If there is benefit to be gained from an economic crisis, it's probably found in the need to focus on priorities.
When all you can do is what you can afford to do - and you can't afford much - then what you do must be important and it must succeed.
The City of Monrovia, caught like everyone else in the current recession, has been re-thinking and re-prioritizing for three years - cutting staff and programs where necessary, postponing when possible and then forging ahead whenever opportunities arise.
So, while 2009 was a year of often-painful loss, it was also a year filled with success and progress.