Cornelius, Oregon Named All-America City
The City of Cornelius, Oregon was named one of only ten cities in the United States as an All-America City, June 23, 2019 by the National Civic League. The City of Cornelius competed in Denver, CO with the opportunity of being named among the twenty All-America City finalist. City Manager Rob Drake said, “Finalist cities are building healthy communities through collaboration with residents, businesses and other stakeholders to make each community a wonderful, healthy and safe place to live, work and play.” June 24, 2019
Cornelius is a city of 12,400 residents, including 52% being Latino/Hispanic in ethnicity. The City welcomes our diversity and supports a friendly, open, tolerant and welcoming community. Cornelius is holding a grand opening for a new library/affordable housing three-story building March 30th that is creating a literacy center, community gathering spot and 45 new units of affordable housing in the downtown core of Cornelius. Mayor Jef Dalin said, “the new library and housing project has been a goal of City residents for over a decade and is the culmination of our community coming together to support such an important project.”
Cornelius is currently ready to approve this summer a new Downtown Plan and Urban Renewal Project after eighteen months of intense and effective community involvement that has been created with significant community support and input. Multiple Town Halls and meetings have been held to solicit community ideas and be sure that the new Downtown Plan and Urban Renewal Agency serves all residents. Multiple meetings have been held in Spanish to be certain that all voices have been heard. Over 1,300 new homes are in various stages of development and construction the next 3-5 years. The new Downtown Plan and Urban Renewal Agency will attract new retailers and jobs to Cornelius.
We continue to promote support for diversity, equity and inclusion within our workplace and outreach to our community. In the past seven years, we have added multiple opportunities for the community to gather for positive and healthy reasons. Among the events we have added include the Community Thanksgiving Dinner, Holiday Tree Lighting, Take Care of Cornelius Clean-up Day, Veterans Day Event in partnership with the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, Spanish-speaking Town Halls, Flicks in the Park and Concerts in the Park. This summer we will be adding Concerts in the Courtyard at our new library.
