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Downtown,
Cascade Park and Envision Elyria
Elyria has been engaged in goal setting for some time now. For
example, in the mid-1990’s, Envision Elyria embarked on the
most comprehensive public goal setting process in Elyria’s
history. Some 1,200 Elyrians participated in focus group discussions.
Twenty-one public forums were held over six months, resulting in
a vision document containing 18 goals with action initiatives to
be met by 2005.
The Grace administration’s emphasis on downtown is based
on many important community development principles as well as the
wishes residents expressed during Envision Elyria. It was the number
one priority of a total of eighteen. Elyrians came together and
declared that “By the year 2005, Elyria will have an attractive
downtown vibrant with commercial and retail activity that draws
in people.”
The top four of the eighteen priorities determined by our citizens
were:
1. An attractive downtown, vibrant with commercial and retail
activity that draws in people,
2. Upgraded school facilities that allow for excellence in education from pre-school
through college;
3. A securely financed school system that has a reputation for delivering innovative,
quality education; and
4. Cascade Park that is the focal point of our park system.
Of all that is important to creating Elyria as a more fulfilling
place to live, the three cornerstones are our school system, downtown
and Cascade Park.
Mayor Grace initiated the creation of the Cascade Elyria Parks
Endowment Fund. The fund is maintained by the Lorain County Community
Foundation. It was created to provide a long-term maintenance strategy
for Cascade Park and other city parks. The new initiative gives
individuals and organizations the opportunity to make tax deductible
contributions to provide for the future care of Cascade Park and
any other city parks.
“The downtown and Cascade Park are what historically
set Elyria apart from other cities, Grace believes rightly. They
were Elyria's main attraction years ago, and can be again through
judicious spending of public money that attracts private dollars;
then good things keep spreading outward like ripples throughout
the city.”
–
The Morning Journal, April 22, 2003
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