The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Historical Society seeks ideas for city
Anyone with a good idea on how to improve Lorain, will get a chance to speak out in a series of meetings planned this month.
Lorainites and city supporters can sound off at eight “charrettes,” or neighborhood gatherings, starting March 21.
The meetings were planned by the Lorain Historical Society, working in conjunction with local foundations and Kent State University business students at Lorain County Community College.
The goal is to get people talking about what they love or about what needs work in the city, said Barb Piscopo, executive director of the
Lorain Historical Society.
“The kicker question is, what can you do in the next 30 days to make whatever you dreamt of, happen?” Piscopo said.
“It doesn’t have to require money, it doesn’t have to require government involvement,” she said. “Really just, what can I do at the grassroots level that is going to help make Lorain a better place?”
The Historical Society has enlisted the aid of six students from the Kent State partnership through LCCC.
They will act as facilitators for the charrettes — and two of them said they are excited at the chance.
“It is our mission to motivate citizens to take initiatives into their own hands when it comes to creating a positive image for the city,” said Alyssa Williams, a student moderator.
A Sheffield Lake native, Williams said her grandparents had roots in Lorain, so she is familiar with the city.
“We hope to create a domino effect, if you will, for spreading positive attitudes regarding Lorain within communities,” she said.
“If everyone makes a small change in how they maintain their home and communities, the city as a whole will benefit.”
Kevin Saunders, a student moderator who also is on the board of Main Street Wellington, agreed.
The students do not want to focus on the bad or point fingers at anyone to blame them for problems, Saunders said.
“We are hoping to find leaders in the community who will take charge and say ‘Lorain is my city’ and take pride in it,” he said. “Things can change, but it has to start somewhere.”
Solutions to Lorain’s problems will come from its people, those living in the city and around it, said Donna Katrincsak, a Lorain native who lives in Avon Lake.
Katrincsak said she began volunteering at the Lorain Historical Society because she was intrigued by the charrettes.
“The focus is on the people of Lorain and how they would like to see the city
prosper and what they can personally do about it,” she said. “It may not be today, but tomorrow or in the near future. They have the potential to make things happen. The people of Lorain are the strength of the city.”
The Lorain Historical Society is sponsoring the meetings with help from the Community Foundation of Lorain County; the Nord Family Foundation; and the Stocker Foundation.
The Lorain Historical Society also will create an online virtual time capsule logging the suggestions and actions to improve the city.
Piscopo said she hopes anyone interested will tell their neighbors about the charrettes, or enlist their help with improvement projects.
“There is strength in numbers,” she said.
As for the name, “charrette” comes from the French for “chariot.”
Before the days of computers or blueprints, French students in city planning would create scale models of their visions of rebuilding cities.
They would wheel them about on carts called chariots or “charrettes,” according to the Lorain Historical Society.
Now the name has come to mean a process for grassroots planning.