Community Input

Results from Phase III Community Forums:

Centennial High School - March 9, 2000

Our Slogan:

  • The best of California!
  • Big on Hospitality
  • A great place to visit-a better place to live
  • A city you would be proud to live in
  • And proud to give back too!

 

Our Image:

  • People want to come here
  • People = Asset
  • I'm from Bako and proud of it
  • Clean
  • Contemporary
  • Pedestrian friendly
  • A town of willing inclusives
  • Everyone is so caring and compassionate
  • City of flowers & trees
  • More pleasing transitions between housing/industrial/business/etc
  • Where are you going to retire? Right here, of course.
  • Clean, family friendly city
  • Positive
  • Destination spot (as we once were)
  • Open-ness
  • Inclusive
  • Cultural high spot

 

Our reputation:

  • A great place to raise kids
  • State-of-the-art health care
  • Quality living that is affordable
  • The best of California!
  • A great place to visit…a better place to live
  • A friendly place
  • No child abuse
  • Being sought after
  • Still affordable living
  • Community wide diversified jobs
  • Dynamic, progressive
  • Bakersfield setting the standard!
  • Oli, Agriculture & High Tech capital of California

 

Civic Culture:

  • Leaders of our state, nation and the world

 

Business environment:

  • Broad business base
  • Lots of knowledge worker opportunities
  • Affordable "Silicon Valley" environment
  • Business employment cycles that keep seasonal workers employed
  • Business supports city
  • Nordstroms
  • Many types of high-paying jobs
  • Business friendly but responsible
  • Healthy business climate - retention of current business - incubation of new businesses
  • Attract large, reputable business that support our community's goals
  • A great deal of interaction with our schools

 

Arts & Culture:

  • Performing Arts Center
  • Youth Arts Festival
  • Numerous art galleries
  • Continue outdoor murals with goal to have largest outdoor art gallery, depict Bakersfield history, founders, assets
  • Business supported
  • Big name concerts
  • Broadway production quality plays

 

Heart of the City:

  • Welcoming and walkable
  • Outdoor shopping mall
  • Downtown College Campus - CSUB
  • Better use of water resources
  • Much better and safer malls
  • Skateboard friendly
  • Business & cultural center
  • Great restaurants
  • Pedestrian friendly
  • Places to have outdoor concerts and gathering spots
  • Gas lamps/good lighting
  • Trees-trees-trees
  • Government center
  • Revitalized buys downtown (as it was many years ago)
  • With protection of Downtwon neighborhood areas
  • Keep it clean!
  • Great traffic flow
  • Let downtown grow larger
  • Infill!: build on empty lots downtown
  • Excellent food; entertainment; inviting
  • Good neighbors
  • Broad based community/humanitarian service
  • Respect and admiration for our history

 

Our Values:

  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Collaboration
  • Family & church
  • Where God/family and others come before self
  • Family unity
  • Tolerance
  • Morals
  • Love & protect our children
  • Respect for others
  • Patriotism

 

Technology:

  • Every child with educational software at home
  • Mecca for high tech companies
  • Affordable place to do high tech business
  • Tie to higher education opportunities
  • Everyone has access to latest mediums of communication

 

Transportation:

  • Shuttle services between residential/retail/downtown/transportation terminals (air/train)
  • Mass transit system connecting centers of population, business, entertainment
  • Historic transit vehicles that goes between downtown venues
  • Water transit
  • High speed rail (N, S, E, W)
  • Mass transit - easy to get anywhere
  • Satellite airport to handle U.S. transportation
  • Use our flights so they won't leave us
  • Ease of getting from place to place within city
  • Parkway joining whole city

 

Biggest changes:

  • Downtown housing
  • Developed signature attractions
  • Attractive "entrances" to the city
  • Cleaner air
  • Low drop out rate
  • Connecting freeways
  • More libraries
  • No substandard housing
  • Thousands of mature trees
  • Highways all connect
  • High speed rail system
  • Bring back the water thru our town
  • Stoop selling our water to L.A.
  • Positive image
  • Hispanic community active; included; involved; participating in the development of the city!!

 

Break Thrus

  • No children with lead poison
  • No surplus dogs & cats that need to be "put to sleep"
  • 90% recycling
  • Low unemployment
  • "West" and "East" (of Hwy 99) meet and work together
  • Decline in unemployment, fewer people with drug problems,
  • Excellent qualtiy education for all students
  • Trees everywhere
  • Emphasize and enforce traffic safety
  • Computer/high tech innovation developed here

 

Looking back I'm most proud of…

  • Successful Vision 2020 process!
  • Didn't become Fresno
  • Community investment in children

 

What's Our Vision for Our Economy over the next 10-20 years?:

  • Stable growth - not tied to just one or two industries
  • More technical jobs and places where people can increase their technical skills
  • ..and education for filling them
  • Diversified, limited polluting industry
  • Tourism, shipping, tech.
  • Continual employment opportunities for seasonal workers
  • Value added agriculture
  • Water banking for community profit and habitat/open space
  • Opportunity for anyone who wants to work
  • Educational opportunities to create high paying jobs
  • Stability
  • Thriving agriculture
  • Greater demand for domestic oil (ours)
  • Lowest property tax in California
  • More millionaires per capita than any other community
  • Diversity
  • Not only in volume but and concentration. Greater affluence will raise all boats

 

What kind of Economic Development Initiatives do we want to create?

  • Credits designed to attract entertainment-leisure-Tech industries - communications
  • Dedicate tax collection to industry/agency doing solicitation/market.
  • Job/work force with skills that match business needs
  • Incentives for using clean technology, recycling, telecommuting/transportation
  • Remember small businesses can be remarkabley successful
  • A cooperative effort among agencies
  • Low or no taxes; Fewer or more streamlined regulations
  • Tourism
  • Support for home businesses
  • Business retention policies
  • Balance
  • More women in leaderhship positions

 

What kind of Jobs do we want to attract here over the next 10-20 years?

  • Non-polluting
  • Limited use of chemicals
  • More higher paying jobs - possibly more manufacturing
  • High Tech
  • Warehousing
  • Service industry
  • Hospitality industry
  • Entertainment/arts
  • Jobs with growth opportunities
  • Jobs that pay adequately even at bottom levels
  • Jobs-that are focused on brain power (less manual)
  • So much demand that there is a shortage of knowledge workers
  • E-commerce
  • Companies that have many types and levels of jobs
  • Auto assembly plant
  • Production of goods - made in Bakersfield!
  • Value added Ag, year 'round employment
  • Light manufacturing

 

Our Vision for Downtown:

  • River -flowing
  • Trees! Trees! Trees! along Hwy 99
  • Nice Welcome signs on Hwy 99
  • Sculptures
  • Murals
  • Fountains
  • Statues
  • Parkway along river all through town
  • Expanded Museum with family recreation, water park, cultural center
  • Schools parks housing around 34th
  • Old Town Kern: trees, businesses, retail
  • River canal project around convention center
  • Nordstroms
  • Tunnel into center
  • Latin Quarter
  • Residence downtown
  • More trees
  • Businesses, Education Center, Art Center along canal Lake
  • Exhibition Hall & Baseball stadium @ California & Union
  • Lakeview: Trees; safe housing; Playgrounds; Parks, Retail - just like downtown
  • A freeway with a new, landscaped look to reflect our great town
  • Welcome to Bakersfield sign on 99
  • 7th Standard/Golden State turns into a new loop around the city
  • Run down hotel on Golden State now a major business center
  • Arts District
  • Lots of flowers and green ways
  • No traffic or stoplight waiting on 24th. Not a defacto freeway
  • Freeway doesn't end
  • Housing downtown
  • Tree lined side streets
  • Senior housing
  • Water along Truxtun
  • Child care center and retail South of California
  • Entertainment theme downtown from beginning California & throughout
  • Lakeview: Industrial park
  • No drug trafficking
  • Mini-downtown
  • Senior housing
  • 34th Street: Pedestrian-oriented commercial center; Mass transit concentrated parking
  • Canal looks like San Antonio
  • Lake Boats
  • River Walk
  • Theatre District
  • Thriving businesses
  • Lots of people walking(all hours of day and night)
  • Fun nightlife for residents and visitors
  • Historic District a la Old Sacramento
  • No panhandlers
  • Big cool water park - East side
  • Stadium South of Truxtun

 

What we Wanted and we got:

  • Excellent medical care available
  • International airport
  • Neighborhoods (planned)
  • Water park
  • Trees - serenity
  • Well maintained community parks
  • Stadium, baseball
  • A river that flows
  • Good water quality
  • More churches, temples, mosques, etc.
  • Mountain views 365 days a year!
  • Hillls & less productive (Ag) land used for community development
  • Positive image
  • Better transportation (infrastructure)
  • Coordinated economic development
  • Highest achieving students in the world
  • Higher quality teachers with better pay!
  • More cultural amenities, museums
  • Better planning - land & water
  • No children living in substandard homes
  • Baseball stadium
  • Lots of shade trees - good pruning
  • Excellent, affordable child care for every need
  • Concentric urban development with lots of parks & trees to shade us in the summer
  • Available health care to ALL - not just emergency services
  • Water theme park
  • Ice rink
  • Respect for each other
  • Open spaces
  • Identifiable, diverse neighborhoods
  • More sports contest and leagues
  • Lots of agriculture on this fertile land
  • Attractive entrances to the city
  • Higher education centers-CSU-UC, etc. that attract research-related companies, Tech-related
  • More go-kart tracks
  • High speed rail
  • Business relating well to education
  • CSUB relating well to buusiness
  • A first class zoo!
  • Open citizen participation in gov't/issues that affect citizens
  • Community gardens
  • Higher grade average to play sport (in high school)
  • More adult volunteers for youth activities. Seniors/youth partners
  • More games
  • Clean air!
  • Cooler cars!
  • River walk running through the city with water
  • Capitalize on the Kern River & "green up" the town
  • Brighter paint & murals on buildings
  • Clean streets, benches
  • Much cleaners schools, and smaller classes
  • Educational opportunities for working adults (e.g. evenings-weekend)
  • Clean air- see the mountains every day!
  • Indoor surfing park
  • Safe highways East/West
  • Senior centers/activities/housing
  • Open space/natural areas nearby
  • Better signage on streets
  • Larger numbers to view from cars

 

What we didn't want, and we didn't get:

  • Gangs
  • Grafitti
  • No longer "meth" capital
  • School dropouts
  • Air polluting businesses
  • Ag burn - dust
  • "Hich image"
  • Child abuse
  • More "adult" businesses
  • Poorly maintaining Hwy 99
  • Abandoned buildings
  • Sprawl
  • Pot holes
  • Red light runners - macho driers
  • Dry river bed
  • Good ag land paved over
  • Weakened moral values
  • Intolerance
  • Traffic/gridlock
  • Gang violence
  • No more leaf-blowers
  • No moe leap frog development
  • No L.A. gridlock
  • No more cities buying land and using our city or county as their dump
  • Kids who can't read
  • Sprawl
  • Contaminated water
  • Major roads that are ugly
  • Neighbors who don't have hope
  • Unskilled substitute teachers
  • High gas prices
  • No more kids jumping in the river & dieing
  • No more beggers & homeless people
  • Automatic graduations for failing students
  • A lot of dirt & dust

 

Common Themes:

  • Trees
  • Beautification
  • River development
  • Technology
  • Historical value
  • Transportation
  • Arts & Culture
  • Education
  • Image
  • Social environment
  • Diversified
  • Senior housing
  • Traffic safety and efficiency
  • Pedestrian friendly
  • Investment in children and youth
  • Family values