Elyria declares racism a public health crisis

ELYRIA — Elyria has declared racism to be a public health crisis — and that's just the first step, City Council members said. In a special meeting Wednesday, City Council members passed the resolution. Council President Vic Stewart said city officials wanted to be a part of the movement and use the resolution as a way to move forward with solutions. The resolution stated that the repercussions of historical racism continue to negatively affect Black people, including access to nutritious food, economic security, Type II diabetes rates, obesity, asthma, lead poisoning and infant and maternal mortality. Councilwoman Donna Mitchell, D-6th Ward, credited Elyria YWCA President Jeanine Donaldson for starting the movement in the city and working with Council on the language in the resolution. Donaldson said this step is just the beginning. "The real work is ahead of us," she said. "We're getting everyone on the same page of identifying the problem and we're hopeful that we're going to get creative to come up with some solutions." Councilman Marcus Madison, D-5th Ward, said it's important to keep the movement going beyond the resolution. "I love the fact that we're passing it but the question I always have is what's next," Madison said. "How can we build on this? So it's not just we're passing this legislation but we're able to put some things behind it to support those efforts." Mayor Frank Whitfield said he was proud of City Council's response and the members' willingness to listen and learn about racism from residents in Elyria. "We just need to stay the course," he said. "We didn't get here overnight. It's going to be a marathon to right some of these wrongs and restore communities that have been hurt because of racism." Elyria isn't the first city in Lorain County to make the resolution. Lorain was the first, and the Lorain County commissioners followed suit. Donaldson said the YWCA has been approaching not just cities, but also organizations like the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board. Ever since Milwaukee became the first city and county to declare racism a public health crisis in May 2019, Donaldson said YWCAs have begun actively encouraging other city councils to do the same. "For the leadership of the county, we have to recognize that not everyone fully understands what it means when we say there is racism," she said. "For a lot of them, this is the first time and we don't want to turn anyone off from the work that needs to be done. ... It's coordinated. It has to be coordinated. But it has to come from the leadership. It's a top-down issue." The resolution in Elyria also addressed the toll experiences of racism can have on people, including the added risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, depression and cardiovascular disease. "If you think about housing and where African-Americans are located within the city of Elyria, that was by design," Whitfield said. "We look to restore and delegate resources and where we're investing in things and what roads we're working on. It goes down from the roads to the buildings to what side of town we're doing an event. All those things play a role. " Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.