Serious work required to improve Elyria

The city of Elyria is engaged in a number of wonderful historic celebrations that will help to foster civic pride and promote an aesthetic feeling of goodwill and euphoria. Those efforts are to be recognized and congratulated for an excellent job well done. All of the citizens in Elyria should take the time to enjoy and participate in some meaningful way. These are proud historic moments for Elyria.

Yet there is serious work to be done. Work that is vital to repositioning our great city at the big table of economic stability and development. In order to make the desired progress we need, we must be willing to focus all of our collective attention, skills and resources to the business at hand.

Every day that we go without honest conversations about our current state and trending conditions is a day we get closer to the tipping point. It is at that tipping point it will be more difficult to prevent the kind of negative impact we are all worried about. We must engage in the humbling process of audit and self-examination, as a city and as individuals, to prioritize the steps necessary to implement corrective measures and re-establish checks and balances.

The overarching mentality emanating from City Hall, which is based on command and control, must be balanced to allow for the political message to be presented and the public relations benefit realized, but not allowed to overshadow or impede the work necessary for correction and progress. People and conditions must be placed ahead of politics.

The citizens of Elyria should expect nothing less and demand even more.

Marcus Madison Elyria City Council member