Community Input

Results from Phase III Community Forums

Community Connection for Childcare - March 28, 2000

Our Slogan

  • We care!
  • Where the distance makes a difference!

Our Image

  • Colorful
  • Perfect Collaboratio
  • Friendly
  • Clean Neighborhoods
  • Clean up Trash - demolish abandoned buidings
  • Open-minded
  • Family & spiritually oriented
  • Sophisticated
  • Children first
  • Lowest teen pregnancy rate in state!
  • Clean
  • Green with landscape still has farming
  • Trees
  • Family oriented community
  • Improved law enforcement

Our Reputation

  • Encouraging
  • Energetic
  • Famiely-oriented
  • Fun, Friendly
  • Family (not) Redneck
  • Tough on crime
  • Best town to visit
  • Excellent education performance
  • Family friendly employment opportunities abound
  • Child friendly
  • Aggressive in addressing problems (not swept under the rug)
  • Great schools for all the districts
  • Cultural diversity

Civic Culture

  • We hold officials accountable
  • City & county officials housed in same building

Business Environment

  • On-line
  • Hang on to our farming & Ag
  • 4-day work week
  • More customer service, less on-line
  • Technological companies attracted to our city
  • Lots of jobs for our high school/college graduates
  • Downtown shopping area revitalized - tax breaks for new businesses using existing locations; transportation into downtown shopping area
  • World exporter
  • Better educated children & teachers = better jobs
  • Small businesses thrive
  • Minority business opportunity

Arts & Culture

  • Strong music/art programs - elementary schools and up
  • More arts & culture Period!
  • Scjhool & community partnership
  • Good food
  • Theater district downtown - Fox/Nile/Stars & more
  • More poetry classes during the summer for the youth
  • A community center where the community is involved with their own talents, fun activity
  • More plays, operas
  • Jazz clubs
  • Jazz music stations
  • Children's discovery center "hands-on"
  • A branch of the West Coast Smithsonian
  • Larger museum
  • Live Children's Theatre
  • Outside concerts
  • Rock-n-Roll club
  • Affordable oldies concert

Heart of the City

  • Greenbelts, not canals
  • Open the Kern River canal through center
  • More trees
  • Everyone makes a difference!
  • Cleaner city for the East side
  • Outside shopping mall like San Antonio River walk, for families and out of towners to want to visit Bakersfield more than one night
  • Our children, our families, our seniors
  • Our attitude
  • Zoo

Technology

  • Jobs
  • All students have access to computers
  • Internet technology in auto
  • Hand held computers with children accessing
  • All children & families have access to tech. In homes and schools

Transportation

  • High speed rail linking La-Bay area through Bakersfield
  • Major airlines
  • Connect to the desert
  • Clean highways
  • Efficient, low cost public transportation
  • 24 hour transportation - free
  • Convenient to wherever you live an where you want to go
  • Low gas prices!
  • Easy access (high speed train) to L.A./San Francisco ( and Las Vegas)
  • More natural gas powered vehicles, less pollution
  • Beautification of highways
  • Bus trips to beaches - weekly
  • Trams thru heavily populated areas - i.d. S.F>, L.A.

Our Values

  • Environmnet
  • Family activities
  • Responsibility
  • Youth projects
  • Everyon needs to take responsibility for their actions and tougher laws
  • Value diverse children and family life styles
  • Value the blue collar workers the substance of our society

Biggest Changes

  • Clean, colorful, inviting freeways
  • More amusement parks and recreational areas
  • Convenient air travel everywhere!
  • Union Avenue Plunge reopened
  • CSUB - Division 1 sports
  • All air pollution resolved
  • #! Football team - NFL
  • Child development mandatory to graduate
  • Cleaner autos fuel economy
  • No prejudice
  • Disbandment of KKK/Militia
  • Affordable living for seniors

Break Thrus

  • Quality after school programs with transportation
  • Better medical research & technology here
  • Finding cures (medical/mental health)
  • Every neighborhood has neighbor watch and get to know their neighbors
  • Every school open to your for activities 18 hours/day
  • Professional women's sports
  • A government that lends to the diversity of the entire community

Looking Back I'm most proud of…

  • Centennial Garden
  • Our safe, beautiful parks

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

  • Higher wages
  • Diverse cultures represented in the workplace and classrooms!
  • Utilizing the tech. For agriculture
  • Improve high school education and more college & programs
  • With more higher ed classes offered @ high school campuses
  • On-line business
  • Cost of living and pay more equal
  • 4 day work week/5 day pay (8 hours per day)!
  • Speed train that travels from Northern to Southern Calif. - Direct service-no buses!
  • 730am-4pm work day
  • Use cloth bags for shopping
  • Funding to revamp older housing communities

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

  • Music industry
  • Exporting Companies
  • Camping attraction areas for families
  • One more critical care hospital i.e.KMC
  • Movie industry
  • More major corporations based locally to attract our graduating college students to stay or come back
  • We need to create businesses that export outside our county
  • On-line local/regional Resource list
  • Community development to revitalize smaller "downtown" communities within Metro-Bakersfield
  • More stores/businesses - Southeast

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

  • More science-oriented
  • 4-day, 6 hours jobs with full time pay; in work of child care (free); in work gym (free)
  • More businesses working from home because of technology
  • Technology
  • Warehouse/distribution factory
  • Transportation
  • School-age programs
  • Experienced Quality Teachers (all ages)
  • Internet expansion
  • Technological!
  • Work-voice activated computers!
  • Variety for all ages & stages
  • Jobs available for our 18-20 year olds not just fast food!
  • 4 day work week/more time with family & older people

Our Vision for Downtown

  • Golden State blight free
  • Include areas out to Allen Rd NW to SE to SW in the planning
  • Street lights
  • Create more activities on weekends at Downtown to make it more inviting or spend the weekend.
  • Change (24th) - large hwy!
  • Walking mall with specialty shops and restaurants
  • Riverwalk along central Park
  • Youth Center south of California, with more teen happenings, events, fun, safe places to go - Park
  • Cleaner streets
  • Super market in Lakeview area and 2 Center Day Care
  • More landscaping
  • Clean up River and widen 178
  • Safe neighborhoods on 34th ST
  • More river access
  • Cleaner streets and more trees in 34th
  • IMAX
  • Soccer fields by Museum
  • River left natural with horse & bike trails
  • More synchronized lights on 24th St.
  • Block off residential area from 24th
  • Kern River Parkeway kept green - no freeway
  • Highway connecting NW to downtown
  • Shopping mall
  • Park surrounding South Fork of Kern with boats and a bike path
  • River concerts
  • Horses
  • Multicultural festivals
  • Parks and Rec.
  • Landscaped and updated housing near 178 and Beale
  • Rehabilitated businesses and homes around Beale - assistance given to fix up rundown property
  • Supermarket @ Truxtun and E.B.
  • Lakeview area More childcare centers; more soccer fields; free/low cost recreation programs and cewnters; More employment opportunities; Less graffiti/lower crime rate
  • Quality child care
  • Homes to move unwed moms towards self sufficiency
  • S. of California Children's hospital; Housing for families with in-patient children
  • County hospital (another one)
  • Supermarket on Union Ave.
  • Rebuild Union Ave. hotels, etc.
  • Get rid of weird one-way streets and no-turn intersections
  • Grocery store downtown
  • Theater District downtown
  • S. of California no more slum lords!; Own here, live here!
  • Require clean-up of properties
  • Play areas for children
  • Better access tp servoces grocery stores, banks, dept. stores, cleaners, auto repair - Lakeview
  • Cleanup Lakeview Ave.
  • Metrolink with W. Kern
  • More shopping stores and restaurants
  • Do not move centoer of commerce from downtown to new Amtrak station
  • Same types of activities NOR offers @ Beale and also @ 34th St.
  • Let the water out of canal - Greenbelts, parks!
  • Open canal for walkway
  • Trees, trees

In our Community's Future We Wanted and We Got..

  • Cultural diversity
  • Good transportation between E & W Kern
  • Curbside recycling
  • Less traffic on Rosedale Hwy!
  • Free or low cost activities for youth
  • High speed train
  • More affordable housing development
  • Jr. High School males working part-time with professional males
  • More Trees
  • More outdoor summer concerts
  • Great community interest in quality child care
  • Family-oriented activities for single parents & children
  • More entertainmnet (publicity)
  • Make all neighborhoods safe
  • Our youth to see and project positive attitudes
  • Low cost of living
  • S.W. Airlines
  • Drive In Theaters
  • Vocational education opportunities
  • More good restaurants
  • International airport
  • Ethnic restaurants
  • Community gardens instead of vacant lots
  • More free after school programs
  • Theater - Centennial
  • The Beacg!!
  • More jobs for the youth
  • Outlet Mall!
  • All moms and dads realize importance of family life
  • Teenage clubs (14-17 years old)
  • All day kindergarten schoo;
  • Cooler climat (85 degrees) year round'More emphasis on "small" community development
  • Lower cost of living in the SW
  • More (family/children) group activities in the NE
  • Water Park/Amusement Park
  • Zoo/Disneyland
  • Affordable Vet. Care (student voc. Training ) dogs, cats, horses, etc.
  • Less crime
  • Youth programs/more school age after school activities (with meals) summer activities expanded/holiday too!
  • Quality & affordable lifing for seniors
  • More colleges
  • High speed rail to L.A.
  • Kern River Parkway kept as Green Belt & recreation area/horse trails
  • Agriculture/oil still the basis of our community
  • Children's hospital
  • More bike paths
  • Centers open more hours and weekends (affordable)
  • More programs to move the homeless towards self-sufficiency
  • Increase child care supv.
  • Quality childcare teachers who understand and implement child development theories and practices and really take them to heart
  • CSUB with more Ag programs
  • Mandatory recycling
  • Bring the trades back in H.S.
  • High school graduates
  • Every person volunteering at least once a month in their community
  • Recover our Kern River

In our Community's Future, What We Didn't Want and Didn't Get..

  • Isolation of services
  • Pollution
  • Outrageous gas prices
  • Traffic gridlock
  • Increased gang activity - violence
  • No more dairies in area!
  • Track homes
  • Increase in # of strip Malls"
  • Grand Canal Project
  • Elks Club on Calif. Ave./Lakefiew
  • Higher property taxes
  • Continuation schools
  • No more Rock-n-Rodeo
  • No more Crystal Palace
  • Los Angeles moving towards Bakersfield
  • Crime and sewage
  • More empty shopping centers (No!)
  • Adult entertainment in city limits (No!)
  • Graffiti
  • Our city to get TOO BIG
  • Overpopulation
  • Cost of living increases
  • Teenage pregnancies
  • To lose our sense of community
  • School dropouts
  • Increase population/traffic

Common Themes

  • Transportation
  • Youth activities
  • Healthcare
  • 4 day work week
  • Less crime
  • Downtown as cultural center
  • Improved educational opportunities
  • Jobs
  • Affordable housing - SW
  • Affordable Quality child care
  • Cleaning up the town
  • River theme
  • Changing image
  • Less pollution
  • Recreational opportunites - especially water
  • Curbside recycling