Investing In Erie Means Seeing Erie Grow!

(Editors Note: I have mentioned several times that broadcast problems in Erie are created by attitude and attitude has to change if broadcasting and Erie are to change. Our media have to be our leaders. I referred to an article by Pat Howard last Sunday. Now Peter Panepento, in his Inside Erie blog, picks up the same theme. While it is about Erie in general, it really applies to the attitude that attempts to explain away Erie's gravity when it comes to progress in broadcasting as well. "We are a small market nobody cares about."...or..."There's no money to go digital." With Peter's permission, I am reprinting it here.)

Does Erie really want to change?I’ve been thinking about this question since reading Erie Times-News managing editor Pat Howard’s Sunday column on Erie’s attitude toward transformation.

Howard’s column was based, at least in part, on some of the conversations that have started on the “Inside Erie” blog.

His point is simple - Erie has seen its share of change over the years, and most of it has not been for the better.

Our community has been heading in the wrong direction because instead of forcing change ourselves, we’re allowing it to be forced upon it by someone else.

Erie’s best days came when the city was a manufacturing center. Erie bustled and its people prospered because it had a strong base of skilled workers who earned good wages in factories and trades.

It also had its share of homegrown companies that were committed to the community and their employees.

But we’ve failed to deal with the reality that manufacturing - while still important - is not going to supply as many jobs as it has in the past.

Some factory work has gone overseas. Some is simply being done more efficiently through better processes and technology.

The reality is we’re probably manufacturing more here than ever before - but we’re doing it with fewer people.

As a result, we need to create a new base of family sustaining jobs to fill the gap.

Until recently, Erie has failed to address this reality.

We’ve held out hope that we could recapture our lost manufacturing jobs through the magic creation of new manufacturing jobs.

But our only real solution was to diversify - to cultivate employers in industries that will be adding people, not shedding them, to grow.

We failed to change our ways.

And we’re now dealing with a changed Erie - one that is not as strong as it was in the 1960s and 1970s.

Our inability to adapt is grounded, I believe, on the values that were attached to this city during those good years.

Erie was a community based on hard work, loyalty and the belief that a dollar saved is better than a dollar spent.

Work hard, save your money, follow the rules and things will work out right.

Those values were shared by the people who lived here - and the companies they worked for.

The problem is, those values have changed around us.

Local companies that worked under that set of values have been swallowed up by larger, more mobile firms.

Workers have learned that loyalty is now a quaint value in the world of business.

Companies, by and large, are more concerned with squeezing out a bigger profit than they are in taking care of their employees.

And there are other communities that have been willing to invest in infrastructure that will help lure those bottom-line-seeking firms away from cities like Erie.

There are communities that have invested in technology and amenities that act as magnets to startup companies and younger workers - the kind of workers Erie keeps losing.

Many of us live here because we like the values attached to the old Erie.

But we have to get used to the idea that if we want to preserve those ideals, we have to change the way we pursue them.

We have to become more aggressive and take more risks.

We have to get used to the idea that we need to identify areas where we can gain an advantage - then spend the time and money to leverage that advantage.

We have to abandon the idea that if we work hard and play by the rules, someone will take care of us.Those days are over.

Nobody is going to take care of us.We have to take care of ourselves.

--Peter Panepento--August 31, 2006 "Inside Erie" Available at www.goerie.com

Congress passed a law on February 1, 2006, setting a final deadline for the DTV transition of February 17, 2009. Most television stations will continue broadcasting both analog and digital programming until February 17, 2009, when all analog broadcasting will stop.." FCC http://www.dtv.gov/