Erie: More Than Another Rust Belt City
Sean Fedorko stuck around his hometown just long enough to graduate from college. Then he did what a lot of young people from Erie, Pennsylvania, do. He left.
“It was a pretty strong narrative of ‘get out.’ You know, that there wasn't going to be a lot of growth,” Fedorko said.
Fedorko headed to the University of Indiana to get a master's degree and eventually wound up in Washington, D.C., working part time in telecommunications policy. About a year in, he was offered a temporary gig back in Erie. He thought it’d be a good opportunity to visit for a few months, see his family and old friends. He also planned to join a co-working space, where he would be around other young workers building startups, designing software and working remotely.
“It seemed obvious, like everywhere would have something that did co-working. Everybody has extra square footage in Erie,” he explained.
But there were no co-working spaces, so Fedorko decided to launch his own. He never did return to Washington.
Today, he's the owner of Radius CoWork, Erie’s first co-working space. For a couple hundred dollars a month, freelancers and entrepreneurs can get a desk, office equipment and a community.
“So by doing that, they’re able to commit their limited financial resources to marketing, to product development, to longevity,” Fedorko explained.
Sean Fedorko stuck around his hometown just long enough to graduate from college. Then he did what a lot of young people from Erie, Pennsylvania, do. He left.
“It was a pretty strong narrative of ‘get out.’ You know, that there wasn't going to be a lot of growth,” Fedorko said.
Fedorko headed to the University of Indiana to get a master's degree and eventually wound up in Washington, D.C., working part time in telecommunications policy. About a year in, he was offered a temporary gig back in Erie. He thought it’d be a good opportunity to visit for a few months, see his family and old friends. He also planned to join a co-working space, where he would be around other young workers building startups, designing software and working remotely.
“It seemed obvious, like everywhere would have something that did co-working. Everybody has extra square footage in Erie,” he explained.
But there were no co-working spaces, so Fedorko decided to launch his own. He never did return to Washington.
Today, he's the owner of Radius CoWork, Erie’s first co-working space. For a couple hundred dollars a month, freelancers and entrepreneurs can get a desk, office equipment and a community.
“So by doing that, they’re able to commit their limited financial resources to marketing, to product development, to longevity,” Fedorko explained.
The same year they started their business, the two also got a bittersweet bargain. They bought a foreclosed house: two bedrooms, one bath and a yard for less than $40,000.
Young entrepreneurs like these two said they desperately want to see their hometown rebound.
Beth Zimmer, managing director of the Innovation Collaborative in Erie, said things could be headed in that direction.
“Back in 2010 to 2014, just before all this got started, we were experiencing about 200 startups per year. In addition to that, we were experiencing 260 company deaths,” Zimmer said. “But we can feel the vibrancy in the more and more startups coming out of the woodwork,” Zimmer said.
The real challenge, she said, is creating economic sustainability.
Fedorko has some thoughts on that, which have more to do with lifestyle than business strategy.
“If there was no Thai food in the city, no brewery and nowhere to take my boat, why would I want to live here?” he said.
He said tax credits and hiring incentives are important, “But what’s even more crucial is making the place you want innovation to occur attractive for people to be.”
Because trendy restaurants, fun bars, parks, bike trails and other places to escape are what you need after a long day of building the new Erie.
(via American Public Media's Marketplace)