Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Erie/Archive 1

Started

Here it is, folks. Help me out. It needs a lot a lot a lot of work. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 04:42, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Userbox for Erie

I had made a userbox for people who live in Erie, PA and wondering if it should be put on the wikiproject page. Also (I don't want to nag) but is possible to change some of the pictures in the templates because all of them use the Bicentennial Tower. Dtbohrer 16:10, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Ha! You won't offend me if you change any of the photos!! I didn't want to steal any from the net so I used my own!! I want to make them all different and fun to show off what Erie has. I'm not in Erie anymore so don't have access to taking any good photos right now. Be creative! Change 'em. You won't offend me!!  :) --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 22:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Any changes you all want to make are fine with me on anything. I just think Erie needed a project since there's so much about the region that should be documented on Wiki. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 22:18, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Should we start a rating system? most other wikiprojects have them. How do you go about starting to rate articles? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy (talk • contribs) 22:20, 26 March 2007 (UTC).

I'm currently looking at how assessements are done & should be able to get one up for this wikiproject. I'm worried that some articles (for example: the article Erie, PA) will have 2 assessments. Erie, PA will have 1 for the Wikiproject Erie & 1 for Wikiproject Pennsylvania. Dtbohrer 23:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

joining

hello I live in Erie and as I mentioned on the Erie Talk page, I would love to be a member.Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 18:33, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Sure, just add your name to the WikiProj Erie page! --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 22:13, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

• I wrote up an artical on millcreek township school district. I am sure it will be nominated for deletion becuase someone will think its not "notable" but have a look at it anyway!Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy

A start is a start in my book. =) --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 22:53, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Awards?

I guess we need awards, too? Those Barnstorm things? --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 00:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Good idea, write on. only 3 of us so far, but still barnstars would be cool =) Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy

These Erie people will join up. It just takes them awhile to embrace new ideas. No different than the actual city. haha. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 00:37, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I will try to get out sometime and take picutres, but I am busy with school, so maybe in a few weeks. who will be the administraters? you ? me? and Dtbohrer ? I think we should decide before too many people join also maybe a assesment commitie?-Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 00:44, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

??

On the erie page, should northwest PA be included in the metro? See Northwest Region I think it is myself, and would give us an edge on allentown. just my thoughts -Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 21:48, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if this helps but, metropolitan areas of cities and geographical regions of a state are different. Adding the population of a region to the metro population probably won't work. Dtbohrer 22:47, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

and, if you look at lehigh valley region, 790,000 people live there, but they claim to be third, when NW PA has 908,000. I think PAWIKI is a little biased and should be stopped. we must take a stand for NW PA. Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 21:53, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

The article says, "The Lehigh Valley is home to some 790,000 people, making it Pennsylvania's third most populated metropolitan region." Again, difference between geographical regions & metropolitan areas. I think its a mistake its there because the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area article says it "is often referred to as the Lehigh Valley." The population should be lower on the region page as the ABE metro area contains a county of New Jersey (which has a population of 102,437) and I doubt a geographical region of Pennsylvania contains parts of another state. Dtbohrer 22:47, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

isnt erie suppost to be annexing millcreek or something, every once in a while I hear about it on the news. ?Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 21:55, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

if you find info on this, let me know because I didn't hear anything. I doubt thats going to happen. Dtbohrer 22:47, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

an exerpt from erieblogs "The Greater Erie Unity Committee (no website as they are clueless and unorganized) gave up trying to put a referendum on the Spring ballot about forming a study group to look at an Erie and Millcreek merger. Millcreek Township Solicitor Evan Adair, whose rat like features suggest a tiny gene pool, filed suit as a private citizen opposing signatures on the petition to place the question on the ballot. The question wasn’t about an actual merger. It was just about studying a possible merger. Backward, non-thinking is why this was opposed. It didn’t help that an alleged child molester, Dr Bill Garvey, and someone who wasn’t allowed to run for mayor of Erie because he lived in Fairview, Barry Grossman, were running the group trying to put this on the ballot." -71.116.33.125 00:24, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

So I guess it was just speculation. but we can always hope they do.71.116.33.125 00:25, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

My concern with making Northwest Pa part of the Erie "metro" is that some of that area would be tecnically double counted as some parts of the Nortwest Pa map are also part of the Pgh metro. When I decided to create the Erie WikiProject, I thought about calling it Northwest Pa. Erie's in a unique situation given its small population next to three major cities. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 22:11, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

well I bet half of allentowns metro is PHL. why dosent the census people include crawford and warren counties with erie when counting its metro? are they going to in 2010?Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 23:11, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

LoL. I'm sure the Census people don't even know where Erie is. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 23:14, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Hospitals

I started a Hamot page, help me with others, please; or maybe just an "hospitals in erie" page.`Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy 00:31, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Editors/Administrators

Ttttrrrreeeeyyyyyy, you made a comment a few weeks back about administrators for the Wiki Erie. I'm actually not interested in that for a few reasons.

• I don't feel confident enough wth the knowledge of Wikipedia. I just like editing and whatnot.
• I'm not really a huge fan of Wiki, but I do think Erie needs some representation on the site.
• I don't really have time.

We need to find more people to officially add their names to the list, though. Erie's got so much to put on Wiki and so many various people have great knowledge of the region. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 20:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

WP:ERIE INVITE

I was over at wikiproject alabama and I spotted this:

Hi WikiProject Erie! You are receiving this message because we've noticed your excellent edits on Alabama related articles. We need your help at the Alabama WikiProject! We only have a few active members and could use your help. If you're interested, please head over to the project page, add your name, and help us enhance and increase the coverage of Alabama related stories.

now Im not good with templates but I think it would be great to have one of these for erie's wikiproject to recruit more people. also note my new name, I guess it violated WP:UN and I was blocked then allowed to request a new one. So Ttttrrrr....is now TREYWiki. --TREYWiki 01:40, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Give me some time and I can come up with a template like it Dtbohrer 00:41, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

the template is available here, take a look at it. If possible change the wording so its less of copy of WikiProject Alabama. Note: try to use it sparingly, and only with people who have made numerous edits over a couple days, please. I don't want WikiProject Erie to look desperate for members. Dtbohrer 02:09, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Jerry Uht Park and MCIIS

I did quite a bit of work on the Uht stadium page tonight. Comments welcome. I've looked and looked and can't find a bio for Jerry Uht. I'll work on it some more, but maybe someone can point me in the direction of a web page or two with details about the man? Maybe a dedicated Wiki page isn't warranted, but the stadium page at least should give a brief bio. (And if someone knows the Seawolves management, you might suggest that they include a bio on the stadium's web page.)
Also fyi, I updated the Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies (MCIIS) page about a month ago. If anyone has any suggestions for additions or changes to that page, let me know. I'm a student there. Pat 09:18, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

I was able to determine that Jerry Uht Park is named for Gerard T Uht, Sr, an Erie resident for most of his life, Gannon graduate in 1953, successful businessman, who was most recently living in Florida. I found him at six months of age in the 1930 census, living with his parents and older brother in Erie. If anyone knows more of the story, including any previous connection Uht may have had to baseball, that might be an interesting addition to the piece. Pat 01:27, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Erie, Pennsylvania

I did some editing of the first few paragraphs of the Erie, Pennsylvania page. I removed the lengthy discussion of how the population is declining because it is covered in detail later in the article under population. I think to be objective we need to bring in some discussion of declining population and declining industrial base, but I couldn't conceive of a way to say it that didn't sound absolutely awful. The battle between third and fourth place isn't the point here, I don't believe. The entire region, including the three large cities nearby -- Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cleveland -- took a major downward hit on population in the most recent census. We might just have to add a sentence or two in the opening section about population decline and the gradual diminishing of the industrial base -- it is important to be frank -- but I just couldn't do it tonight.

I recommend that we begin adding more sources. We have fourteen to date. We won't get accolades from Wikimaniacs unless we bolster our article with references. And that means quality sourcing, like real live books, not just online sources. :-)

I offer my editing skills. I'm having fun, but not getting enough sleep. This is addictive. Pat 07:46, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Yesterday I signifigantly edited the page. I rewrote the economy, added government, etc. I added about 10 references(all online, I don't have many books; sorry!). I think we are on the way to GA status. So Pat, if you have Erie books, cite them in the article! BTW I think we need a UTILITES/INFRASTUCTURE section, as most GA cities have them.--TREYWiki 16:00, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'll drop into the Blasco and Hammermill libraries and see what references I can find to bolster our sources for the Erie article. I've got a couple of writing projects for school, but I'll try to squeeze in some time. Pat 19:32, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The Blasco has several really old books (published in the late 1800s) on the history of Erie County. —​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 19:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Yourerie.com

Why are the websites for all the Erie TV articles being changed to yourerie.com? —​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 22:36, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

It is part of the Nextstar rebranding thing. Only Action News 24 and Fox 66 should be changed, because they are owned by Nexstar. They want to be more like a community portal. --TREYWiki 22:47, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Are they moving their original websites to ones at yourerie.com? —​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 01:15, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

The are already redirecting. type in wjettv.com and see.--TREYWiki 17:24, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

If you ask me (and no one did) it's WJET's way of saying "screw you" Erie Times-News. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 20:52, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, They stopped their partnership. They used to have a commercial like "(..blah blah...) Action News 24 is a goerie.com affilate." Now that goes to WSEE; anyways, the yourerie page is very similar to goerie.com --TREYWiki 16:42, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Historical Population

Ive been wanting to include this for a long time. I can only find a number up until 1970 when Erie was one of the 100 largest cities in the US. {wow! that has to catch you off guard). After 1970 it was no longer on the list, but I still want a historical population chart. We need to find census info for 1970-today. The page where I got pre 1970 info was here. --TREYWiki 15:55, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The latest census news is that Erie population declined, as did Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland. I saw it on the tv news a few weeks ago. I couldn't muster an article using Google tonight, but this site gives you the 2003 census stats for Erie. Pat 07:36, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

NW PA

Im going to tag all Crawford and Warren county articles for this project. As stated by the creator, "articles related to Erie, Pa., and Northwest Pennsylvania in the English Wikipedia." NW PA includes Crawford and Warren. I'm surprised people don't want more articles tagged for this project. But these counties are ones the also compose Northwest PA. So please, just let them stay. --T. Wiki 23:22, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, I think it is unwise for the Erie project to attempt to include all of northwestern Pennsylvania. The project was in its early stages when NW PA was mentioned. It is time to consider a revision of that broader scope. While NW PA was mentioned once, the entire process to date has focused on topics within the Erie Metropolitan Statistical Area. That is logical, since the Erie MSA consists exclusively of Erie County, according to the US Census Bureau. Erie and its suburbs are well defined, and initiatives to improve those articles have been ongoing. NW PA is only vaguely outlined and not defined on our project page. An assortment of organizations divide up the commonwealth for their convenience, but there is no formal breakdown. The Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania consists of thirteen counties [1], while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie consists of parishes in nine counties of NW PA. The PA DEP recognizes twelve counties in its NW PA Region Pennsylvania DEP NW Region.

If the US Government recognized a broader metropolitan area, I would be more inclined to go along with you. But the Census Bureau, which uses a number of factors to determine the cohesiveness of a metropolitan area, has evidently decided that northwestern PA doesn't meet its standards for a metro area, not even a micro area. Take a look at Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to get an idea of what qualifies as a regional MSA. So I vote that we revise the founding statement of the scope of the Erie project to focus on the Erie MSA. Pat 09:33, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Nothing is said about the MSA. Also, most people in Warren and Crawford would say they lived in the Erie area. --T. Wiki 17:41, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

While the Census folks might not consider the outer-lying counties as part of the "metro" for Erie, it is clear that the local belief is that Warren and Crawford counties are, in fact, part of the Erie area. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie is one example. Another is the Nielsen, market research firm, considers Crawford and Warren counties as part of the Erie metro area. The population of Warren and Crawford counties isn't much so I can't see much harm in considering those two counties as part of the Erie metro anyway. It would be silly to create a Crawford and Warren project. I believe the two neighboring counties should be considered part of the WikiErie project. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 23:12, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much for you input, the stupid bot hasn't got around to counting the Erie pages lately, we should have about 250 with these counties added.--T. Wiki 23:24, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I realize that the initial project description included northwestern PA. No dispute. I'm suggesting we re-evaluate at this time. I propose that we use the Erie MSA as our framework and discard any thoughts of including the more vague scope of "NW PA" in our project. All of the major local histories for the past 125 years have been histories of Erie and Erie County. I have an Erie map and it includes inset maps of North East, Girard, Corry, Union City, Lake City, Waterford, Fairview, Albion, and Edinboro. If you wish to make an alternate proposal, that's ok, but be specific as to the inclusion zone you'd like to see. The RC Diocese of Erie and the Episcopal church both have too broad a concept of northwestern PA, as I said in my previous post. Crawford County seems a logical place to include, but consider Meadville. Its residents see Erie as a place to shop and work, and some of its businesses advertise in the Erie Times-News. They probably watch Erie television on cable but can't pick it up by broadcast antennae. That is why Nielsen is including them. But people in Erie don't interact with Meadville in the same way as Meadville residents do Erie. There is no reciprocal relationship that would make our communities a unified whole. We have two distinct communities. Check out the Meadville, Pennsylvania article. No mention of its relationship with Erie. Even the eight maps on that page don't include Erie. Why? Because there is no true interconnection. Living near Erie and commuting to Erie doesn't make Meadville residents a part of greater Erie any more than it makes them a part of Pittsburgh. Pat 23:30, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't buy this idea that it can do no harm to include these two counties, and where else are we going to put them anyway? It doesn't make sense to make a decision with that sort of logic. Are we merely trying to increase our article count? I'm worried about the motivations here. Pat 23:35, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I see your arguments, but want to counter with this. Living in Butler County, Pa., doesn't necessarily make someone from Pittsburgh. However, Butler County is part of the Pgh area in all counts. Some people there may never get to Pgh -- they may work, live and play in Butler County. Does that mean they are not from Pittsburgh area? No. I think Erie and Erie County will obviously absorb most of the articles and information regarding the WikiErie project. But I do believe that the two counties are very much part of the Erie area. Places like Conneaut Lake Park are just as much a part of Erie County as they are Crawford County. The Crawford County Fair is attended and covered by folks in Erie County just as it is Crawford County. So I do see a lot of interconnection between the residents and the counties. I'm not concerned about article count. But I do think it would be important to keep Crawford and Warren counties as part of the Erie project. People in Corry, Pa., connect with Warren County. People in Edinboro connect with Cambridge Springs, Crawford County. The City of Erie and Millcreek Township can exist without the rest of the area but the rest of the area needs those two specific locations in order to exist. That's my take anyway. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 23:55, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

A quick sweep of the Beaver County and Butler County pages -- no mention of either county's location to Pittsburgh, but both county pages are part of the WikiProj Pittsburgh.--Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 00:03, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

The Census Bureau considers Beaver and Butler counties as part of the Pittsburgh MSA -- also Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. I don't know why they don't note their association with Pittsburgh, but the census bureau thinks they have a community based on their definitions. Since the census bureau doesn't think Erie includes Crawford and Warren, we should look for proofs of such a relationship. Time Warner Cable's Erie office handles the City of Erie and a list of nearby suburban townships (165xx and some 164xx zip codes, while the Edinboro office handles other parts of the county plus a small portion of Crawford county (some 163xx and some 164xx zip codes). Time Warner's Erie DMA Real estate listings are carried as the Greater Erie Area and the Greater Meadville Area. Pennsylvania MLS Listings Yahoo Hotels offers separate listings for Erie and Meadville. Yahoo Hotels I searched Google for "Greater Erie Area" plus Meadville and found only one site that gave me the impression that Erie was a part of a greater whole including Meadville. Local organizations, such as NAMI (mental health offices), have distinct Erie County and Crawford County entities, while metro areas would have joint agencies. People living at the edge of a geographical zone will naturally have a circle that extends beyond it. I think Meadville and Conneaut Lake are important neighbors, but neighbors. Don't people in Oil City feel some connection to Erie? In Russia they have oblasts, like Moscow Oblast or Tula Oblast, which include all towns in a zone around a major city. We let the US Geological Survey and the Census Bureau designate Standard Metropolitan Areas in the US. Erie's zone includes the county of Erie. The linkages at the edges may develop into a larger regional SMA by the 2010 census, but I'm not convinced that Erie is more than Erie County at this point. Pat 01:35, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but none of your arguments are relevant. Search for butler hotels, you will not find hotels in Pittsburgh. Same with real estate, search Washington, PA. Not Pittsburgh houses. The cable argument is very odd. I do not see what you are implying. --T. Wiki 01:44, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm looking for some trace of evidence that Crawford is considered by someone in authority as a part of greater Erie. This isn't WikiProject Northern Pennsylvania. This is Wikiproject Erie. If you want to include Crawford or Warren county in the project, you should make a convincing argument beyond proximity that those counties belong to greater Erie. I've shown you countless pieces of evidence that show Meadville is not part of a greater Erie area. The census bureau, the cable company, Yahoo, real estate listings, all show that Meadville and Crawford county have a separate and distinct existence from Erie. All of these arguments are relevant to discerning a metropolitan area. People moving to or living in the Erie metro area should have Meadville homes, schools, stores, hotels, malls, all presented to them as part of the greater Erie experience. If you go to Orbitz looking for a hotel in Pittsburgh, it includes hotels in Butler County. For Erie it includes hotels in North East. For Meadville, it includes only Meadville hotels. What measures do you propose to discern the Erie community? Wikipedia doesn't allow your personal opinion to weigh in here, or personal research, so what is your evidence that Crawford and Warren are part of a greater Erie area? I've spelled out my concerns. I'll wait for other responses to see if there is more of a trend against my position. The three of us may be at an impasse. Pat 02:35, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

It was support to be called WikiProject Northwestern PA but It was called WikiProject Erie for naming purposes. It is not just a Erie Project. Also, Wikipedia could not randomly removed project tags. Heck we could tag USA for this project and no one would say anything. --T. Wiki 21:22, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Pat, you have to consider that Erie and NWPA is a lot smaller than Pgh. People are more spaced out. Just because the government doesn't consider the other two counties as part of the "region" doesn't mean it doesn't exist. In real life, all three counties are Erie. Erie is the hub for life in that area. People go to the lake and the beach and the amusement park and a baseball game and shopping. It's all connected. Conneaut Lake Park, Meadville and all the surrounding areas should be considered the same. It's one REGION. The TV channels consider it all the same region. Crawford County residents get 12, 24, 35, 54 and 66 just like people in Edinboro and Erie and Corry and North East. You must look at the communities the region has and determine if it is a region. You look at the three-county region in the northwest corner of PA and you see that they are all one. They cannot exist without the other. Meadville feeds into Erie County. Warren feeds into Erie County. It would be foolish to leave out the two counties as part of the project. It would be a disservice to people using Wiki as reference, too. Wikipedia serves as a portal of information that is relevant. And in this situation, to deny that Crawford, Erie and Warren counties are a region -- albeit a small region -- in itself does a disservice to Wikipedia, its users and to the three-county area. --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 01:04, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Please know that I'm not angry about anything. This is strictly an academic discussion. No doubt my persistence in written form gives a different impression. I am willing to hear all opinions but can't be expected to agree with them all. And I most appreciate a well-founded argument. I've asked some contacts about this issue in a very unscientific poll. One friend, who attended college in Meadville, said he received both Youngstown and Erie television while there. He commented that Erie as a destination was not described locally as "going to town", but more distantly as "going to Erie"; he never thought he was a part of greater Erie when he lived there. The census bureau would consider Crawford and Warren as potential outlying counties, but they don't qualify to be included in the Erie MSA because they don't have sufficiently strong social and economic ties to Erie County as measured by commuting and employment. Despite all of that, I offer this as a compromise: I could agree to the inclusion of Crawford and Warren counties in the Erie project if we label them as neighboring counties. I prefer that we not open Pandora's Box by suggesting the project covers northwestern Pennsylvania, only because that concept is so vaguely defined and could cover hundreds of square miles. So why not say something specific, like "this project covers the City of Erie, Erie County, and the neighboring counties of Crawford and Warren"? Can we all live with that? Pat 23:53, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

I might come back if we can all agree on something.--T. Wiki 00:35, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Pat, no worries. I'm a writer (for the job that pays me) so I somtimes sound intense or pissy when it's just me writing. When I spout off these HUGE responses I just write and write. But I don't sit here going, "!@#$% Pat!" lol. Here's something else I thought of, Pat. The Erie Area Convention and Visitors Bureau considers Erie and the surrounding counties as part of the region. I know the government doesn't. The population of the CITY of Erie is small, as is the county and the surrounding counties. If the region's population was bigger then the government might think differently about considering it a "metro" area. The gov't doesn't care about the region because the population keeps declining. Maybe it was my error at calling it "Erie" instead of "Erie area" -- growing up near the area, though, I've just always known the region as "Erie." I'm totally cool with "this project covers the City of Erie, Erie County, and the neighboring counties of Crawford and Warren." --Write_On_1983 talk | contribs 00:46, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I've been the kinda quiet the whole time, watching how this plays out, but I figure I had better put my two cents in. I like the compromise of including Warren & Crawford counties as seperate entities and not try to encompass all three counties in one group (aka Northwest Pennsylvania). I'm all for saying that the scope of WP:Erie includes the City of Erie, Erie County, Crawford County, and Warren County. --​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 01:08, 7 June 2007 (UTC)