City Makers: American Futures
The people, organizations, and ideas reshaping the country. A journey piloted by James Fallows with Deborah Fallows.
Erie, PA
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‘Our Erie’ Tells Its Story
As we’ve been working away on our book based on our “American Futures” travels over the past four…
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Meanwhile in America: ‘New Americans’ in the Rust Belt
If you’ve read or heard about Erie, Pennsylvania, since the election, it’s likely to be with framing as “declining Rust…
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Deborah Fallows A Post-Election Field Report From America's Refugees and Immigrants
Words and stories from the towns where the newest Americans live
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Missing Thanksgiving Day
When you are an American living overseas, Thanksgiving is an even more powerful nationally unifying holiday than the Fourth of…
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What the Renewable-Energy Economy Looks Like
At its peak, nearly one century ago in 1920, the coal-mining industry employed nearly 800,000 people in the United…
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Refugees, Immigrants, and the Battle Over Who Is American
Deb Fallows has a new post up, about what’s actually involved in settling immigrants from Syria—or Somalia or Congo or…
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Deborah Fallows What It Takes to Settle Refugees
The people of Erie, Pennsylvania, have welcomed immigrants and refugees, and believe that their town is better off for having done so.
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The Generational Difference in Optimism: A Video Look
I hope you'll check out the second in the series of short films that The Atlantic’s video team has…
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Is America in a Boiling Fury About Immigration? Not the America I Have Seen
Over the past year-plus my wife Deb and I have been arguing that the “build a wall!”-style anti-immigration…
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And Now for Something Saner and More Positive: Fresno, Erie
Not to over-personalize, but I feel as if my life in the past few weeks recapitulates the argument my wife…
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Deborah Fallows Life in the Air
Getting from here to there by small plane
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Wikimedia Old City, Old Buildings, New Life
An art museum with a long history reinvents itself with passion and an entrepreneurial spirit.
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Mark Fainstein Erie's Unlikely Benefactor: Its Casino
Legalized gambling is a familiar part of the modern American landscape. But an innovative scheme in a lakeside city in western Pennsylvania shows new possibilities for putting casino revenue to positive public use.
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Courtesy of Erie County Public Library A Waterfront Library
In Erie, Pennsylvania, a public institution is building on its nautical past to open a world of opportunity for local residents.
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Notes From the Rest of the Country: 'Now That I've Got a Look at This Place, It's Not So Bad!'
My wife Deb and I are on the road again this week, but as a reminder of the ongoing theme…
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Taylor Aikins 'America Is a Dream Country'
What does it mean to spend years as a Syrian refugee and then land in a brand new life in Erie, Pennsylvania?
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Nick Warren / Erie Reader Erie and America
The challenges of Rust Belt America are real, and well-known. What’s less familiar is the response some mid-sized cities are making.
