The Definitive Erie Election Guide

It’s really quite simple.

Don’t be distracted by arcane arguments about water rates, grocery stores, traffic patterns and other bits of town business. Swirling beneath the surface details is profound disagreement about what kind of community we want to be.

My Facebook friend, Lindsey (The Terror) Terranova, recently penned a fine letter to Yellow Scene magazine. She was attacked, trolled, dismissed and dissed by proponents of the “slate,” comprised of Mayoral candidate Andrew Moore and council candidates Brandon Bell, Dan Maloit and others.

The sometimes nasty nature of the attacks was largely centered on Terranova’s volunteer commitments to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This, paired with her support of Mayor Justin Brooks’s re-election campaign, put her in the crosshairs.

On Tuesday evening my wife and I attended our grandson’s absolutely delightful Red Hawk 4th grade chorus concert at Erie High School. The homogeneity of the community was on clear display. There seemed no Black children on stage, although a few kids of color, perhaps Latinx or South Asian, speckled the risers.

Earlier in the day we picked up our granddaughter at Erie Middle School. Here too the lack of racial diversity was painfully obvious.

We moved to Erie in 2017 to be near these grandchildren. There’s much to commend Erie, including lovely (albeit cookie-cutter) homes, walking and cycling paths, a great library, the Rec Center, good parks, a revitalized (gentrified?) downtown and a dentist on every corner. It is a safe, comfortable, convenient place to live. But it is not America.

It is a white, heteronormative, suburban community of privilege. This is not what my family values, but our disappointment has been softened by the presence of a socially progressive faction. We were heartened by the creation of Being Better Neighbors, the Juneteenth celebration, Erie Pride and other gestures of inclusion and celebration.

I, among others, have repeatedly asked candidate Andrew Moore, and others who comprise the “slate,” whether they are committed to these kinds of affirmation of and for those who are in the minority or on the margins. The silence has been deafening. Evidently kindness and affirmative support are just a little too “woke” for these staunch supporters of a white, heteronormative community of privilege.

As the head of a New York City school for 19 years, I learned from and listened to my colleagues and students of color. I learned that micro-aggressions are searingly painful, not something to be haughtily dismissed by smug white folks. I learned about the challenges Black kids have navigating a white-dominant culture.

I learned how hard it is to create, sustain and support a diverse community. And I learned the profound benefits gained in the process. (We produced a film titled “I’m Not Racist . . . Am I?” I wish every member of our Erie community would watch it and learn from the raw honesty and growth of the students in the film.)

And I learned that it is hard, bordering on impossible, to bring diversity to a overwhelmingly white school or community. It can be quietly agonizing to be the only Black student in a class or one of the only Black families in the neighborhood. Events like the ones the “slate” refuses to endorse provide a community within the community for folks of color, our queer neighbors, and those of us who are not content to be isolated within our privilege.

Even the “controversy” over affordable housing is intentionally obfuscated by arguments about density, traffic, parking and scale. The not-so-subtle subtext in most objections falls into the “not-in-my-backyard” realm. If the “slate” prevails, the Erie welcome mat is not going to be rolled out for “the other,” whether “other” by race, ethnicity or economic status. Our “affordable” housing is not particularly affordable, so they needn’t fear. But god forbid we had actual low income housing (which I would love to see). The screams from the golf course would be just awful.

Yes, this election is about what kind of community we want to be and what kind of community we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in.

I want my grandchildren to experience the richness of real diversity, not the false comfort of a de-facto gated community. I want them to learn humility, the irrelevance of wealth and the beauty in difference. I want them to recognize and challenge their implicit biases and grow into a better generation than preceded them.

We can find other ways to introduce them to the world they will live in, but it would be more powerful and enduring if they lived in it now.

One group of candidates hopes for this too. The other evidently fears it.

Vote hopes, not fears. The choice is mighty clear.

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