The tragic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has left many feeling frustrated, helpless, and angry. We have seen these emotions uplifted in cities and communities across our country and Commonwealth. We share that same sense of anguish over yet another avoidable tragedy in the annals of our country’s history.
We stand with our black and brown neighbors, friends, and business owners and all of those who have faced violence or hatred of any kind imposed upon them simply because of the color of their skin, who they are, or the perception of who they are. An injustice most egregious. People are angry and for good reason. This week we saw our community come together peacefully to educate and demonstrate, exercising the most fundamental of our civil rights enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. We are proud to support and participate in these demonstrations, and are grateful to their organizers, volunteers, facilitators, and attendees.
Sadly, there is a pattern of problems in our country too tragic to ignore or suggest non-existent. It remains an ever-present wound, cut deeper and unable to heal until we accept its presence and sanitize hatred and abuses of power. We do not suggest that we have all of the answers. We are imperfect, and we can always do better. We are committed to working collectively with others to foster an open dialogue and support the rights and voices of those historically marginalized.
Our mission is to drive economic growth. We cannot do that successfully without driving widespread, shared prosperity for all of our residents and businesses. In 2019, we joined the collaborative efforts of the Confronting Racism Coalition and its working groups to develop an Economic Equity plan for York County. That laid the foundation for the work that we must continue and accelerate. That plan is a living document and must continue to evolve as our community’s needs do. We welcome public review and feedback about that plan, found here.
We sit on a precipice amid a global health and economic pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed our vulnerabilities as a country, commonwealth and county. Those vulnerabilities existed before but were only exacerbated during this crisis. We may not know exactly where we go from here to repair and recover but we know that we need to listen to go at it together.
To shape that path, we need your input. We need to hear from all voices in our community. What do you want the community to look like in ten years? How can we get there? Please complete this survey, Build the economic work of our community for today, tomorrow, and the next decade.
We have the great fortune to wake up daily and endeavor to make a positive difference in York County. We will continue to amplify the voices for peace, the voices for change, the voices for healing, and the voices of those willing to be part of the solution to the challenges we face as a community.
We hear you.
We are here to help.
We ❤ Downtown York.
We ❤ York County.
Kevin J. Schreiber
President & CEO
York County Economic Alliance
Elaine Bonneau
Director
Downtown Inc
YCEA Board of Directors
Abe Amoros – Amoros Communications
Blair Ansell – PNC Bank
Michael Black – DOCEO Office Solutions
Fred Botterbusch – MANTEC
Dr. David Christiansen – Penn State York
Claire Forbush – First National Bank
Taylor Groff – Groff North America
Rev. Mike Jefferson – Crispus Attucks
Jack Kay – Susquehanna Real Estate
Rev. Mark Kearse – Cornerstone Baptist Church
Dr. Sandra Lemmon – Southern York County School District
Bev Mackereth – Penn State Executive in Resident and Consultant
John Mocny – Harley-Davidson
Keith Noll- WellSpan Health
Robin Rohrbaugh – Community Progress Council
Julian Tolbert – Downtown Investor
Jeffrey Vermeulen – York College of Pennsylvania
Julie Wheeler – York County Commissioner
William T. Yanavitch – Kinsley
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