Time for the City to give some ground on EMTA

I had originally submitted this to the paper in June, and then withdrew it when I saw a couple City Council members had broken away from the City's irresponsible behavior on this issue. I wrote this in a low-key way this, but I think the time is over for low key. I'm pretty disgusted, especially Mr. Bob Merski's lack of independent leadership. Anyway, this is the low-key version. Feel free to leave your own memories of how things have changed from fifty years ago!
Also check out Pat Howard's excellent op-ed "Mayor owes Erie taxpayers full details of EMTA plan"

by Deb Spilko

1966 electric clock.

I still don’t completely understand what is going on with the EMTA dispute.

But the city’s refusal to drop the fifty-year charter gives me the impression that this is where the bullheadedness starts. Dropping the half-century commitment would be an easy and common-sense first step to get some movement in this crazy impasse.

I’ve lived long enough to know just how long 50 years is, and how much change can happen over that period of time. Socially, technologically, economically. Even the climate isn’t the same.

Making a half-century commitment risks hobbling the ability of the community to adapt and grow with the times. We can’t even be sure how much longer the City Erie will exist as an entity.

Please let me share with you some of the changes I have seen over the life of the current charter.

Fifty years ago, my family lived in northern Summit Township. At that time, the whole area was very rural.  Upper Peach was all woods, fields, and farms. Over on Route 97, by Robison Road, the cows on Sender’s dairy farm grazed on several acres of rolling pasture.

And then? Upper Peach, as you already know, became a regional shopping mecca. The dairy farm is now the casino complex.  And the line between city and county has blurred, as the population has sprawled and sprawled and sprawled.

So many other things have changed since then:

In 1966, Erie was a manufacturing powerhouse. A smartphone would have been the stuff of pure science fiction. The Internet as we know it would be another 25-30 years in coming.The moon landing was still three years away.  Computers were huge and expensive, used mainly by institutions and large businesses for math and science applications.

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You may well wonder why I am taking up your time with all my old days meanderings. After all, the length of the charter isn’t even the most important area of contention in the EMTA issue.

And I guess, in a way, that kind of makes my point. Because of all the things threatened by this crisis, charter length is not such a big deal. And that’s what makes me look more closely at the city’s behavior in this dispute. It would be such small and painless thing to switch to a shorter charter commitment. The fact that the city won’t budge on this little thing, strongly suggests that this is all about refusing to give any ground at all. 

And that is getting to be a very old and stupid story.

Deb Spilko is an alternative transportation advocate who admins Bus Blog and EMTA Riders Discussion Group.  

Illustration: 1965 GE clock radio