Community First: Announcing My Candidacy for Lakewood City Council At-Large

Over the past year, our country has faced insurmountable odds. COVID-19 has underscored the need to refocus on strengthening public health and our economy. The reckoning of racial injustice ingrained in our public systems calls us to walk a path toward equity and belonging for all people in our community.

A world where the COVID-19 pandemic is still present in our landscape leaves us with decisions to make about how to solve some critical issues -- how to prevent and prepare for future public health and economic emergencies, where unemployment and infection from COVID-19 already threaten the lives of our residents -- how to maintain and build confidence and equity into our city’s functional objectives and systems as our city moves toward a post-pandemic life where we are more conscious about the disastrous affects of racism, bias and discrimination --how to support, without further job loss, expanded economic growth benefiting all Lakewoodites--and how to give direction to our collective moral purpose as a city, engaging residents collaboratively in the work and opportunities that lie ahead.

These are among the critical issues of 2021. And it is based on these issues that Lakewood residents must make a choice for their future this fall.

For 20 years, I have been in the service to Lakewood, Northeast Ohio, and to the United States. First as tutor, then as an educator and civil rights advocate for the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights and then leading Community Outreach for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and the Federal COVID-19 Response (formerly Operation Warp Speed). I have traveled across the country, working collaboratively among public officials, emergency management agency directors, doctors, public and private transportation providers, researchers, non-profits, healthcare providers, and the community at-large to save lives, minimize the spread of the pandemic, and protect health, access to care and critical services for high-risk patients and seniors. I have served on no less than 21 boards, Task Forces, Coalitions, and Think-Tanks in Northeast Ohio, working to address community issues surrounding hunger, job readiness, health and nutrition, anti-racism, education, and public transportation. 

Racial justice protests have brought forward a sobering and needed dialogue about race, inequity, and the need to improve authentic and full inclusion of residents of color into the fabric of our community. We cannot do this without representation for people of color on city council. I believe that Lakewood voters have a historic and critical function to perform in the 2021 fall election, as the decisions made in the next 4 years will be among the most important in our city’s history. It is with this in mind that I begin my campaign to represent you as the first woman/person of color on Lakewood City Council. I am asking for your support and your vote as we work together toward a Lakewood that is more accessible, more secure, and more inclusive of the needs of all its residents.

I would be honored to have your support and input. You can learn more about me and join our campaign at www.lauraforlakewood.com.

Laura Rodriguez-Carbone is a first generation Hispanic American and is a candidate for Lakewood City Council, At-Large in 2021. She is currently Co-Chair of Lakewood's Anti-Racism Task Force and part of the Board of Directors for the Fedor Manor Senior Living Community. Laura is the Midwest Regional Health Leader for the Federal COVID-19 Response (Formerly Operation Warp Speed) working to increase equity of representation in treatments for COVID-19 in communities of color.

She and her husband, Christopher have been residents of Lakewood for five years and own their home on McKinley Avenue.