Why I Support ELi

Three days after the offer I made on our house was accepted, the East Lansing School Board voted to reopen the Red Cedar School, and my social media accounts exploded with passionate and mixed opinions on both sides. I realized that switching my children from the private Montessori School into the East Lansing Public Schools meant that I had a whole new set of variables to pay attention to.

That was when I discovered East Lansing Info. I don’t remember the exact phrase I typed into Google to search for School Board meeting minutes, but what I found in ELi was a straightforward summary, clear and to the point. By the time we were moved into the new house I was a loyal ELi reader.

All communities have their issues, and as I settle into my new neighborhood (Shaw Estates), with my kids in a new school, I am also settling into a new set of concerns about the place I now call home. This is the first community that I have deliberately chosen to live in, as opposed to just landing. I wanted the same kind of childhood for my kids that I had growing up in Northern Minnesota; a college town with good neighbors and kids with scraped up knees riding their bikes around the block.

Now that I’ve settled here, I want to do my part to make sure that East Lansing stays vital, and friendly, and continues to be a welcoming community for families like ours. I try to stay informed about what keeps this place ticking so that I’m educated enough to offer my opinions (via the ballot box) as changes are planned and executed.

In an average month there are about four community meetings that I would like to attend: two City Council meetings, the Planning Commission meeting, and the School Board meeting. It’s primarily because of my children that I’m interested in most of this, but it’s because of my children that I’m not free to spend my evenings knitting in the back row of the City Council Chambers. How can I sort out which meetings are important enough to hire a babysitter for?

ELi’s clear, unbiased reporting helps me decide where I can best offer my time and resources. It can be tricky to sort out the content from agendas that are full of committee references, unclear language and long numerical designations for different laws and ordinances, and the staff at ELi do a good job of decoding the language of government and laying out the issues behind the bullet points.

This all makes me sound like a much more effective citizen than I am. My goal is to be more effective, and ELi is helping me to realize that goal. I originally discovered them because I was trying to figure out the passion about a School Board decision, and that kind of reporting is still what I value most - I come for the City Council updates and the School Board meeting summaries, but I stay to read the other articles as well. In addition to being a good resource for understanding our government, I’ve also found ELi to be a good resource for understanding my neighbors and my community.

If ELi’s sustainability goal is not met by January 31, we will have lost a valuable community resource. I hope that you are able to join me in contributing to ELi’s sustainability campaign.

Editor's note: As shown below, we are getting closer to our goal! But our deadline is next Tuesday, January 31. There are two easy ways for you to join Jessy as a committed monthly supporter and helping us keep ELi going through 2017:

1. Send a check for the year total of your pledge, payable to East Lansing Info, PO Box 115, East Lansing, MI 48826. If you’re going to do this, let us know by writing to fundraise@eastlansinginfo.org so it can be noted that it’s coming in.
2. Use a major credit card to make an automated monthly donation via PayPal: http://www.eastlansinginfo.org/content/become-monthly-financial-supporter-paypal
    

East Lansing Info is a nonprofit public service organization recognized by the IRS under 501c3 so donations are tax deductible in the year in which they are made.