.

Even the weather, if one persists in conversation past the customary deprecating condemnations about winter whiteness, seems as asset. The “lake effect” means that the glorious lake is there.

The missing elements. But let’s be honest: The structures for setting the region’s course for the future are splintered. Decisions come in fits and starts. The “nervous system,” the capacity for planning and acting for the whole region’s future, is drifting in many different directions.

Many local governments go on deciding things as though their decisions touched no one but themselves. The county, as a planning place, is respected, but in the political atmosphere of worshipful home-rule, not fully trusted. Transportation, a key to sustaining the economy, is a responsibility distributed over several different authorities, with no incentives to coordinate.

Everything from basic land-use policies to how people are taxed is so local that it doesn’t add up to a coherent whole. As a result, business executives, who make critical decisions on location, expansions — and, let’s remember, departures — often can’t get clear and timely answers to basic regulatory questions. Perhaps all these local governments are America’s most efficient. But it doesn’t look that way.

A no to forcing consolidation of governments. Enter the RGOTF and is Stakeholders Group. Their approach seems solidly anchored in the emerging consensus of the community. Despite the clear temptations embodied in its name, it has not wandered down the path of proposing a super government for the whole region. Though impressed by the small-scale examples of the St. Marys and the Fairview consolidations, the task force is wisely concluding that a major consolidation push would be distracting at best and destructive to regional solidarity at its worst. Parr and Kenney, in their report to the task force, had pointed to research showing that consolidation is no guarantee of saving taxpayer money beyond a population level of 50,000 or so. Sometimes it costs more!

What was recommended was a much more attractive approach, now being tried in Somerset County, New Jersey. Somerset is similar in scale to Erie County, with a population of about a quarter million and 21 municipalities. For most of the 1990s, business, community and government leaders there have been crafting a new way of delivering government services.

Indeed, their Somerset Alliance for the Future has helped carve out agreements on public works sharing, joint purchasing, construction inspection, personnel training, computer and information systems, and labor negotiations.

It could be done in Erie County as well. Pennsylvania’s Intergovernmental Cooperation Law of 1972 authorizes every imaginable like arrangement.

Somerset is registering real success. The many governments there last year conservatively estimated their hard-money savings at $596,000. Considering so-called soft costs like postage and wear on equipment and unallocated time of key staff, they think they’re already saving over $1 million a year and potential two to three times that by the next decade. Yet nobody’s had to give up local decision making.

In Buffalo, New York, not so far away from Erie, the Business Assistance Center provides assistance to any business in the entire region — cutting across the bureaucracies of local, county, state, and the federal governments. It has captured representatives of all those governments in one place and added the executives of economic development organizations.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, while only one city, there’s a philosophy worth admiring. There, government has set up what’s truly a one-stop center for code enforcement, permitting, and just about every question relating to new development. Note the values that the center uses as its philosophy:

• It is unforgivable not to make a decision.
• Find out what the client wants and help them get there.
• Go the extra mile to assist the client.
• We expect successful people to make mistakes.
• Be cheerful...Smile!

Erie’s pioneering COG. So what’s in it for Millcreek to sign on to an ambitious scheme to amalgamate service delivery in the Erie region? Or for any of the other government that citizens have formed in their migration away from the city?

For one thing — it’s already happening, and it’s saving you money!

The Erie Area Council of Governments — the organization that collects all the government officials in the greater region together — has already pioneered agreements for joint purchasing for supplies like rock salt, paint, and gasoline and diesel fuel, plus durable goods such as culvert piping, automotive equipment, trucks, vans, and heavy equipment.

The money saved reduces the burden on taxpayers. It also creates capacity for the kinds of public investments that give area businesses confidence about staying in the region. The process builds relationships among government officials that can lead to other savings for taxpayers.

What the COG’s achieved is obviously a good starter list — yet clearly leaves many other opportunities. The public of the Erie region needs to show active and ongoing interest in more advances, to accelerate the pace and forestall foot-dragging.

On top of dollar savings, shared services perform a second vital role. They send a message that this is a community tuned to keeping itself affordable as a place to live and do profitable business. That it knows how to think in realistic, regional terms. For any business considering placing a facility in the Erie region, there could hardly be a more positive signal.

The interdependent region. In many regions, one finds the largest city reluctant to share services or work with neighboring jurisdictions. Erie is not exhibiting this behavior. Indeed, Mayor Erie Mayor Joyce Savocchio showed up at the last RGOTF meeting, sounding like the area’s principal regionalist.

Of course, when the mayor of the largest city in a region speaks the language of regionalism, officials from surrounding communities often protectively cover their pockets. Yet the stark fact is: they need a strong center city. Plenty of research in recent years has shown, in fact, that incomes in suburbs are higher where core cities are healthier.

From the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s studies to surveys conducted by the National League of Cities, the message in the 1990s is clear: the fortunes of every business and family depend to some degree on the whole region remaining competitive. When a core city declines, it’s the entire region that feels the sagging productivity, the rising social overburden, the specter of increased crime, and ultimately the reputational baggage of a region that’s socially unstable and economically un-competitive.

But regionalism is not only about running away from risk. It’s the enlightened pursuit of opportunities. When Denver’s business community, in alliance with local governments, created the Metro Denver Network in the late 1980s, it was a hard-nosed business decision — If we consolidate our efforts, create a unified computer base of business sites across the region, we’ll attract more firms than if each community goes it alone. The result over the past decade is a booming Denver region.

For Erie, it should be shared services first. As one insider put it to us, “Let’s not invite shortness of breath trying to climb the highest mountain first....today the Alleghenies, tomorrow maybe the Himalayas.”

A big transportation opportunity. But the movement to create a solid front should not stop with services. The RGOTF dialogue consistently pointed to the transportation as a sector ripe for reorganization. While the Port Authority seems to command wide respect, people constantly wonder why the same isn’t true for the Airport Authority and even the Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority. If in fact all the transportation services are an interrelated part of the region’s strategy for mobility and delivery of goods, then why not create an authority with the responsibility for regional transportation?

Indeed, wouldn’t an aggressive move on the transportation front be the best cure for the “isolation” factor that falls so quickly from the lips of Erie’s leaders? There’s an unmistakeable perception that Erie somehow isn’t on the main transportation map. But the facts suggest that the Erie region has clear geographical and infrastructure assets for all the major modes of transportation — rail, shipping, air, and highways.

Consider Columbus, Ohio’s high-powered example of what a region can to exploit its transportation assets. With a larger airport, but no seaport, this inland region banked on its proximity to markets (within 500 miles of more than half the consumer markets of the U.S. and Canada). It set up, in the early ‘90s, the now highly-acclaimed Greater Columbus Inland Port Initiative, governed by a commission made up of industry representatives in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Columbus, Franklin County and the Port Authority.

Targeting distribution-sensitive businesses, Columbus has succeeded in forging agreements to serve as the midwestern distribution center for coastal ports in New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Virginia.

The Erie region has similar assets. But they remain unassembled and without clear strategy. The timing would seem just right to put together a bold public-private partnership, using the respected standing of the Port Authority, folding in the participation of the airport authority and even the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Rail Authority. With the cities and the county cooperating, the Erie region could become a national model for intermodal transportation commerce.

Tax-base sharing. Ultimately, if the Erie region can coalesce around common goals, and agree that the destiny of all its governments are intertwined, the common-sense thing to do is to find some acceptable means for sharing public revenues.

It is not some sort of latter-day communism for tax policy to acknowledge that each community in the region depends on the fortunes of the others and uses some of their assets.

In the largest scale example of tax base sharing, the Minneapolis - St. Paul area in Minnesota has been pooling 40 percent of its commercial-industrial tax base growth for 25 years. The region remains one of the most consistently successful in the United States, with unemployment rates commonly half the national average. As a result of Minnesota’s law, the difference in the property tax base of the wealthiest and the poorest community is about six to one. Without the law, it would be four times as great. Still the wealthy communities are comfortable and successful. And the whole region benefits.

Montgomery County in Ohio is experimenting with sharing its sales tax base on a time-limited basis, with a set percentage dedicated to joint economic development.

Smart regions all over the country are beginning to see that the challenge is not competing with the community next door; it’s gearing up to withstand the challenge of rising stakes across regions around the world.

Tomorrow we turn to more opportunities: a unified land use commission for the Erie region, a regional cultural asset district, and a PAL — a temporary, visiting public administration leader — to help the region exploit its favorable constellations and move forward aggressively.

^Top

DAY TWO
    By Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson

It’s going to take more than reorganized, more efficient government to create a successful 21st century Erie — a place you’d really like to live and leave to your children and grandchildren.

Erie — city, county, region — must also be able to claim, and prove, it’s one of America’s most livable communities.

That means Erie’s people must be careful stewards of both the natural environment and the towns and city of their region.

There’s a daring recommendation to that end in the “Options and Recommendations” report that the Regional Government Opportunities Task Force, submitted (last week?) by our colleagues, Peter Kenney and John Parr of the Center for Neighborhood and Regional Action.

Place comprehensive land use planning for the Erie region, they propose, under a single body established by intergovernmental agreement within the Erie County Department of Planning.

In Pennsylvania, that’s revolutionary stuff. Land use has historically been left to individual townships, boroughs and cities. Counties can plan, but the localities can simply ignore them if they choose.

Kenney and Parr recognize the audacity of their proposal:

“These recommendations,” they note, “present an enormous challenge to the local governments in the region. They constitute an unnatural delegation of parochial powers and an uncomfortable extension of trust to those who have been close competitors.”

The result couldn’t, of course, be some kind of rogue commission running roughshod over local sentiment. The new body would have representation from all the participating jurisdictions that now have power to regulate how land gets used. All the parties — the localities included — would be asked to review, indeed hold joint hearings on proposed regulations. And the staffing and guidance would come from the Erie County Department of Planning, which already has its finger on the pulse of development across the country and is known for its expertise and fair-handedness.

Among the objectives would be a single, comprehensive, regional land use and development plan, showing how transportation, new housing and commercial development, infrastructure investment and open space preservation would all interact.

Any decently planned modern-day region ought to have such a plan, and follow it. The results are likely to be timely and less wasteful spending on roads and infrastructure, making land more easily available where growth is appropriate, and preserving the natural environment.

The Erie region is extraordinarily fortunate, as we noted in our earlier articles, to have some of the lowest traffic congestion among American communities. Its section of Penn’s Woods, right up to the lake and the magnificent peninsula view, is one of rare beauty. Erie city, with its historic architecture, its waterfront and downtown renewal, is a splendid asset. In the 21st century competition among regions, Erie’s small-city livability has to be maintained, like a precious jewel, at a far-above-average level.

That’s why sprawling subdivisions at the urban edge, rapidly consuming field and forest in a region with no significant population gain, are so problematic. There’s plenty of room for growth in existing communities — just imagine, for example, the development opportunities as the Interstate 90 connector highway to the Bayfront Highway gets built on Erie’s East Side.

Right now, Kenney and Parr noted, the region has adopted sprawl as its development model of choice. That means, without doubt, a game of winners and losers, the city and older communities losing population and investment, too easily ending up bleak and forlorn.

A land use commission could plan for orderly, compact, growth on the urban fringe, consistent with real population growth, even as it works with the city and older townships to make attractive sites available for development and redevelopment.

Where people do want to build homes on more spacious lots, with more of a country atmosphere, their wishes should be respected. But a commission could insist that such development truly pay its own way, not force established and sometimes less fortunate communities to shoulder costs for its new roads, schools, fire protection, water and sewer extensions, and utility connections. (The regional tax-base sharing we reviewed yesterday might be one way to assure that level playing field.)

A regional land use commission would represent an historic breakthrough for Erie — indeed for all of Pennsylvania. We understand that polling among the members of the Regional Opportunities Task Force Stakeholders Group showed strong support for it. Now is the moment for thoughtful citizens from across the entire Erie region to tell elected officials they want to see the land use commission and regional plan move forward.

But provision needs to be taken to keep the land use planning process intensely public, open to the public. And not just to avoid the behind-the-scenes dealing so familiar in development politics. If citizens are aware of the full range of development choices and their governmental costs, they’re really empowered — to think through choices, make their own input, be part of the process.

We’d recommend opening an Internet web page precisely for this purpose. Every citizen and business would be invited to “surf” into the discussion, accessing the site from personal computers or terminals in libraries, schools and government offices. The site, prepared by the experts in the county planning department, could show the full range of development choices “out there” for choice today — from standard shopping strips to renewed village centers, suburban “McMansions” to more compact, traditional-style neighborhood housing. Typical prices, environmental and transportation tradeoffs, impacts on the entire region could be shown. Public costs for all could be shown. Actual development proposals could be posted for discussion.

With the kind of ongoing, open debate thus engendered, the new land use commission wouldn’t be working in a vacuum — it could be a real instrument of the will of the people of the region.

Cultural Asset District. An emphasis on democratic decision-making and shared benefits could be instilled in another major recommendation by Messrs. Kenney and Parr. This one’s for a regional asset district that uses a small add-on to the sales tax to finance cultural facilities that benefit citizens across the region and draw tourists and visitors to the area.

One model’s right in Pennsylvania— the Allegheny Regional Asset District created in 1994, with state legislative permission, by the Allegheny County Commissioners. The Allegheny County package goes beyond culture. It adds a full one percent to the state sales tax. Half of the proceeds, earmarked for real estate tax reductions, are split between the county and various municipal governments. The other half is for culture and regional assets — the likes of the Carnegie Museums and Science Center, Allegheny County Libraries, the Pittsburgh Zoo, the National Aviary and many others.

Kenney and Parr point, though, to an even more attractive model in Denver. Approved by voters of the six-county metro Denver area ten years ago, it’s limited to just one-tenth of one percent of the sales tax. The $24 million a year it produces funds for a Scientific and Cultural Facilities District which in turn funds more than 200 arts, cultural and scientific organizations in the region. It can’t keep more than 1 percent of the money for administration.

The Denver area beneficiaries aren’t just big and famous institutions such as the Central City Opera, the Colorado Ballet and Denver Botanical Gardens. The groups assisted include small community theaters, orchestras and arts centers throughout the six counties. Cumulatively, these organizations provide hundreds of thousands of yearly admissions plus over 1,000 programs targeted to the elderly, minorities, people with disabilities, and children.

There’s a difference in the origin of the Pittsburgh and Denver models. Pittsburgh’s was seen by the public as top-down, driven by the business community. Last fall a business-backed “Renaissance Regional Partnership” asked the citizenry to approve an additional one half cent to the state’s sales tax for seven years for regional public infrastructure improvements, expansion of the David Lawrence Convention Center, and new professional sports stadia. Voters in Allegheny and 10 surrounding counties said “no” by big margins — resentful primarily of tax money going to big sports.

The Denver effort, by contrast, has always been grassroots oriented, bringing together leaders from all parts of the region and from very different social and economic groups too.

In the long run, the Denver approach is clearly the way Erie ought to go — for broad participation, and support.

Some may say — Wouldn’t virtually all the proceeds of such a tax be absorbed by Erie city institutions — the likes of the Erie Civic Center, the Warner Theater, the Erie Zoo, the Jerry Uht Ballpark?

The answer’s yes— but. First, studies in other cities show very great economic returns into the entire regional economy from cultural institutions, no matter where they’re physically located. And second, there are many suburban facilities — community libraries, community theaters, for example — which could be considered for some share of funding too.

Take Portland, Oregon. Early in the ‘90s, with some of its arts institutions in fiscal crisis, leaders there drew up the nation’s first regional cultural plan. Of course the effort included such big ticket downtown institutions as the Portland Symphony Orchestra. But also burgeoning suburban arts efforts, plus diverse arts initiatives coming out of minority groups and neighborhoods.

Portland didn’t institute a special regional taxing district. But the deliberations led to dramatically increased contributions, both from private donors and local governments — benefiting the big arts groups but also an array of grassroots educational arts efforts, among them the arts of rising ethnic groups and arts used in troubled communities as a route to deterring youth from crime.

We believe a special taxing district would be a real plus for the Erie region, a guarantee of well-supported cultural institutions, new strength for the local economy. But if the effort’s designed to get the whole community working, the dividends can be even greater.

^Top

DAY THREE
    By Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson

In our first article, we suggested that the sun, moons and stars seemed in fortuitous alignment for some dramatic governance advances for the Erie region. Yesterday we added more ideas. Here, in short, is what we’d put on the table:

Go for a broad range of shared service agreements among the many governments of the Erie region, rejecting for now the idea of actual regional consolidation governments.

Search out new ways to share taxes — resources — so that the region’s governments will recognize they’re all in the same boat, that all need to do well for the whole region to advance.

Undertake a strong initiative in transportation, bringing together efforts of the port, airport and transit authorities, as one route to an economically secure future.

Create a regional land use authority, by mutual agreement of the local governments, implemented through the Erie County Planning Department.

Set up a regional cultural asset district, to enhance further life for all the region’s people, and draw more outsiders to visit here.

Now comes the question: Can the year-old Regional Government Opportunities Task Force (RGOTF) successfully launch these reforms?

The RGOTF does have task groups specifically assigned to each of the reforms, ready to analyze the potentials in detail, looking for new input and new allies. It does enjoy strong support from its parent, the Erie Conference on Community Development. It’s been provided with a sound research base by the Kennedy-Parr analysis and the formidable, ongoing analytic capacity of the Pennsylvania Economy League and its Erie office. What’s more, the RGOTF has good relations with such other key regional players as the Erie Area Council of Governments.

So with all those moons of support lined up, what’s missing?

A few vital elements of support — potential, but still top be assured. What are they?

First, we’d suggest, wholehearted business support. Not just the leaders of the Erie Conference, but its array of corporate members, need to line up in enthusiastic support. The Erie region’s many family-owned, small- and medium-sized businesses, must see that today’s prosperity is not guaranteed for the future. They need to recognize their business allies, and those allies’ allies, have gone to extraordinary lengths to form the RGOTF and bring the process for 21st century reform this far. But that without articulate and ongoing support from the ranks of business — the constituency that elected leaders generally respect the most — the process can still be stymied.

Second, the elected leaders, or more specifically their constituents. From the boroughs and townships to Erie’s city hall, they need to be open to the fundamental reforms proposed. Any change can appear to impair — at least for the short term — the immediate ledger sheet or powers of specific localities. Constituents must make it clear to their leaders: We want you to see the big picture, for the entire Erie region. This is not the season for games of parochial advantage.

Indeed, this might be a discussion to let the next generation in on too. What if one of the local universities or Leadership Erie, for example, were to form an observation group of college and high school students interested in government and how it works? Such a group could monitor the reforms as they unfold — or indeed be there to ask “why not?” questions of elected leaders if serious barriers or stalemate appeared.

The Erie Area Council of Governments (COG) should, of course, be poised to carry on many of the critical discussions and start implementing interjurisdictional service agreements, forming rules and approaches for the new regional land use authority, and many other steps.

Finally, the media— most especially the Erie Times — needs to be a supporter of the debate. Not just by editorializing on various proposals — which it has every right and responsibility to do. But by assigning talented staff to the governmental process, learning it inside out, informing its readers about the big stakes and the troublesome details, and keeping them informed as the entire process unfolds.

We believe the Times, through its news and commentary columns, through its Internet site, GOERIE.COM, is poised to be a major force for reform — not by prescribing the views of the RGOTF or anyone else, but by coverage that opens up vigorous, ongoing, community-wide debate.

Is any element then missing? Indeed, what more could one want? Most American regions would give their eye teeth to have so much capacity in place — the RGOTF and its task groups focused on each of the reform areas, the Erie Conference, an unusually entrepreneurial COG, the Pennsylvania Economy League with its splendid research potential.

And if some changes in state law are required, there’s a governor from Erie, Tom Ridge, fairly likely to win a second four years in Harrisburg this autumn.

Still, we see a big peril. Call it, if you will, Inertia. The utter complexities of reform in Pennsylvania governance. The Erie region’s scores of local governments, understandably though perhaps unwisely fixated on their prerogatives.

We believe what the region could use, for a strictly limited two-to-three year period as the reforms get formulated and launched, would be an individual — recruited from outside — to act as a kind of public administration expert and catalyst for change. Or if you like legal Latin phrases, an Amicus Civitas.

Such an individual — let’s give him or her a friendly acronym like PAL, standing for Public Administration Leader — might be a recently retired city or county manager in a region Erie’s size or larger. Or a younger top manager. Or perhaps a former state official with deep knowledge of how local governments work.

In a traditionally insider community like Erie, the very idea of an outsider exercising leadership might arouse suspicions. But the goal here shouldn’t be a temporary consultant but rather a seasoned person willing to commit two or three years to Erie. For candidates, one might turn to the National Academy of Public Administration, with its strong current interest in local governance and regionalism, or the International City-County Managers Association.

The PAL might be selected by (and report to) a joint committee of the RGOTF, the Erie Conference, the COG and Pennsylvania Economy League. The goal would be a person with the requisite stature and independence to introduce new ideas, coax various local camps into agreement, and nurse the multiple reform strategies forward.

Would he — or she — cost money? Of course. But for a local funder — perhaps a foundation, a university, a group of corporations or local governments — this could be a brilliant investment in Erie’s future. Quality almost always costs money. But we believe that Erie, one of America’s grandest old communities, needs to commission no less than the best if it’s to fill its 21st century potential.

^Top

ERIE TIMES ARTICLES

FIRST STAGE PIECES:
    Published Spring 1998

ERIE CHALLENGE: BEATING THE IMAGE, PREPARING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
    By Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson

If there’d been an Erie Chamber of Commerce in 1855, it might have sued Horace Greeley for civic defamation.

The famed New York editor and politician, after living in Erie for seven months, called the city “the shabbiest and most broken-down looking large town, I, an individual not wholly untraveled, ever saw...”

A barrage of negative quotes, in 1998, come from home folks too. “Erie,” a leading local attorney told us, “tends to think of itself as poor, downtrodden, beaten down, a victim of forces conspiring against it.” From another local leader: “Erie is a big small town that would like to become a small big town, but can’t do it.”

Off the airpaths of modern America, too often smothered by Great Lakes snows, Erie does have an image problem.

But forget the negatives, visit Erie with an open mind and curious eye, and your first impressions are positive:

• A bayfront showing positive reinvestment — a delightfully self-confident Bicentennial Tower facing wild and wonderful Presque Isle, a stunning new Public Library, the stately and established Frontier Park neighborhood with its towering trees and stately homes, and a new condo development that would grace any waterfront in America.
• Swinging uptown onto State Street, a charming downtown resplendent with handsome historic buildings, a thriving town square, ingenious factory renovations, and a new ballpark made possible by sheer civic grit and imagination.
• West of downtown, block after block of handsome old homes. And just east of the city, one of the largest General Electric plants in the world, situated in the stable Lawrence Park Township that GE built.

If this is a dead or dying city, it hides its rigor mortis well. Indeed, one hears that Erie today shows a growing progressivism and optimism comparable to the late 1890s, a century ago. Then, Erie was a robust manufacturing center, which had recovered from its loss in the early railroad wars with Cleveland. It was bursting with confidence, growing rapidly, installing one of the first electric trolley systems.

In 1998, there’s clearly a lot of growth too. Just check out the mega-investment in Millcreek Mall, or the fast pace of new housing out into the county.

One can question some of today’s growth. Will Millcreek, to its critics something of a tarmacked design horror, be viable as retail continues its migration (already to Summit Township)? As for residences, how smart is it, in a county with rather static population levels, to applaud when people move “up and out” of the city proper — especially when that means abandoning old infrastructure, triggering big bills for totally new schools and roads?

But there are even bigger, more crucial questions now commanding the attention of Erie’s thoughtful city and county civic leadership. These questions are being confronted by the Erie area Regional Government Opportunities Task Force (RGOTF). We have been asked, in this article and a follow-up article in several weeks, to address those questions:

Globalization. The world is convulsed by rapid economic change. What does “globalization” — a world of instant, indeed instantaneous communications and capital transfer — mean for Erie’s economic future?

Knowledge. It’s the new world currency. Regions that encompass a hothouse of people and talents, clustered businesses, universities, telecommunications, research laboratories, all yielding higher innovation and productivity, seem to represent the alchemy of the new age. Does Erie have enough assets to make it in this race?

Workforce. Highly skilled and trained workforces, ready to adapt to rapid shifts in the world economy, are now critical to any region’s success. Is Erie’s present and future workforce up to that competitive mark?

Government. It accounts for close to a quarter of any local economy. Nationally and globally, governments are striving to gain the efficiency and customer-responsiveness of successful corporations. Can Erie-area governments compete, or are they mired in a web of laws, regulations, practices that put them hopelessly behind the times?

We found among your business and community leaders a barely suppressed outrage about the thicket of local governments — a phenomenon we examine elsewhere.

Livability. Finally, “quality of life” — a clean environment, attractive settings, cultural attractions, convenient transportation, communities free of graffiti, poverty and crime — are demanded by successful corporations in today’s economy. Is Erie competitive on those scores?

These may seem like the obvious questions, but they’re relatively new. It wasn’t long ago that any region that could manufacture enough things people wanted to buy was guaranteed to be a winner. Indeed, that’s been an enduring strength — from locomotives to medical sterilizers to plastics — of Erie’s history.

But right now, most workforces around the globe can “make” standard things. Hundreds of millions of workers in underdeveloped nations will work for just pennies in hourly pay. That poses a serious problem for seasoned manufacturing towns like Erie. The factories in the established places must be so advanced, their workers so well trained, that they can add special, real value in manufacturing. Failing that standard, they face a downward spiral.

The implications — for each worker and his family — are immense. Without a keenly competitive, skilled local manufacturing base, there’ll be fewer assured jobs. Dramatically lower pay. And, for every resident of the region, less assurance of clean air to breathe or clean water to drink, and less secure retirement.

The goal needn’t be an Erie region soaring in population, like a Phoenix or Las Vegas. Rather, it’s to keep up with technology, advanced processes, cutting-edge telecommunications, so that the community has a strengthened, truly competitive economic base, and can be a real master of its own fate in the years ahead.

One dividend of a smart, progressive course of action: dramatically increased chances that the region’s children, on graduation from high school or college, will look for career paths right in Erie, rather than quickly succumbing to the siren song of glittering opportunities elsewhere.

So do public choices on the kind of issues we’ve named here make a difference for the future of you and your family? You bet they do.

^Top

Business Ups and Downs — with this first-day story

Business Ups and Downs ... And Futures?

On the street, in corporate offices, business closures and downsizings have touched off a wave of worry about the future of the Erie region.

Elgin closed. Kaiser closed. Zurn left for the Dallas suburbs and then was bought by US Industries. Lord left with its headquarters. International Paper took over Hammermill, moved its headquarters to Purchase (N.Y.), then to Memphis, with a 27 percent cutback in Erie area employment. Lord moved many people to North Carolina.

As for General Electric, Erie’s long-time star job-provider, the employment rolls are now 5,500, far below the historic high of 1,400.

But is all this such a weak performance for a major manufacturing region? Maybe not. The area has managed to retain factory jobs (goods production employment) at a rate about 10 percent better than the national average for manufacturing-oriented communities. Plastics has emerged as a major industry cluster for the region, and continues to expand.

Concurrently, there’s been a spurt in service-type jobs. And the retail boom in such areas as Millcreek and Summit Townships has expanded retail jobs and drawn a lot of cash into the community.

Still, most business leaders point with alarm to the overall trends. They’re quick to cite shortages of skilled labor, inconvenient air transportation, weariness with weather, conflicts with resurgent unions, and belief that some Erie area political leaders are wrongheadedly anti-management. And most of all, a lack of unified regional leadership.

Indeed, the exodus of corporate offices has exacted a toll in upper management jobs — the individuals often civically engaged, committed to the region’s future. Plus, as headquarters operations depart, there’s a loss of the corporate philanthropy they often provide.

Bottom line: If you think Erie’s status quo is OK, it’s time to think again. Indeed, what top executives are willing to tell us off the record — even if there’s a touch of hyperbole in their allegations — is pretty serious. Here’s a sampling:

"Many CEOs who come to this region are not happy with what they see. We have one of the last bastions of old-boyism, not leadership, for the 21st century.”

"The jurisdictional overlap, the multiplicity of all these local governments, is chilling. One project to extend water and sewer lines to a highway interchange involved multiple entities and took four years.”

"The tax base in Erie is eroded and the city doesn’t respond. The suburban attitude is, ’Let’s steal what we can to build up our own.”

"These local governments are making decisions without even thinking of the effect across boundaries.”

"Anything that chips away at the many small civil subdivisions would be a blessing.”

“People like to look back at the fabled golden age of Erie and resist change going forward.”

^Top

Second Day Story

GOVERNMENT REFORM MAY BE TOUGH

BUT STANDING STILL IS MORE DANGEROUS

By Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson

Yesterday we cautioned that Erie’s 21st century prospects rest on how well the region faces up to five critical issues — globalization, the knowledge-based economy, workforce development, government reform, and livability:

Globalization comes first, because it challenges so deeply the old Erie notion — “We’re off the beaten path, out of the mainstream, so we’re fine if we just tend to our own business.”

The truth: Erie’s isolation is shattered. Measured electronically, today’s world is about a half second wide. Global economic tides have already destroyed a good chunk of the Erie area’s historic industrial base. Welcome or not, more change is coming. Fighting the future won’t work.

Everyone knows: globalization is harsh stuff. For many people, it’s just meant threat and uncertainty. But it’s not going away. If anything, the velocity of change is increasing.

This is one reason the Regional Government Opportunities Task Force is to be welcomed. Its very existence is a major acknowledgement that the rules have changed, and the Erie region must respond more effectively.

Knowledge. Historically it was raw materials and geographic location that built economies. Today it’s knowledge. Smaller places not blessed with major universities or high-flying, sophisticated global corporations, understandably feel they can’t catch up.

But some smaller cities do succeed because they think strategically. Consider Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the ‘70s, its metal and textile industries fled and the federal government declared its air quality the worst in America. Chattanooga had reason to believe most hope was gone. Recovery steps involved major air quality activities, but much more. Community leaders started surveying — and visiting it see — successful civic processes in other cities. Fighting the prevailing pessimism and “down” feeling about the city, festivals and events were held to bolster downtown. The Chattanooga Ventures visioning process involved thousands of citizens planning who produced an avalanche of community-renewing ideas — 40 of which actually got implemented.

Major investments by banks and insurance firms resulted in many of Chattanooga’s late 19th and early 20th century office buildings being renovated. Today a dramatically revived downtown Chattanooga is served by a fleet of emission-free electric buses. On the social side, a pledge was made to transform Chattanooga’s slums, to make all housing units “fit and livable” within a decade — a goal not quite reached, though there’s been a wave of repair and renovations and millions are being spent on low-income housing yearly.

Not content with their progress so far, Chattanoogans are now vigorously debating how to recreate their business muscle based on environmental sustainability — for example, how to recycle all industrial wastes by pouring them back into the production processes of other industries in town. They’re setting up an advanced national institute on sustainability, tied to Chattanooga’s own version of brownfields recovery. Two years ago Chattanooga was declared one of the world’s 12 most sustainable communities by the Habitat II World Cities Conference in Istanbul.

An example closer to home: Akron, Ohio, the once-fabled tire maker to the world (Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone). The Akron region in the ‘70s and ‘80s lost thousands of jobs to nations offering cheaper labor. But now it’s coming back as the world center of research and engineering of “polymer” products — plastics and synthetic rubber.

A key reason: The University of Akron’s former Rubber Research Institute was rechristened the College of Polymer Science. Advanced Elastomer Systems, an industry leader, moved its world headquarters to Canal Place, a research park near center city that’s a magnet for new polymer firms.

The Erie area has a hopeful development here —- opening of the Knowledge Park at Penn State-Behrend, which should benefit the local plastics industry. Conversely, one has to wonder why there’s so much celebration of local retailing gains — especially when retail wages are notoriously low and the new stores, mostly chains, are owned by distant corporations. Most of the profits, in short, will flow to headquarters far from the Erie region.

Workforce.The Erie region has a mixed record here. The average educational achievement among its citizens is about middling in a group of 26 U.S. metro areas analyzed by the Cleveland Citizens League Research Institute for the RGOTF. But the share of Erie area residents living in poverty is fourth highest in the group of 26 — a bad omen, since poverty and unemployability often go hand in hand. Part of the problem is clearly the large concentration of very poor people in east Erie. But the problem goes deeper than that. The percentage of Erie-area high school students headed for college lags several points behind the Pennsylvania average.

On the other hand, the Erie region has 50 percent of its 3-to-5-year olds enrolled in preprimary school, the top rate among the 26 regions studied. And there are signs of reform and awakening on the education front — an active debate about charter schools and a return to neighborhood schools, for example.

The region can benefit immensely from an active, ongoing debate about how a smart workforce is developed and nurtured. That’s not an easy task. Yet on workforce, as on its many other challenges, a community like Erie, rethinking existing practices, surveying breakthroughs in other regions, can produce new and more creative solutions. The point is not to accept “well enough” as “good enough,” to keep searching for higher standards and potentials.

Government. Erie suffers a deep misfortune: being located in Pennsylvania.

Only Illinois, of all 50 states, has more governments. We have observed government systems in all 50 states. In our judgment, the thicket of Pennsylvania government and law — multiple classes of cities, townships and boroughs, a tangle of constitutional and statutory restraints — is the most bewildering, the most intractable, in the nation.

Talk with the Erie region’s brightest government experts, ask them about roads to reform, and prepare to be disillusioned. For any reform proposal, they describe an awesome gauntlet, a set of political-legislative-constitutional barriers that virtually guarantee the idea will be twisted beyond recognition, then nicked to death. If some element does survive, they warn, it will be too altered, too inconsequential to accomplish much.

And this prognosis isn’t from reactionaries, opponents of change. It comes from individuals deeply frustrated by the system, desperate to see some change. They took some heart from the recent merger of Fairview Township and Borough, as minor a change as it may seem to outsiders. Indeed, these experts hope, a bit forlornly, to see a major break in the Pennsylvania logjam, sometime in their lifetimes.

The Erie region seems to need that breakthrough more than the rest of the Commonwealth. In a selection of 26 communities across the United States, prepared by the Cleveland Citizens League, it had the largest number of governments per 100,000 people.

Fact: In an era of growing citizen distrust with governments, the Erie region has an astounding number.

Does that matter? Yes, in the view of the civic leaders who formed the Regional Government Opportunities Task Force. Indeed, the reason the group was formed was worry that the spectacle of disjointed, uncoordinated, conflict-laden Erie region governments throws a long, menacing shadow across the region’s prospects for 21st century competitiveness.

But precisely what to do? That’s the question the RGOTF is debating this spring. Here are some of the critical questions, as we see them:

Could or should all the region’s local governments be collapsed into a super-regional government? Everyone knows the idea would stir up a hornet’s nest of opposition. But would there be real advantages? There are really two questions: Would a single government be more efficient, cost less? And second, would it create a more favorable business image for the region?

The efficiency/cost issue isn’t as clear as one would think. Lots of small governments are obviously duplicative, potentially conflicting. Experience around America shows that economies of scale in government operations are realized as small units are combined to reach a new population total of roughly 50,000. Above that, dollar savings aren’t likely to be significant.

Like many Pennsylvania cities, Erie has a tax rate much higher than its neighbors. Interestingly, Erie Mayor Joyce Savochhio says that metropolitanism, common regional marketing and the merging of services, makes all sorts of sense, but that Erie city doesn’t need a merger of any kind for its own survival. In the ‘90s, she notes, the city has undertaken (with prodding from the state government) some $100 million on sewer and other infrastructure repairs — indeed, is now ahead of most of its suburbs, some of which lack the most basic infrastructure.

Township officials told us that Erie city offers a full meal of services, but that when someone moves to a Millcreek or Harborcreek, “it’s a la carte.” The suburban governments, for example, try to rely on volunteer fire service (though one hears that’s becoming increasingly impractical). Many don’t have any police service — they assume the state police can cover for them, and complain at the suggestion they ought to pay for the service.

Conclusion: any merger would be very complex, requiring a “feathering” of taxes, services, fees, governing arrangements. Again, the Pennsylvania complexity proves its power to confuse or intimidate anyone bent on change.

But in any kind of merger, what about image? What kind of a face, impression of the region, is created? Portland (Ore.) with its “Metro,” a common government for regional functions adopted in the late 1970s, and Minneapolis, with its 30-year old Metropolitan Council, have been clear winners. Both areas are booming economically — even Portland with its rather strict urban growth boundary.

Or consider Indianapolis and its “Unigov,” adopted in 1969 as a partial merger of governments covering Marion County. A few years later John Walls, then president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, rendered a verdict:

Psychologically, Unigov has created the perception and reality of a strong, united community, led by a mayor who can literally speak for that community in all competitive relationships.

Does it cost less? No, and we never said it would.

Is it more efficient? Probably.

Is it more effective? Immeasurably.

But short of super-government, what are the Erie region’s real choices?

How about the county government? It won home rule authority in a major civic effort in the ‘70s. But not with dramatic result. At least among politicos in today’s culture, it’s seen as a instrument of state policy dealing with criminal justice and human services — not as a general purpose government. Oddly enough to outsiders, neither the county executive nor the county council see a larger county role.

Or what of the Erie Area Council of Governments? Resurrected from a moribund form in the last several years, it covers Erie city and a number of neighboring communities in the more urbanized northern part of the county. Precisely because it is voluntary, starting with non-controversial items like more economical joint purchasing of goods or equipment, the politicos seem to like it a lot. But when it comes to really critical issues— land use and water, for example — will voluntary participation suffice? Or will the effort just sink into the Pennsylvania governance swamp? That’s another issue the RGOTF has to address.

Finally, in this era of reinvented corporations, reinvented governments, what about the use of clear performance indicators for the public service? What’s the cost — on a per capita basis — of fire or police protection, library service, trash collection? How long do citizens have to wait, on average, for snow removal? How many days between a pothole opening up its being filled? Or for businesses, what’s the average turnaround times for permits?

Indeed, if bottom-line service is the issue, then regional agreement might be reached on trigger points — levels of service deficiency so serious that any municipality that sinks to them would be obliged to agree to consolidate its effort with that of neighboring constituencies, or perhaps even to put that service up for competitive private bidding. contractors, for example. With clear thresholds identified, the politicos don’t have to decide on each shift of powers.

Indeed, the Erie region already has a professionally-led chapter of the Pennsylvania Economy League — the ideal type of organization to analyze service levels, track performance, and report the results.

Livability. It’s already happening, and you can expect even more of it in the 21st century — corporations able to make practically anything anywhere. With other regions beckoning, they can be particular, demand extraordinarily high quality-of-life locations for their executives and workers. For the Erie region, that’s both good and bad news.

Good news because the region, today, does enjoy a high quality of life. Its degree of traffic congestion, for example, is the lowest of virtually all American cities of its size or greater. This section of Penn’s Woods, right up to the lake and the magnificent peninsula view, is one of the most attractive in the Commonwealth.

But the livability issue is also bad news for the Erie region because, to succeed, it has to provide a lot more quality of life attractions than competitor regions. Most regions today outpace Erie, and will, on such scores as airline convenience, university R & D operations, snow-free days. So Erie’s small-city livability has to be maintained, like a precious jewel, at a far-above-average level.

Sprawling subdivisions already have a full head of steam in Erie County, and they’re starting to consume forest and field at a rapid clip. Many more such projects — indeed an amazing amount, given Erie County’s relatively flat population levels — are on the drawing boards, getting green lights from township boards at a heady clip.

Check the Census figures — at least through 1990 — and it appears that virtually all the strong population expansion of places like Millcreek, Harborcreek, Summit and Fairview has been at the expense of Lawrence Park and Wesleyville, and especially the city of Erie. It’s a game of winners, losers, as if the older communities were disposable commodities. Because municipalities that lose too much population tend to end up with bleak neighborhoods, streets and sidewalks the city can’t afford to repair, schools showing their age, and parks untended.

Drive down Buffalo Road and nearby areas of Erie’s east side and the unhappy fruits of urban abandonment, problem-plagued neighborhoods, are apparent. It’s no accident, we’d suggest, that the Census discovered an 18.6 percent poverty level in Erie city, 10.9 percent in Wesleyville, at the opposite extreme, only 5.9 percent in Fairview.

Again, this makes an economic difference — even if the moral implications, the chasms between figures for whites and African-Americans, fail to stir you. More and more, American businesses are getting leery of going any place that hasn’t figured out how to intervene in socially imperiled neighborhoods, to reduce crime, and to increase social stability.

If our interviews with neighborhood leaders are any gauge, the city of Erie needs to get a lot more serious about community policing, delivered consistently, as a pervasive, focused direction of its police department.

But growth policy is intimately connected. How stable can inner city neighborhoods expect to remain if virtually all new job-producing industrial development goes to ever-more-distant suburban locations?

Rapid-fire outward growth from older communities is almost invariably linked to chopping up of the open countryside, increased traffic congestion, worse air quality. Yet it’s precisely such negative trends that the Erie region can’t afford to have happen, if it’s to have any hope of competing vigorously in the years ahead.

Today’s American communities are coming up short on a list of “thems” to pull their chestnuts from the fire. An Erie region that waits for Washington or Harrisburg to save it can expect a long, cold 21st century. Relying on footloose industries, mega-banks, distantly-owned chain stores doesn’t sound like a smart solution either. Some may help here or there; so may the stronger elected officials.

So where to turn? To the community’s “civic entrepreneurs,” we’d suggest. They’re the people — in business, non-profits, professions, the media, schools and colleges, faith communities, and government itself — who recognize that a strong economy and a strong civics go together. And then are willing to give their own time and treasure to make both succeed.

^Top

To Accompany Day Two Story

Government Task Force: A Window of Opportunity?

Is the Erie region ready to spring the trap door — to escape from its dilemma of splintered municipalities, convoluted authority, conflict and inefficiency?

It may be so, and the Regional Government Opportunities Task Force, now a year old, could be the critical catalyst.

But we think it’s unrealistic for the task force to start with a detailed governmental formula (which the politicos might be quick to pick apart). Instead, why not go to political leadership circles — in the city, in the surrounding townships, at the county level — with a set of clear challenges posed as questions? For example:

What changes could we make to convey the image — and reality — of a region able to deal quickly, and effectively, with industrial recruitment, including safe but quick permit approvals and licenses?

How do we assure smart growth, expansion of developed areas that doesn’t outrun population growth, growth that’s carefully coordinated with transportation, water and sewer, schools and other services, and that doesn’t move so rapidly that it destroys older communities while it makes new ones?

The task force might choose additional, or differing issues. But the common issue must be: What changes, shifts, compromises, and/or agreements, are the elected officials willing to endorse to assure that government supports the fundamental, shared community goals?

The governments would be put on the spot — constructively — to respond to these fundamental challenges, to provide a level of leadership that only the public sector can deliver.

But for now, the RGOTF is on the spot. It can’t deliver on its own goals without the direct engagement of major political leaders in the Erie region.

And all the parties have to see this is a moment of golden opportunity.

Citizens are aroused and organized and publicly committed to finding a way out of governance dilemmas.

The city may be ready for some kind of mega-deal with its neighbors. One can imagine, for example, an agreement in which truly regional facilities — cultural, sports and other — would be financed on a county- or area-wide basis, while the city would finally agree to a way to share control of its water authority with its neighboring communities that need the water. Land use controls to slow exurban growth might be part of the understanding.

A number of municipalities may be ready for financing agreements which make it easier for them to shift to professional fire and police services as need arises.

And then there’s the Ridge factor. Erie’s own Tom Ridge holds the governorship, and likely will for four and a half more years. If there were ever an ideal time to arrange for changes in state law necessary to permit new governmental arrangements in the region, it’s right now.

Example: What if general agreement could be reached on sharing 20 to 30 percent of the tax yield on new commercial or industrial properties in the Erie region? Experience in Minnesota shows such an approach reduces destructive competition between municipalities and helps to ensure the entire region stays in healthy fiscal shape.

But the transition to a shared tax base might be tough, especially in jurisdictions about to land projects. Possible cure: a phase-in cushioned by some state aid for jurisdictions sacrificing a share of their revenue growth. But to pass such state aid in Harrisburg, Gov. Ridge’s active support would likely be essential.

Or, what if an agreement were reached to give the COG more teeth, or to create a comprehensive land planning framework in which all participating municipalities would agree to plan and zone consistently? Or if the region chose to make the COG even more of a leadership organization, by creating seats for private sector members? Either of these decisions might require legal permission. Either would be consistent with the preference for voluntary decisions which seems so deeply embedded in the local political culture.

A Process for Progress

The very successful community of Chattanooga, Tenn., has an informal set of principles for self-improvement, for becoming and staying state-of-the-art in today’s competitive world. Its principles aren’t written down, but our colleague John Parr gleaned them from intensive interviews there.

We offer the “Chattanooga Process” here as a hint of how an historic Pennsylvania community might break loose of political tradition to look forward with increased confidence:

1. Any idea is worth exploring. At the beginning, all possibilities get a respectful hearing
2. Success will occur if we all sit down and put our heads together; that way, we can reach a common agenda.
3. There must always be a specific, but open-ended, agenda for public participation.
4. The collective good is always the goal, and that means the good of all citizens.
5. Preventing future problems and creating systemic change are always priorities in the process.
6. We always bring the best people in the country here to speak, advise and participate.
7. When necessary we visit other communities that have been successful to find out the nuances of how and why a solution worked there, and what to avoid.

^Top

All Contents © Citistates Group LLC. All Rights Reserved.