The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
PRIDE TAKES STAGE
Officials, residents gathered to celebrate charrettes success, take pride in community
A celebration was held at the Lorain Palace Theater at 617 Broadway Ave. on May 10 to celebrate the successes of the Lorain charrettes.
Attended by dozens of Lorain residents, civic leaders and members of Lorain City Council, the event was to held to celebrate the successes of the Lorain charrettes meetings and craft a vision for Lorain’s future through civic engagement and citizen activism.
The first 100 guests were given Lorain Proud t-shirts, and the event was characterized as a “pep rally for Lorain” to build on the ideas gathered from the sessions.
Opening the festivities, Lorain Historical Society board member Kurt Hernon set the tone for the evening in addressing the audience, decked out in white Lorain Proud t-shirts.
A citizen of Lorain for 26 years, Hernon reminded attendees of the local citizen movements which led to the preservation and restoration of local monuments such as the Lorain Palace Theater and the Lorain Lighthouse. He also encouraged people to become invested in the city’s future and embrace what makes Lorain unique.
“There are a lot of things to love about this town. We knock it a lot, and a lot of us are guilty of letting people knock it. I’m here to say let’s defend it now, and let’s
not let people knock it anymore,” Hernon said to applause.
Jeff Siegler, formerly of Heritage Ohio’s Main Street USA Program, has also been working with the #LorainProud movement. He spoke about the need to build strong community bonds, as well as the correlation between those bonds and economic success.
“The shape of Lorain is solely the responsibility of the people of Lorain. This is your city and this campaign is about reminding people about that,” Siegler said.
Siegler will be following the progress of the campaign over the course of the next year and encouraged people to share their small victories with the #LorainProud hashtag on social media.
The charrettes were a series of eight public organizing sessions hosted by the Lorain Historical Society through the month of March in an attempt give the public an opportunity
to propose ideas on ways to improve the city and gauge public feedback.
Throughout the process, about 100 citizens attended the meetings and were asked what aspects they loved about the city and what things people would like to see improved. Over the course of the sessions, a wide variety of ideas were proposed, including support for local business and economic development, beautifying the city and finding a way to harness Lorain’s identity as the international city.
Attendees at the sessions filled out commitment cards, signing up for the thirty day challenge and describing small acts they would undertake to improve
the city. The Lorain Palace Theater celebration was in part an acknowledgement of these small victories and a call for a renewed vision of the city.
At the last charrette on March 30 at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, Lorain Historical Society Executive Director Barb Piscopo said the role of the charrettes was to forge discussion and any progress from there will depend on what the people want. She called on Lorain residents to be “annoyingly persistent” to sustain momentum from the success of the meetings
“If there is something we need done in our community, we have to be persistent to the point of being annoying,” Piscopo said.