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2 | Erie Reader | eriereader.com December 11, 2013 CONTENT December 11, 2013 Editors-in-Chief: Brian Graham & Adam Welsh NEWS AND NOTES CULTURE Managing Editor: 12 Ben Speggen 9 ERIE INSURANCE If WE WERE YOU... Contributing Editor: How Erie's Only Fortune 500 Company Invests in and Here’s what we would do Rebecca Styn Revitalizes the Neighborhood and City it Calls Home 14 Copy Editor: TO-DO LIST Alex Bieler 4 STREET CORNER SOAPBOX Blue is the Warmest Color, Shotgun Jubilee Farewell Show, Copywrite Contributors: Hotel Wars Alex Bieler 15 MUSIC REVIEWS Pen Ealain 5 Matthew Flowers THE WAY I SEE IT Nils Frahm, Shearwater, Dakota Hoffman Making Sense of the Democratic Primaries for Pa. Governor Billie Joe + Norah, Glen Hansard Leslie McAllister Rich McCarty 19 ERIE'S VINYL SCENE Ryan Smith 6 OUTSIDE VOICES Jay Stevens Thoughts on Harbor Place It's on Fire Rebecca Styn Bryan Toy 7 GUEST OPINION Cory Vaillancourt Monday Morning Politicking Designers: Mark Kosobucki 17 TECH WATCH Burim Loshaj Living in a Snow Crash World with Amazon Drones Cover Design: Todd Scalise Photographers: Ryan Smith Brad Triana Jessica Yochim Interns: Jessica Courter Ellie Hartleb Adam Unger 32 W. Eighth St. #302 From the Editors Erie PA, 16501 irst, on behalf of all of us at the Reader, Nicholas clears room to kneel before the Christ goes something like this: [email protected] we’d like to wish you Happy Holidays! child and his mother in a beautiful moment of “Did someone threaten your life, safety, civil Furthermore, we don’t think that we serenity and peace that anyone could enjoy and liberties, or right to worship?” The Erie Reader is Erie’s only free, independent F should have to apologize for or explain that. understand. If you answer “yes,” you are being persecuted. source for news, culture, and entertainment. But it seems that we do. So we will. Explain, The slowing of a moment. The attention to If you answer “no,” you’re presented with a The Erie Reader is a forum for ideas and that is. detail. The care. The love. The joy. All of the follow-up question: “Did someone wish you a discussion, and seeks to drive two-way communication with its readers. At the Erie We find ourselves in trying times. The holidays things that should be ever-present. happy holidays?” If you answer “no,” you’re not Reader, we endeavor to highlight the best are so stressful! we hear, along with: Don’t say Rather than taking time to enjoy the company being persecuted. If you answer “yes,” it turns of Erie by providing in-depth, magazine-style ‘holidays’, you might offend someone! and When you of friends and family, we’re more concerned out you’re still not being persecuted. journalism that cuts to the heart of the say ‘Xmas’, you’re taking ‘Christ’ out of Christmas! with buying gifts. Don’t get us wrong: Buying “Happy Holidays” is no more offensive than issues that matter to Erie. The Erie Reader First, the term ‘Xmas’ dates back to the 16th gifts for loved ones is great, because it is the someone wishing you to have a good day, since is published every other week at The Corry century. Second, the ‘X’ is being used as a physical manifestation of inward feelings. But in all actuality, it’s about as generic of a well- Journal, 28 W. South St., Corry, Pa. 16407. The placeholder for the word ‘Christ’ since that ‘X’ doing so at the expense of spending time with wishing statement one can offer given a spe- Erie Reader is distributed at over 250 high foot- comes from the Greek letter ‘Chi’, which is the loved ones and jeopardizing our own sanity cific instance in time. traffic locations in Pennsylvania from North first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, which means we’re doing it wrong. As journalists, we appreciate the First Amend- East to Girard to Edinboro. The Erie Reader translates into English as ‘Christ’, meaning And when it comes to worrying about wheth- ment for the freedoms it provides us, particu- is also available by mail subscription; one year that ‘Christ’ isn’t literally being removed from er we’re offending each other, perhaps the holi- larly that of speech and press. But we also ap- (26 issues) for $49.99. Send check or money Christmas. days can teach us an important lesson: Toler- preciate it because it affords us all the chance order payable to Flagship Multimedia, Inc., to Second, and perhaps more important, we ance. to practice our beliefs and implores us to grant the address below. In addition to appearing in print, Erie Reader adds new content daily should ask ourselves: Why are we making the Is religion your thing? Great. Is religion not that same freedom to those whose creeds differ at ErieReader.com as well social media sites. holidays so stressful? And why now, more than your thing? Great. Is persecuting others your from ours. All rights reserved. All content © Flagship other times of the year, are we worried about thing? That’s the exact opposite of great. So again, we want to wish everyone — regard- Multimedia, Inc, 32 W. Eighth St., Suite 302, Erie, offending each other? But that’s what it’s becoming when the words less of beliefs and non-beliefs — Happy Holi- Pa, 16501. No part of this publication may be Perhaps a long hard look at B. Toy’s cartoon “Happy Holidays” become dirty words and days, not because we intend to offend anyone, reproduced without permission. The opinions in this issue might answer that. While words cause for claims of persecution. but because we want your holidays — whatever of our columnists and contributors are their don’t quite do it justice, he illustrates a picture Writer Rachel Held Evans posted a flow chart you and your loved ones choose to celebrate — own and do not always reflect that of the of people running, rushing from store to store to her blog to help us understand persecution. to be filled with joy, happiness, and glad tidings editorial board or organization. Direct inquiries in quest of sales and deals — all while Saint Again, words don’t quite do it justice, but it — themes universal to us all. to 814.314.9364 or [email protected]. December 11, 2013 eriereader.com | Erie Reader | 3 and a row of town houses without any visible connection to the rest of the city – no skywalk, no realistic pedestrian access – without inte- Street Corner Soapbox grating into the existing Bayfront, not even reimagining the adjacent Convention Center news space. Basically, the plan proposed a parking ga- rage and hotel looking out onto the Convention Hotel Wars Center’s parking lot. Yes, that proposal was designed to allow recla- of the Weird mation of the site to begin, to get state approval for the environmental cleanup process based on By: Jay Stevens plan, “dynamic, dense, and forward thinking,” the intended use of the site. Convention Center By: Chuck Shepherd cott Enterprises recently released its praising the plan’s focus on “public access and Authority Casey Wells did call that plan “a road $150-million master plan for develop- year round activity.” map,” not a “blueprint.” ment on its harbor front property – and It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. But it hardly inspired confidence. Neither LEAD STORY — SOmE- it’s a doozy. The Scott Enterprises proposal links public has the Authority’s recent announcement of Thing in ThE AiR STown houses, apartments, two hotels, event walkways to public parks and plazas, through its own plan for building a “mid-price” hotel space on the waterfront, office space, an acre shop spaces – an outdoor café? – keeps the edge next to the Convention Center. That hotel plan s the signature smell of Texas A&M University of public park, retail space, a 1000-space park- of the waterfront in public hands, integrates was slammed in September by our own Re- Imore "Italian lemon, bergamot and iced pine- ing garage, a sky bridge across the Bayfront all of the existing space into a cohesive whole, becca Styn, who questioned the necessity of the apple" (that open into "a body of vivid florals, raw Parkway, a traffic circle with a water fountain would provide the city with tax-revenue office $25-million state grant to build it and disliked nutmeg and cinnamon") or more "bat feces" and at the State Street-Parkway intersection, the and living space while keeping a public and the idea of county government getting into the "chilifest stink"? The two commentaries were Penelec smokestack transformed into a light- maritime feel to the development. contrasted in a November Wall Street Journal house… Did I forget to mention there’s a public skating report on the introduction of Masik Collegiate I could go on. I will go on. rink and floating entertainment barge? Fragrances' Texas A&M cologne (one of 17 Masik The plan proposes a public drawbridge across It’s obvious this plan conceived of the land not Erie City Councilman college clients) at around $40 for a 1.7-ounce bot- the entrance of the East Inner Harbor – which as a private gated community, but as a public tle. Louisiana State University's scent conjures leads to the Flagship Niagara’s berth at the Mari- space for Erie. It’s also nice to see Scott Enter- Dave Brennan on his up, insisted one grad, the campus's oak trees, but time Museum. Can you imagine the sight of the prises refocus its business on the downtown Facebook account called so far has pulled in only $5,500 for the school.