ERIE, PA, March 20, 2018 – Mastercard announced recently that it has chosen the City of Erie to become part of its pioneering Global City Possible Network, an association of communities worldwide intent on revitalization.
Through City Possible, Mastercard aims to leverage the collective power of the private sector to support these cities’ economic growth and transformative change by co-developing, piloting, and scaling programs.
Erie was brought to Mastercard’s attention through the combined efforts of the Erie Downtown Development Corporation and the Erie Innovation District and joins five other new members: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Guarulhos, Brazil; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Austin, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas.
The announcement was made at one of the largest business conferences in the country, South by Southwest, which took place in Austin, Texas, March 8-17.
In learning of the new affiliation, Mayor Joseph Schember said, “Erie people in the Public Sector, Private Sector, and Non-Profits are collaborating like never before to transform our region. We are honored and excited to be part of the Mastercard Global City Possible Network. It is a great opportunity for us to learn, share, and move forward with confidence.”
Mastercard acknowledges the extreme pace of urbanization, noting that cities generate 80 percent of the world’s GDP and, within the next generation, will be home to seven out of every 10 people. With that growth comes major challenges, like aging infrastructure and diminishing environmental resources.
“In today’s world, where cities are experiencing new types of common issues, it just makes a lot of sense to work together on shared, scalable solutions,” said Miguel Gamino, executive vice president, Global Cities, Mastercard.
With membership in the network, Erie will learn from like communities and customize its own progress based on trials in other cities. In addition, it will have access to an array of tools from Mastercard pertaining to financial data, giving the city ability to measure the direct impact of initiatives like startup attraction, job creation, and real estate development on economic growth.
“Working together to consider economic development impact through shared analytics is an appealing way to create and test for real results in a Secure Smart City™,” said Erie Innovation District President and CEO Karl Sanchack. “We’ll marry the city’s operational insights mapped to aggregated financial data in our Opportunity Zones to determine whether there’s a real dollar change.”
“The Erie Downtown Development Corporation’s mission is to revitalize the urban core of Erie, Pennsylvania, through property redevelopment. Being included in the Global City Possible Network is an exciting opportunity for the EDDC,” said Erie Downtown Development Corporation CEO John Persinger. “We believe this inclusion can help the EDDC identify cutting-edge economic development tools, attract additional investment dollars, and strengthen our revitalization efforts.”
