Conversations about equality and racial justice. Like the rest of the nation and world, Erie County was affected by all of those events in 2020, and they understandably wrested attention and energy away from the region’s renaissance movement. But that does not mean the momentum forged over the past few years — aimed at bringing improved leadership and transformational change to the region and created within Erie’s civic and political landscape — has disappeared. “In a normal year, any one of those things would have been a major conversation, let alone three,” James Grunke, CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, said of the past year's history-making events. "But it’s important to acknowledge that economic development and progress in Erie have not stopped. We probably have more streets blocked off because of construction right now, for example, than we have had in decades. And there’s more coming.”