Bayfront East Side Taskforce

To
borrow America250PA’s catchphrase: “Start here, Erie did!”

The Bayfront East Side Taskforce (B.E.S.T.) was started nearly 50 years ago, during the commercial revitalization of Erie’s historic Lower East Bayfront district. The organization was Erie’s first non-profit focused on a single neighborhood and continues to be an invaluable steward in the neighborhood. With the integral help of our donors, partners, and volunteers, B.E.S.T. has collectively joined forces with the community to create the best place in Erie.

Our Mission: BEST leads collaborative revitalization with residents, businesses, and community partners across the historic East Bayfront Neighborhood, creating a safe, affordable, and vibrant place to call home. 

Our central themes are: organizing the community, building a positive neighborhood image, increasing neighborhood pride, and beautifying the neighborhood. We also strive to promote home ownership, improve communication, and serve in a concerted and collaborative role with local government. We work with many partners in our community to improve safety and build stability, fostering a sense of community.

Our Vision: BEST is working to create a revitalized neighborhood of choice that provides a thriving, connected community to live, work, and enjoy.

To accomplish this, we work with partners located in our neighborhood. We involve landlords in the community organizing process, and we provide neighborhood-benefitting, nonprofit housing development, serving as a central information resource on housing and development. We serve as a collaborator where community partners and volunteers can come together, using their talents and skills to help improve the livelihood throughout the neighborhood.

With your help, BEST:

• Eliminates blight through renovation or the creation and maintenance of greenspace
• Offers an Aging in Place minor home modification program to eligible residents to make their homes safer and more accessible
• Adds pocket parks for recreation and pocket orchards so that fresh fruit is available to anyone who would like to harvest it when in season
• Oversees the area’s largest and only USDA-designated People’s Garden Community Garden on East 5th Street with help from the Master Gardeners of Penn State
• Creates and maintains safe, affordable rental property for renters in the East Bayfront neighborhood
• Collaborates with Infinite Erie and local partners to address the need for affordable housing in Erie
• Organizes neighborhood clean-ups, park beautification, and volunteer efforts in partnership with Groundwork Erie, Love Your Block, Erie Insurance, Northwest Bank, Keep PA Beautiful, and ServErie
• Provides information regarding façade beautification and home improvement resources to homeowners in the East Bayfront which helps increase property values, walkability, and quality of life
• Hosts community-building activities, such as National Night Out
• Works to make the neighborhood safer and more walkable with a security camera program 

Your gifts, both large and small, will help us to achieve our mission to lead collaborative revitalization with residents, businesses, and community partners across the historic East Bayfront neighborhood, creating a safe, affordable, and vibrant place to call home. 

Thank you in advance for your generous support. When you support the Bayfront East Side Taskforce, you are making Erie better for all of us.