Results from Phase III Community Forums:

Stockdale High School - April 13, 2000

Our Slogan:

� The spirit of "Baker's Field" still lives
� "Hot spot - Cool Place"
� Come stay for awhile
� The Venice of the Valley
� California's hometown
� Don't just drive thru: Stay for awhile
� The biggest small town you'll find

Our Image:
� A community that embraces all of its members
� Smart planners
� Clean, safe city
� Attractive convention city with arts, theatre, music
� Green & Water
� Trend setting and innovative

Our Reputation:
� Residents committed to higher standards
� Helpful
� Loving community
� Friendly, caring community
� A place where people can come to raise a family
� Still a family community
� Friendly
� SLO of the valley - a place people want to be


Civic Culture:
� Kids want pools


Business Environment:
� Fostering family owned business
� "Business-friendly" govt. agencies
� Organic Ag
� An international agriculture and trade center
� Vibrant downtown and many business clusters in all areas of Bakersfield
� More locally owned businesses


Arts & Culture:
� Music center
� Opera house
� Kern River School of Art
� Art Museum
� Beautiful Central Park
� Music Center for Symphony
� IMAX Theater
� Children's Museum - hands on


Education:
� Engineering, other hi-tech university courses
� Less than 5% dropout rate
� Each H.S. graduate to have a resume and samples of work on a CD


Heart of the City:
� The Kern River Green Belt
� Kern River Parkway with Sam Lynn the middle and a park
� More people living there
� Outdoor cafes
� A vibrant downtown full of activity and people
� Diverse, friendly people
� Cafes/restaurants/shopping - a downtwon marketplace
� A dome in the center of the city with a controlled atmosphere


Our Values:
� Small town
� Character counts
� Family oriented - high morals and caring


Technology:
� Internet hub - also fulfillment
� More computer access in classrooms


Transportation:
� Airplanes +++.com
� Monorali to L.A. and In town light rail
� Car pools encouraged
� Hovercraft and computer guidance systems for all vehicles
� Community clusters so people can walk to shopping, work, school, etc.
� Bakersfield is a major stop on the interstate high speed rail


Biggest Changes:
� Direction of growth from SW to NE
� Cessation of developer-driven planning
� More deputy sheriffs in county areas
� Competitive newspaper (another choice besides the Californian
� Widespread youth centers throughout the community and each neighborhood


Break Thrus:
� Healing center
� No poverty, hunger, or joblessness
� Cleanest air in the valley
� We conquered the "digital divide" - a computer in every home
� Lots of water in river and parks all year


Looking back I'm most proud of�
� The changes we've made in improvement of air quality, health care, ag techniques, conservation of farmland, city growth towards the hills (East)�
� A successful Vision 2020 project!!!


What's our Vision for our Economy over the next 10-20 years?
� Lots of entry and high tech jobs
� Crafts training through apprenticeship programs for students that may not go on to college
� State and federal offices
� Advance from an ag based economy to a more technologically based economy
� More jobs in financial sector
� Less dependancy on oil and ag
� Less government/more entrepreneurial spirit
� More diversity
� Hometown owned business
� More support for zoo, art museum
� Light manufacturing (computer componenets, etc.)
� Canneries, chees factories, dehydrators, etc. - outside of Bakersfield to create more good jobs


What kind of Economic Development Initiatives do we want to create?
� Quality business clusters
� Vocation opportunities for students who don't go to college
� We need more workers for service areas
� Waiver of some fees for infill development
� Canneries to use produce grown here
� Tax incentives to draw desirable businesses


What kind of jobs do we want to attract here over the next 10-20 years?
� Information age work - higher paying and educational strategies to achieve
� Historic tours
� Jobs for kids
� International commerce
� Electronically connected home based jobs
� Quality medical care
� We need to improve teachers performance
� Publishing
� Movie industry
� Research centers
� Healing Center - "Complementary Care"
� Think tanks
� Medical clinic - private


Our Vision for Downtown:
� Modern airport
� Expand K.C. Museum
� Clear off blocks downtown and build homes
� Utilize Hopper property
� Trees
� More green on 58 and 99
� New City Hall on Truxtun with park between city hall and county admin building.
� Single and multi family housing in the area of Central Park
� Art Museum expanded downtown
� Housing in the Northeast
� World renowned museum complex at K.C. Museum site
� New baseball stadium at Sam Lynn
� Underpass of Hwy 178 thru town with parkway on top
� Nordstrom along Chester Ave. Upscale housing near Riverwalk
� Riverwalk completed to tourist and recreation area between Truxtun and California
� High density housing downtown
� Farmers Market and entertainment at night like SLO
� A beautiful park for children (Central Park) with a Carousel - near Bak. Museum of Art
� Lakeview: revitalized neighborhoods - parks that are safe - neighborhood supermarkets and retailers


In our Community's Future We Wanted and We Got�
� Better shopping ( ex. Nordstrom)
� Tree ordinance
� Low cost entertainment for teens
� Better schools K-12
� Protection of air and water quality
� Water Park
� River Walk
� More government support for the Arts
� Mandatory recycling
� More efficient public transportation system
� Lots of open space interspersed throughout the city
� Cracker Barrel!
� We need educational support for ag based business: i.e.ag training inbusiness, growth, etc.
� Higher paying jobs
� Curbside recycling
� Large community Foundation
� Landscaped 99 freeway
� Continuous Crosstown freeway
� "BART" type transit
� A beautiful river
� Arboreal atmosphere - tall, cooling
� Whitewater Parks, "slolam boating"
� Better enforcement of traffic laws
� An area outside of greater Bakersfield for dairies, chesse factories, oil refineries, etc.
� Clean air and water
� Ag land protected primarily with row crops
� Clean safe water running year round in the Kern


In our Community' Future We Didn't Want and We Didn't Get�
� L.A. Refuse or from any other place
� Loss of prime agricultural lands to urban sprawl
� Urban blight (existing, un-used facilities)
� Sprawl/without planning
� Polluted air
� Unwed parents and teen pregnancies
� Mega dairies
� Excessive pesticides
� No homeless
� Messy freeways
� Sprawl
� To be the dairy center of CA
� Air that's polluted
� Abandoned buildings
� More WWF Shows
� Developments without dust control
� Crowding
� Developer-driven (tailwagging dog) planning
� More government


Metropolitan Bakersfield - 2010 General Planning Area
� Fill in blanks before building outward
� Upscale housing downtown
� Hwy 178 connects to Golden State North to connection with Hageman
� Residential construction to the Northeast
� Whitewater Park and Recreational Area at the East end of river - Develop/clean the river
� Clean, safe water running in the Kern year round
� No housing In SW quadrant
� Big dairies are great in the right place (S end)
� Protect Ag lands with primarily row crops as we have had traditionally - yes on 3,000 cow dairies properly located with dairy inspectors and egulations to oversee. Cap the number of dairies in CA
� Small sized dairies (3000 cows are enough) S of 223
� Several parks S of town - more trees
� Housing with trees ala "Old Westchester and Oleander"
� Beltway around community from 58 S along Taft Hwy to I-5 and N to connect with 7th Standard


Common Themes:
� Trees
� Water
� River as resource
� Changes
� Houses/homes
� Downtown redevelopment
� Freeway connection
� Clean air
� Proper planning
� Education
� Arts
� Diversity employment/education
� Family town

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