Tony GREY Bill Strickland Bets Big on Poor Kids October 2, 2013 the Truth About Tony Grey 12 If We Were You
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FOR MORE INFORMATION 2 | Erie Reader | eriereader.com October 2, 2013 www.abwholesaler.com FEATURE CULTURE 7 9 A MAn WITH A PlAn CONTENT Tony GREy Bill Strickland Bets Big on Poor Kids October 2, 2013 The Truth About Tony Grey 12 IF WE WERE yoU... NEWS AND NOTES Here’s what we would do 14 To-Do lIST 4 UPFRONT On Guns Howard Fishman, Martha Editors-in-Chief: Redbone, Otters Tailgate Party 5 Brian Graham & Adam Welsh STREET CoRnER SoAPBoX 16 AlBUM REVIEWS Managing Editor: Teaching Creationism in Schools Ben Speggen 6 THE WAy I SEE IT STREET FASHIONISTA Contributing Editors: Isabella Cardina Cory Vaillancourt The Ted Cruz Filibuster Jay Stevens 6 TECH WATCH 19 Q&A WITH THE BEnGSonS Copy Editor: AnD CloUD noTHInGS Alex Bieler Social Media and the Terror Attack in Kenya Contributors: Alex Bieler Pen Ealain Matthew Flowers Dakota Hoffman Leslie McAllister Rich McCarty Ryan Smith Jay Stevens From the Editors Rebecca Styn Bryan Toy n our Sept. 18 issue, we championed the need additional lodging because the Sheraton’s Ben Speggen openly referred to as his best Up- Designers: stories of two companies that epitomize the too often booked to capacity. front to date. And as of this issue, that’s 90 of Mark Kosobucki notion that yes, businesses and people can Rebecca also wrote that in some ways, this them. Burim Loshaj be successful and are willing to invest here: project — the newly proposed hotel that comes It was critical about Erie’s penchant for misdi- Cover Design: Lavery Brewing Company and Sprague Farm & to us via a $25 million grant from the state that rected hatred, often towards itself. Cory argued Mark Kosobucki Brew Works. just happened to show up at a time when we’re that we instead need to aim that hatred at more Photographer: I Yes, we like beer and we like talking about it — cutting food stamps and continuing to gouge our appropriate, more pressing things — you know, Ryan Smith homegrown craft beer, mind you — but what’s education system — makes little sense. And it 17 percent of the county and 30 percent of the Jessica Yochim more is that we like featuring success stories, does make little sense — if private developers are city living below the poverty line, and 40 per- Interns: because these serve as examples of the greatness interested in the land. cent of city residents needing to rely on food Jessica Courter Erieites are capable of. And according to you, our And they are. stamps. Adam Unger Reader readers, you like reading these stories. Scott Enterprises — you know, the company And the numbers go on. So do the city's gen- Based on the conversations that continued for that’s continually cultivating new businesses eral complaints. 32 W. Eighth St. #302 two weeks about the Laverys and the Spragues, on Upper Peach Street and recently purchased We complain about the weather. Or that Erie PA, 16501 and the amount of praise doled out in the com- Peek‘n Peak Resort and Spa — has publicly ex- there’s no culture here. Or that Erie’s just plain [email protected] ment sections on our website and our social me- pressed an interest in developing a hotel at the ugly. The mistake on the lake. Dreary Erie. dia platforms, these stories struck a chord with Bayfront. And those plans are going forward. “We’re at a critical juncture in Erie’s history The Erie Reader is Erie’s only free, independent you and mattered to you. Which means a privately-owned hotel is in our – right this very moment,” Cory wrote in light source for news, culture, and entertainment. But these are not only stories about good, suc- future — one that taxpayers won’t need to fund of the uncertain future that lies between the The Erie Reader is a forum for ideas and cessful Erie people; they’re stories that signal to and one for which taxpayers won’t need to as- Perry 200 Commemoration and the P250 in discussion, and seeks to drive two-way us that this city indeed does have that bright sume the risk. 2062. Yet we’re at a critical juncture right now communication with its readers. At the Erie future ahead of it if people are willing to stop Sure, a county-subsidized hotel will create jobs with our complacency for bad ideas, our accep- Reader, we endeavor to highlight the best bickering, bitching, and blaming and get down to — a projected 300. And in an area where jobs are tance — no, welcoming — of the mediocre in of Erie by providing in-depth, magazine-style journalism that cuts to the heart of the the art of actually working towards such a future sparse, that should be great news. exchange for quick riches for only a select few. issues that matter to Erie. The Erie Reader rather than just sitting around talking about it. But if we examine the long-term price tag — Seventeen. Thirty. Forty. Those aren’t the select is published every other week at The Corry And we like featuring these success stories be- the one that suggests a $30 million bond to cover few. Journal, 28 W. South St., Corry, Pa. 16407. The cause they actively serve as reminders that that the remaining expenses after that grant — this For all of us, now is not the time to be sit- Erie Reader is distributed at over 250 high foot- bright future isn’t something we should only reeks of poor investment for the county, the city, ting around simply talking, simply bitching, and traffic locations in Pennsylvania from North think about once or twice every 50 years. These and the people living here, especially when pri- bemoaning bad ideas. Now is the time to voice East to Girard to Edinboro. The Erie Reader stories are emblems of what’s possible if we all vate investors are willing to absorb the risk asso- concerns, direct our hatred toward bad ideas so is also available by mail subscription; one year embrace and then cultivate the opportunity we ciated with an investment depending on those ifs. that they don’t become bad investments and bad (26 issues) for $49.99. Send check or money have at hand here. So will this taxpayer-funded hotel happen? Yes, realities that we’re left to live out. order payable to Flagship Multimedia, Inc., to What is not an emblem of that bright future but only if those of us who recognize this for If we don’t — if we’re willing to settle — those the address below. In addition to appearing in need of embracing and cultivating is a new what it is — a poor investment at a time when people with success stories will become harder in print, Erie Reader adds new content daily taxpayer-funded hotel on Erie’s Bayfront. every cent matters in a city that can’t afford to to find, harder to highlight, and harder to look at www.ErieReader.com as well social media And if comments and continuing conversation bankroll something that has a substantial chance toward for lights of inspiration. And they may sites. All rights reserved. All content © Flagship Multimedia, Inc, 32 W. Eighth St., Suite 302, Erie, serve as any indicator, this issue also matters to of blackening the bright future – and do nothing. go chase and cultivate success somewhere else, Pa, 16501. No part of this publication may be you, Reader readers. Should this hotel happen? Not when we have somewhere where citizens care enough to take reproduced without permission. Direct inquiries Rebecca Styn wrote about this topic, saying bigger things with which we, the public, ought to command of their city’s bright future and work to 814.314.9364 or [email protected]. that in some ways, another hotel on the Bayfront be concerning ourselves. to ensure the lights are never turned on for bad makes sense. And it does — if convention goers In our last issue, Cory Vaillancourt wrote what ideas. October 2, 2013 eriereader.com | Erie Reader | 3 UPFRONT NEwS On Guns: Arriving at a Logical Conclusion on a Contentious Issue of the By: Cory Vaillancourt ticality of rendering WeiRd inoperable every By: Chuck Shepherd [Author’s note: It’s totally hilarious (read: totally not single one of them hilarious) that I wrote this column in the wake of to achieve this ideal the Newtown, Conn. school shooting last Christ- world? As of press Home Sweet Home mastime and kept it lying around for 75 percent of time there were 196 a year. And it’s hilarious (read: totally not hilari- countries in the ith its neatly cut lawns and luscious ous) that as the DC Navy Yard shootings unfolded world, give or take. tropical vegetation," wrote a BBC News a few weeks ago, this particular piece again gained Even if each country "Wreporter in July, Miracle Village, Fla., is an "idyl- relevance. In short, each time a tragedy – such as the could locate, seize, lic rural community" of 200 residents — about ones I just referenced – unfolds, we think it’s the last document, destroy, half of whom are registered sex offenders, at- time it will ever happen, because we, in our outrage and dispose of 100 tracted to the settlement near Lake Okeechobee and grief, have tied proverbial ribbons around our guns an hour, 24 because laws and ordinances elsewhere in Florida Facebook statuses denouncing violence, and saying hours a day, seven harshly restrict where they can live (e.g., not “Enough is enough!” But it keeps happening.