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!
� 7:30am-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

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