Radio Free JoJo

I had the privilege to write a devotional for 106.3 WCTL’s daily feature, PowerUp Devotionals. You can hear it here, or just read it for yourself:

History of Change

How about an Erie history lesson today? Did you know that in 1753 the French built a fort on the Erie bayfront called Fort Presque Isle with the purpose of keeping the English in their place in what was then the western frontier of the British colonies. Well their efforts didn’t work since they abandoned the fort and the British took over the land only after six years of French occupation. Things didn’t go well either for the British, as they abandoned their fort in Erie after only three years, fearing the imminent attack of Iroquois and Seneca native Americans. It wasn’t until 1795, years after the end of the American Revolution that a permanent town was laid out and called Erie. So the land which is now Erie was claimed by three different countries in a span of less than fifty years. That’s a lot of change for one little plot of land. Sometimes in our life circumstances we encounter change. Change is not easy, often it makes us uncomfortable to even being stressed out or angry. Fortunately, God gives us tools to cope with and even embrace change. First, we are encouraged to build a solid foundation in our relationship with God. That comes through prayer and the reading of God’s word the Bible. As we learn more about God and His character, we are able to better discern what is really happening when a wave of change comes our way. The Holy Spirit is able to bring peace to our hearts for clear thinking and perspective. Finally we can have a strong realization of God’s perfect love for us that will cast out the fear that can accompany change. God created us to be dynamic people, constantly growing in relationship to Him and to others. When change comes, our strong connection to God will help us navigate those new waters.

My nagging suspicion that Obama perhaps has written off Erie County in the presidential primary tomorrow has been validated. A very revealing graphic on nytimes.com this morning shows that even with the very low TV ad rates in the Erie market, out of the nearly 12,000 television spots he has run in Pennsylvania, only 9% have run in Erie. Compare that to the most expensive market, Philadelphia, where nearly one out of every four PA spots ran.
If you are just shrugging your shoulders, saying”so what, Philly is bigger than Erie,” you need to remember that we are talking about frequency as opposed to pairs of eyes reached. Let’s say that it costs $500 to reach 40,000 people in Erie, and $5,000 to reach 400,000 people in Philly. What this statistic is saying that Barack was willing to spend about $12,500 to talk to those same 400,000 people 2.5 times more often than his $500 that spoke to the 40,000 in Erie once. According to the Times, he ran over 1,050 spots in Erie through last Thursday, which is no slouch of a buy, mind you. Meanwhile he ran over 2,700 spots in Philly. Can you say saturation?
For her part, Mrs. Clinton ran nearly one-third of her commercials in Philadelphia. But since she’s nearly broke, that translates into only under 1,600 spots through Thursday. Erie got to see Hillary’s “3 am” ad and others just under 550 times.
He also saturated the Philadelphia area with appearances. I think the local Obama camp was getting nervous as they waited for an Erie appearance date. He certainly was taking his time, finally getting here on Friday morning with a visit to Erie Bolt and then a townhall meeting at Penn State Behrend. For a candidate with such rock star status, I do not get why he didn’t go to the Tullio Arena, or Bayfront Convention Center, where he could have satisfied the high demand for tickets to the event. Either they didn’t have the manpower to process a 5000 person crowd, or didn’t want to pay the Convention Center Authority, or both.
Anyway the lateness of the visit, and the fact that his next closest appearance was in Beaver County seems to show that he is not hoping for much out of NWPA. Tomorrow night we’ll know if his Philadelphia-centric strategy works.

The Erie Times News has a blaring headline this morning about the airport runway extension. That 1920 foot piece of asphalt has certainly been jerked around for months and even years. Now it seems that the city and Airport Authority have settled on an solution to get the job done, however, there is just this one hurdle: the county, who is writing the multi-million dollar check, has to sign off. It’s that same County Council who last week gave the other parties a “take it or leave it” ultimatum.

All of this intergovernmental bickering has me pining for the simplicity of metropolitan government under which I lived for four years in the 1980’s. It was Nashville, TN, the progressive city that really doesn’t have anywhere near the natural and cultural resources available to us here in Erie, yet long ago, got it right in their governance. Their decisions long ago have led to the prosperity they continue to enjoy today.

Next Tuesday will be the 45th anniversary of Metro Nashville/Davidson County. I want to share a link to their Metro Charter’s history, of which has become the model of the country.

What was key for Nashville was: 1) the unified agenda of Nashville’s representatives to the state legislature for powerful laws to help city and county cooperate, and 2) that it wasn’t one taking over the other, but a true consolidation of both governments to become a third strong, home-ruled force for change.

Take a read and tell me what you think.

I can picture the scene at a hotel conference room somewhere in the rust belt. It’s a meeting of “Bad Local Economies Anonymous.” A gentleman stands up and says, “Hello, my name is Erie, and I’m terrible for business.” The rest of the cities chime in, “hello, Erie.”

With that metaphor, please know that I mean no disrespect for the amazing work of 12 step programs to change peoples’ lives for the better. But indeed, the metaphor holds up for cities both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that have been facing a half-century of economic decline. The first step on the road to recovery is to name your problem. For quite some time, there has been a community conversation on what Erie’s problem is that has led to our present state, and what are the cures for its turnaround. Some people are given to the idea that we have no problem, other than our negative perspective; that our “half-empty” mentality blinds us to the really remarkable things that are happening here. There has even been a campaign to start going after the media messengers who in their laziness just reinforces established prejudices instead of digging for the real story on Erie.
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Get ready for seven weeks of Democrat strategery.

With Sen. Clinton’s win in Ohio and Texas last night, the door is wide open for the continued contested race for the Democrat nomination. Sen. Obama’s lead in delegates really hasn’t changed much, yet the momentum swings in Hilary’s favor as a victor in big blue states.

Thus first quarter 2008 profits for Pennsylvania’s television and radio stations are really looking up. Since Clinton and Obama raised $85 million between them last month, with more of the same bound to come in this month, PA broadcasters could easily find themselves with a windfall of upwards of $50 million of new money spent on commercials. It also affects the cost of every other spot as commercial inventory will most definitely tighten.

There also will be a small bump in the hotel and restaurant industry as hundreds of journalists from around the world will take up residence in both the big cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but also towns like Scranton, Bradford and of course, Erie, PA. They’ll go on and on about the union influences, the mid and northern state conservative “T”, the effect of NAFTA, outsourcing and the like.

Erieites, be ready to put on your thick skin along with your parkas, as our town will more than likely be called worse things than “unfashionable.”

P.S.: I have to admit that I was totally wrong, along with most pundits, about the race going on so long that PA would be in play. Lucky us!

I’m really proud to be a part of a big Italian-American family. I’m proud of my siblings and nieces and nephews for not only what they do, but who they are.

My little brother Jeffrey had received some significant media attention lately for his work as a family counselor, including his use of media to help kids with dealing with their emotions. His ErieKIDS.com website is full of helpful material for families. A couple weeks ago, he received special recognition from the Young Erie Professionals. Today, he was featured in the Erie Times News/GoErie.com Q&A article just in time for Valentines Day, giving advice to married couples. You can read it here.

Congrats Jeff! Thanks for all you do to help families and kids…we are all proud of you!

During Tom Atkins weather forecast last night on Jet TV, he had a trivia question about which Christmas had 20” of snow and wind chills of 40-50 below. “Of course,” I told my wife, “it was the Christmas of 1983.”

That year I was two months into a very part time job working as an air personality at WJET 1400 AM in Erie. My assignment for Christmas was to play the tapes of the full-time jocks playing their favorite Christmas songs throughout the early morning. The forecast for Christmas was dire, even for those days. Basically, a blizzard was in store. I was without wheels back then, being a lowly college student, and my father didn’t want me driving the only family car to inevitably get stuck. So we made a plan that my dad would drive me to the station during Christmas Eve before the storm hit, and I would stay there overnight and take a cab home the next day.

So there I was, sleeping on the floor of our Program Director Ken Tyler’s office on Christmas morning. I was awakened about 5:30 AM by Mark Priscaro, who was finishing up the overnight shift, and I was going to be on through the morning to play the tapes.

The airshift went on without a hitch. I remember several of the jocks playing “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” as that was the big novelty song that year. Meanwhile, outside the Erie area was getting crushed by an historical snowfall for Christmas. Somehow, the fellow who was to relieve me made it to the station (I think he had a big ‘ol 4-wheeler), and I had arranged for a cab to take me home.

The taxi pulled up on time, and as I enter I find the driver dressed in a Santa suit, with his cab’s interior decorated with ornaments and lights. It is the most memorable taxi ride of my life.  He drove his cab as if it was Santa’s sleigh, bounding through the snow on Erie’s Ash Street, north to 12th. He really didn’t turn left onto 12th but more like whipped the cab’s rear end around with a jerk to be facing west. We plowed snow and he did the same maneuver to turn left onto Sassafras and continued south to my block on 18th.  People that know Erie will recognize that he took the long way to 18th & Sass. but on that day, he went the only way he could considering the snow.  I paid my fare and gave him a big tip. He dropped me at the corner and with a hardy “Merry Christmas,” he went on his way.

I walked the half-block to my house, glad to be home even as the whole city was shut down. I thought to myself that I’d always remember where I was on the Christmas of 1983.