Lorain Historical Society hosts City Club of Cleveland CEO for annual meeting keynote

For his keynote speech of the Lorain Historical Society's 11th annual meeting, City Club of Cleveland CEO Dan Moulthrop started by talking about the future. In 2026, the United States will celebrate its semiquincentennial — or 250 years since the Declaration of Independence — but Moulthrop asked the group gathered at Lorain County Community College on Thursday to think about what just 75 years in the future may look like for Lorain, the county and Northeast Ohio. "It's kind of an open question," he said. "What would be the story of the city of Lorain at that point? … What's the story that we're going to talk about?" He sees two trends impacting the area around the Great Lakes, the first in terms of climate trends and the second in its workforce. The Midwest, with its mild temperatures — when compared to areas like Phoenix, Arizona, where it has already hit above 100 degrees and drivers carry oven mitts in their car to be able to touch the scalding steering wheels — will see a climate migration, Moulthrop predicted. And the Great Lakes Compact, which protects the resource from being siphoned off to other areas, will see the freshwater resources remain in place when other areas out west find theirs dwindling. In terms of workforce, he said Northeast Ohio's longstanding narrative has been that it has a jobs problem, that industries are leaving — but that is no longer the case. Unemployment is at a little over 4 percent for the area, he said, and had dipped as low as 2-3 percent in the past year. He said the problem is a skills deficit, and a lack of resources like transportation and childcare causing individuals to opt out of employment altogether. "I think that as we think about the role that we want to play, the community that we want to build 75 years from now to prepare for the turn of the next century," he said. "Those are some things that are really important and those are, in fact, critically important to a thriving free-market economy and thriving democracy." Looking to the past, he noted when he took over the City Club, it had just celebrated its centennial. "I felt like somebody handed me the keys to a Rolls-Royce," he said. "And I was like, I'm not the valet, I'm not going to park it. I'm taking it for a ride — we're going to take it out on the open road and see how fast it can go." When he first stepped into his role as CEO, many thought he would push the City Club toward a digital age, he said. But he instead looked to bring the past forward to the present and carry on longstanding traditions while making them more relevant to modern society. For the City Club, that meant continuing its forum luncheons that have carried on since 1912. He said when people think about the past, many hold nostalgia for an imagined past when democracy worked — but democracy has always struggled. Quoting Winston Churchill, he said with a laugh, "Democracy is the worst form of government. Except for all the others." He added, "It's terrible, it's messy and difficult and it requires you to really, clearly express your beliefs, to argue with one another and then to compromise … it's miserable work sometimes … it's also beautiful, it's also one of the greatest achievements of humankind." It is an institution almost 250 years old, he said, and that history needs to be hung onto, he said. That history is not without its blemishes. Moulthrop referenced the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati and a view on its upper floor across the Ohio River to Kentucky. There were Ohioans helping thousands of slaves to freedom, he said, and it is a story of sacrifice and heroism not celebrated enough, he said. But the state, and country, still struggle with race, more than a century later. In Cleveland, the nearly decade-old shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police destroyed parts of the community, he said. Those tensions and struggles are part of the story, and as the country nears its 250th anniversary, part of the charge is to examine its past, he said. It is sometimes ugly — it is a lynching in Cleveland and other awful things unknown left unrecorded in history, he said. But he pointed to Berlin, Germany, and its "stumbling stones," a citywide art project displaying the names, date of birth, deportation date and death date of Holocaust victims embedded into the ground in the city those individuals once called home. They are memorials to the worst things humans can do to one another, he said, but that does not mean that history is where you live. "You live beyond that," he said. The present, Moulthrop said, is honoring the past and bringing it forward with you into the future. "Don't throw the babies out with the bathwater," he said. "Bring the babies along. As you're renewing and refreshing, find the things that can still guide you from your past." He shared the City Club of Cleveland's creed, written in 1916 by then-Secretary Ralph Hayes. It hailed the space as one for Clevelanders, accessible from all sides of the city, geographically and ideologically, as a place for discussion and impartiality. Reading his favorite line, Moulthrop said, "I have no axe to grind, no logs to roll. My abode shall be the rendezvous of strong but open-minded men and my watchword shall be 'information' not 'reformation.'" Later, he said, "Everyone I share it with is like 'Oh my God, I can't believe how relevant that is today' … So honor the past, bring it with you, find the things that you can bring forward from the past." His final recommendation was one of kinship. When moving forward into the future, when changing things in an organization, it takes a conversation with the community. Bear witness and be present and tell the story of the community served, he said. "I am a firm, firm believer of the idea that we are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves," Moulthrop said. "And we need to tell better stories about ourselves. We need to get better at telling stories about ourselves." Moulthrop's keynote speech was part of the Lorain Historical Society's ongoing series of community conversations. For more information about upcoming programs and events, visit lorainhistory.org. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.