ERIE, PA
Civic Life
Bring in the Refugees
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 it said: For the moment, let’s set aside the obvious complications and caveats: Who exactly made it out of Afghanistan, and didn’t. When and where […]
GEOJOURNALISM
We Find Our Way With Maps. But How Can Mapmakers Know Where They're Going?
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.
CIVIC LIFE
Exposing What was Already Present
The pandemic provides an opportunity to focus on justice and equity in Erie, Pennsylvania.
IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES
Immigrants and refugees play vital cultural role in the city’s renaissance.
Erie Celebrates World Refugee Day with New Film, Publishes Directory of Refugee-Owned Businesses
ARTS
Creating and Reimagining Community through a Crisis
A look at the impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector in Erie, Pennsylvania.
HBO DOCUMENTARY
Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan, and James and Deborah Fallows discuss taking the “Our Towns” story from a bestselling book to a hit HBO documentary
The filmmakers and writers discuss the story of "Our Towns" at JES Global Summit.
PANDEMIC
Small-business owners continue working to build community through crisis.
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 – on the lake from which it draws its name – Erie, through the decades, built the reputation for building. But unlike Detroit with its automobiles […]
Arts
Meet Erie: A rust belt region continues to navigate its renaissance through a pandemic
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.
Health
‘Years of Effort, Undone in Weeks’
Read the story in The Atlantic here. 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. (Courtesy of Nick Warren and […]
Economic & Business Development
When Small Towns Take the Big Stage
Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie
Leaders & Governance
An American Story, Starting in Kosovo
Idealistic people from outside America's borders have continually prompted the country to live up to its own ideals; an example from Erie.
Economic & Business Development
National Policies Have Local Effects
Changes — in trade policies, and for refugees — are making the United States more closed, rather than more open
Economic & Business Development
Meanwhile in America:
'New Americans' in the Rust Belt
Immigrants & Refugees
A Post-Election Field Report From America’s Refugees and Immigrants
Words and stories from the towns where the newest Americans live
Economic & Business Development
Missing Thanksgiving Day
When you are an American living overseas, Thanksgiving is an even more powerful nationally unifying holiday than the Fourth of July. All the Americans know something special is going on; for everyone else, it’s just another Thursday. Even for non-Americans who are aware of the concept, the shifting date means they can’t quite keep it […]
Economic & Business Development
What the Renewable-Energy Economy Looks Like
Another gigantic turbine blade is delivered in Spearville, Kansas Nicolas Pollock / The Atlantic At its peak, nearly one century ago in 1920, the coal-mining industry employed nearly 800,000 people in the United States. Decade by decade, as America’s population has swelled and its economy has grown, and as total coal output as also increased, employment […]