Matthew Thomas: City of Erie is a 'dead man walking,' but solutions not hard

Yahoo

13-05-2025

The city of Erie, Pa., is a dead man walking.
In 1965, the population of the city I came to love as a Gannon student (class of 2009) was 140,000 strong. Now, 60 years later, 90,000 people may be an optimistic estimate.
Those numbers mean our average loss per decade stands at 8,333 residents, putting us on track for just 65,000 in 30 years. As things stand, that could take us from being the third-largest Pennsylvania city to the eighth.
As has happened in deep-blue cities like Chicago and Detroit, that could also mean seeing a lot of neighborhoods in which home values drop to approximately $1, as a lack combines with high city property taxes to make many houses worthless (even with the current national housing boom).
I recently noted to a group of retired businessmen and city officials that my wife and I and our three young children (the third is due in July) live in Erie by choice, not job or economic compulsion.
I'm an attorney with thousands of cases and countless courtroom hours under his belt. I've handled legal matters in five different Pennsylvania counties, ranging from debt defense (and collection) to high-level criminal cases, and I've worked as a law clerk (legal research and writer) for several judges, as well as practiced estate law. I've also worked as a full-time editor and writer for a Catholic media outlet and published articles and columns through at least five professional media organizations. I speak Spanish fairly well (I could probably return to fluency with a few months of study) and hold degrees in both political science and law.
My wife is a librarian (although now a stay-at-home mom) with 20 years of unbroken experience and two college degrees. She was the acting director of the Erie County Public Library on two separate occasions (she twice turned down the top job to focus on our children).
We've chosen to stay in Erie and invest in its future and not leave, but that's starting to feel like a lonely vigil as we watch almost all of our friends in our age range leave the city for other spots in the county, or move even farther afield.
Many who have stayed here have watched their children endure the horrors of the local public school system (per U.S. News and World Report, Erie High School has a graduation rate of just 70%, whereas every other Erie County high school except North East keeps its rate at 90% or higher — and North East is at 89%).
They've also watched crime skyrocket (a 17-year-old was recently shot and killed two doors down from my house) and dangerous drugs flood the streets to the point where a high school student attending a party, once a cause of only mind concern, can quickly turn into a tragedy.
As someone with a relative who struggled with cocaine addiction, I find that deeply concerning.
A gentleman I was recently speaking with about my candidacy (and whom I genuinely like and respect) told me not to worry about Erie's decline. "Many immigrants are moving in," he assured me.
Even assuming that by "immigrants" he means "Swiss bank executives, Korean doctors, Catholic priests from Africa and brilliant Japanese computer programmers," I hope I can be forgiven for still being concerned at the mass exodus of families that have lived here for generations.
I'm also concerned that all those immigrant doctors clamoring to make a home in Erie will quickly discover that Millcreek has better schools, and join the rush for the door.
My decades of experience in watching, studying, and writing about government (as well as my firsthand look, as a lawyer, at Erie's crime problem) tells me that we're at a crossroads, but a crossroads that provide a golden opportunity.
As with most places in America, the solutions to Erie's problems really aren't hard.
Clean up the streets (literally and figuratively), untie the hands of our city's police force and have them push back — hard — on crime, including (yes) drug crimes and domestic abuse. Increase police funding. Work with the federal government to get anyone out of our city who isn't supposed to be here. No one who commits violent crimes or transports drugs into our neighborhoods should continue to walk our streets.
Bring in businesses that provide good, reliable wages for families and a real tax base to fix our town — not a dozen more nonprofit operations that pay zero tax dollars and are funded by temporary grants.
The recent tariffs at the national level provide an incredible opportunity to places with the capacity to make all manner of goods in America, and Erie is one of them.
More: Who are the candidates for city of Erie, county races in the May primary?
Or…allow the city to finish its steady decline. Believe me, another grant or another project to fix up the downtown (as nice as that is) won't turn things around. If you care about the city, consider a change of direction and, yes, maybe a change away from the political party that has ruled, uncontested, since the mid-1960s (remember what I said above about when the decline started?). Let's go find the future.
Matthew Thomas is seeking the Republican nomination in the May 20th Erie mayoral primary.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Thomas: Immigrants can't save Erie - policing, jobs will | Opinion