Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail presented her 2023 State of the City Address twice in the month of February: once to City Council on February 6^th, and then again to Euclid Chamber of Commerce members on February 24^th. The theme of this year’s address was “A Vibrant Euclid: Our Progress, Our Future”, a theme repeated throughout the 35-minute presentation with then-and-now style highlights spanning Mayor Gail’s two terms in office.  

Scattered throughout the address were points supporting the Mayor’s overall vision for Euclid. "Euclid will be a vibrant community where all can be proud to live, work and visit," asserted Mayor Gail. “We will accomplish this by: focusing on growing our business base, making safety a priority, strengthening our neighborhoods, providing high-quality services to our residents and businesses, providing engagement opportunities to build relationships and networks across the community, and operating the city in a cost-effective and innovative manner.”

Each priority area in the mayor’s vision plan was touched on explaining what has been done, what the City is currently doing, and identifying plans for the future. Special attention was drawn to the “making safety a priority” portion of the plan, noting the increase in our safety forces, the addition of body-worn cameras for all officers, the installation of new dash cameras in our police vehicles and the addition of flock cameras throughout the city as tools to help our police do their jobs safely and efficiently.

Mayor Gail notes that while supporting our police forces is an important step towards safety, that’s only the first step. “We know that we cannot police our way out,” says Mayor Gail. “We need to do something different that gets at the root of the problem, and stop potential criminals before they commit their first offence.”

The Mayor offers three initiatives currently in the works with the goal of addressing underlying issues that potentially lead to crime. The first is Euclid Community Connections, a program designed to assist Euclid families with identifying solutions that have the ability to change the trajectory of their daily living. Using the case management model, licensed clinicians will assist families as they navigate new solutions to ensure they receive the help they need to thrive. Families overwhelmed with Behavioral Health issues, Elder Care and Addiction to name just a few will have a personal partner to help them climb out of their situation and become more productive members of the community.

The second initiative is the Gun Violence Reduction Task Force, which the mayor is helping to convene alongside some other very passionate and committed community leaders. This task force plans to employ “grassroots” efforts to stop crime and violence before it starts by engaging the community, building relationships and working together with residents to help keep our neighborhoods safe.

The third initiative focuses on juvenile crimes directly. “Our research has shown that students who report spending no time in afterschool extracurricular activities were 57% more likely to drop out of high school, 49% more likely to use drugs and 27% more likely to have been arrested than students who spend as little as four hours per week in structured activities,” says the mayor in her address. To reduce juvenile crime rates, the mayor expresses her commitment to providing structured after-school programs at our new Recreation and Wellness Center, currently in the planning phase.  “With intelligent programming and effective community outreach, this center will be a central component to enact positive change at the community level,” says Mayor Gail.

The Mayor’s address to City Council can be viewed in its entirety at bit.ly/EuclidSOTC. Mayor Gail makes herself available for future presentations of this address both in person or via zoom to any community group or neighborhood organization that may be interested. To schedule a presentation please call the mayor’s office at 216-289-2786.