About the Bayfront East Side Taskforce

The Action Plan identifies four areas of concentration:

• Housing
• Youth & Safety
• City Services
• Neighborhood Image

The East Bayfront is home to a core of committed residents who have been working to revitalize the neighborhood through Neighborhood Watch, a grassroots, all-volunteer network of citizens working to halt the decline and build a cohesive neighborhood.

The East Bayfront Neighborhood Watch, formed in 1992, is recognized as Erie's most aggressive, successful and sustainable Neighborhood Watch. Residents are making the East Bayfront cleaner, safer and better through the following activities: monitoring crime, housing and parking conditions; cleaning and maintaining two parks and the Bayfront bluff; building neighborhood identity through meetings, newsletters and special events; serving as an advocate for the neighborhood; and involving children in activities that create a sense of belonging. Residents routinely sit on boards and committees that impact the Bayfront such as the planning committees for the Port Authority's bluff top greenway and Penn DOT's east side connector highway.

The planning initiative stimulated other revitalization efforts in East Erie

• BEST, formerly an all-volunteer organization, hired a full time Executive Director in October 2000 through a three-year funding commitment from community partners, Erie Insurance and Hamot Medical Center. The Executive Director coordinates renewal efforts in the East Bayfront Neighborhood.
• The Lower East Side Sports Center, a totally free boxing and physical training program for any youth purchased a facility and relocated to the East Bayfront.
• Criminal activity has declined thanks to an active Neighborhood Watch, which also alerts city officials to housing and street code violations.
• Improvements to Levy Park and the completion of an historic trail; Three Flags Three Forts celebrate the neighborhood's historic past.
• Rising home improvement activity
• The City of Erie petitioned the Department of Housing and Urban Development to declare the East Bayfront along with outlying areas a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA). The HUD granted approval in July 2000 and in 2001 the City committed to funding housing improvements in the NRSA for the next five years.

Impact beyond the East Bayfront

• Revitalizing the East Bayfront has a potential impact far beyond this single neighborhood. No other Erie neighborhood has forged such strong, sustained partnerships with local government and the private sector like the East Bayfront. BEST is viewed as a model for other Watch groups and their private sector partners.
• BEST is a prototype that plays a key role in reversing the bias and negative perceptions of home ownership that plague all inner city neighborhoods in Erie. It is a proactive, aggressive effort to promote home ownership in Erie's surprisingly affordable inner city neighborhoods, instead of allowing market forces to continue to ignore a vast portion of the Erie's inner city.

BEST Achievements:

Since early 2001, BEST has achieved the following:

• Developed a land use plan that guides project decisions
• 2003 Became a HUD Certified Community Housing Development Organization
• 2004 Became a HUD Certified Community Based Development Organization
• 2004 Received Erie’s Neighborhood’s First Award
• 2002 Brought in Phillip Langdon to speak about neighborhood development
• 2004 Brought in Dan Burden to speak about walkable communities
• Home Repair Classes in 2002 & 2006
• 2004 worked with Historical Society to develop Historic Walking Trail through neighborhood
• $675,000 Parade Streetscape improvements that included new paving, curbs, sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian lighting
• Sale and construction of 15 new homes for over $1,760,000 in neighborhood investments, 80% of it private funds
• Purchased, rehabilitated and resold two existing homes to owner occupants
• Partnered with Habitat for Humanity to purchase, rehab and resale four homes
• Purchased a landmark mixed use building for corner market and affordable rental housing, the building is currently undergoing restoration, a $400,000 investment
• Purchased over 20 properties in target area, some vacant, some blighted and subsequently demolished, primarily for new home construction
• Received a $150,000 Elm Street grant to offer façade grants to owner occupants that generated over $55,000 in private investments in home improvements, the same grant funded sidewalk replacement on two blocks

Other activities and improvements in Erie’s East Bayfront neighborhood include:

1. Neighbor to Neighbor

• A group of local residents welcome new residents to the East Bayfront neighborhood, help elderly homeowners with home maintenance and repairs, plant flower gardens at several neighborhood locations, coordinate summer picnics and children’s activities – like their planned field trip to the Cleveland home and garden show this spring.

2. Levy Park

• City sponsored improvements to Levy Park include resurfaced tennis courts, installation of a drinking fountain and summer concerts in the park. The concerts draw people from all over the city.
• City investments in Levy Park follow a five-year effort by neighbors to improve Levy Park including the establishment of a flower garden, removal of brush and debris along fence lines; repainting the chain link fencing; daily maintenance of park for removal of trash and litter.

3. Gateway Projects

• Neighbors have worked to create an attractive, visible gateway to the neighborhood at the foot of Holland Street where it intersects with the heavily traveled Bayfront Parkway. This site overlooks the bayfront, library/museum complex and is highly visible to commuters and tourists.

4. Development of an Historic Walking Tour

• BEST worked with the Erie County Historic Society to develop an historic walking tour of the East Bayfront. The tour which opens with a media event on June 6th will be part of Pennsylvania’s Seaway Trail.

Revitalizing the East Bayfront has a potential impact far beyond this single neighborhood. No other Erie neighborhood has forged such strong, sustained partnerships with local government and the private sector like the East Bayfront. BEST is viewed as a model for other Watch groups and their private sector partners.

BEST is a prototype that plays a key role in reversing the bias and negative perceptions of home ownership that plague all inner city neighborhoods in Erie. It is a proactive, aggressive effort to promote home ownership in Erie's surprisingly affordable inner city neighborhoods, instead of allowing market forces to continue to ignore a vast portion of the Erie's inner city.