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Home Pennsylvania Erie

Town: Erie

31 posts
A loose crowd of people walking around the inside of Detroit's Eastern Market.
View Post
  • Economic Development

What Midwest Industrial Communities can Teach about Managing Economic Change

  • John C. Austin
  • January 20, 2023
With a great convergence on both sides of the Atlantic around the urgent need to diminish geographic economic disparities and opportunity gaps — particularly those between thriving global city regions and struggling communities in industrial heartlands – there are growing efforts to learn from each other.
Cooler by the lake: Gannon University is helping to revitalize downtown Erie with events like this one, a concert featuring the country star Jimmie Allen in summer 2022. Credit: Courtesy of Gannon University
View Post
  • Colleges & Universities

Reviving America, One College Town at a Time

  • James Fallows
  • January 10, 2023
How symbiotic relationships between colleges and their communities have reaped rewards in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Waterville, Maine.
“How America’s Towns are Writing the Future of the Country,” Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit 2022 event featuring (from left) Heidi and Isaac Tucker, Alice Trowbridge, Jason Neises, Ben Speggen, and James Fallows. Photo by Pierre Bellicini, courtesy of JES.
View Post
  • Citizen Engagement

‘How America’s Towns are Writing the Future of the Country’

  • Ben Speggen
  • January 5, 2023
Residents, coaches, reporters discuss local-level community revitalization initiative at Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit event.
Two sisters who left Darfur as refugees, and made their way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
View Post
  • Refugees

Bring in the Refugees

  • James Fallows
  • September 10, 2021
The most encouraging front-page headline I’ve seen in the New York Times in a long time was this, from Labor Day. It was on a story by Miriam Jordan and Jennifer Steinhauer, and…
Part of a "story map" of Paddle-to-the-Sea's journey through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, prepared by the International Water Institute and based on Holling Clancy Holling's 1941 book.
View Post
  • Local Journalism

Why Maps Matter, Starting in Childhood and Even More Now

  • James Fallows
  • July 23, 2021
A "geo-historical narrative" captured the imagination of many children in mid-20th century America. Maps have always had power to shape perceptions of reality. A memoir about their influence--and an introduction of what's to come.
View Post
  • Economic Development

Exposing What was Already Present

  • Ben Speggen
  • July 7, 2021
The pandemic provides an opportunity to focus on justice and equity in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Erie Pennsylvania's Refugee Owned Businesses 2021
View Post
  • Economic Development

Erie Celebrates World Refugee Day with New Film, Publishes Directory of Refugee-Owned Businesses

  • Ben Speggen
  • June 27, 2021
Erie Celebrates World Refugee Day with New Film, Publishes Directory of Refugee-Owned Businesses
MenajErie Studio presents Meet Erie Part 3 Cultural Impact
View Post
  • Economic Development

Creating and Reimagining Community through a Crisis

  • Ben Speggen
  • June 8, 2021
A look at the impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector in Erie, Pennsylvania.
James Fallows, Deborah Fallows, Steven Ascher, and Jeanne Jordan at Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit 12
View Post
  • Civic Life

“Our Towns:” From the Pages to the Screen

  • Ben Speggen
  • June 8, 2021
The filmmakers and writers discuss the story of "Our Towns" at JES Global Summit.
Erie Pennsylvania
View Post
  • Economic Development

Meet Erie: Part II – Economic Impact

  • Ben Speggen
  • May 2, 2021
Like many towns and cities, Erie, Pennsylvania long had its identity tied to its industry. The only county of the Keystone State’s 67 located on the Great Lakes watershed –…
View Post
  • Economic Development

Meet Erie: A rust belt region continues to navigate its renaissance through a pandemic

  • Ben Speggen
  • April 2, 2021
Local filmmakers take to their streets examines the economic, cultural, and social impacts of Covid-19 during the summer of 2020 through this short film series.
Ember + Forge, a coffee shop that has become a center of downtown life in Erie, Pennsylvania, but whose revenue has virtually disappeared. Small businesses like this have led Erie's downtown revival. A new study examines what it will take for them to survive.
View Post
  • Civic Life

‘Years of Effort, Undone in Weeks’

  • James Fallows
  • March 26, 2020
It has been nearly half a century since Erie, Pennsylvania, was officially recognized as an “All-American City.” But beginning with the first of our repeated visits nearly four years ago, Deb Fallows…
A collection of Our Towns players from Ajo, Arizona; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Columbus, Mississippi. From left to right: Morgan Adams, Ben Speggen, Erin Williams, Ferki Ferati, Dairian Bowles, Stuart Siegel, Emily Siegel, Deb Fallows, Jim Fallows, and Chuck Yarborough, standing in front of the Chautauqua Institution's Hall of Missions. (Courtesy of Deborah Fallows)
View Post
  • Economic Development

When Small Towns Take the Big Stage

  • Deborah Fallows
  • July 8, 2019
Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie
Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania (Carlo Allegri / Reuters)
View Post
  • Refugees

An American Story, Starting in Kosovo

  • James Fallows
  • June 24, 2019
Idealistic people from outside America's borders have continually prompted the country to live up to its own ideals; an example from Erie.
Outside the Putah Creek Cafe in downtown Winters, California (James Fallows / The Atlantic)
View Post
  • Economic Development

National Policies Have Local Effects

  • James Fallows
  • May 14, 2019
Changes—in trade policies, and for refugees—are making the United States more closed, rather than more open
Maitham Basha-Agha, the Iraqi-American who photographed Erie's "New American" refugees for the Erie Reader. (Maitham Basha-Agha, for Erie Reader)
View Post
  • Refugees

Meanwhile in America: ‘New Americans’ in the Rust Belt

  • James Fallows
  • February 1, 2017
'New Americans' in the Rust Belt

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