Community Input
Results from Phase III Community Forums
Facilitator Volunteers - February 8, 2000
Our Slogan
- A great place for wonderful people
- A great place to live
- Sun, Fun, Stay, Play (why not) Our Image
- Clean
- Uplifts and supports children and families
- The place to be…
- Identifiable as a Great Central Valley town (not like everyone else)
Our Reputation
- Innovators!
- Includers
- Central Valley Leadership
- Love Bakersfield!!
- Great place to live
- People move here to retire
Civic Culture
- Inclusive
- Proud
- Diverse
- Anyone that wants to participate can
Business Environment
- Healthy & diverse
- Companies desire to locate here
- "Clean" industries locating here
- Many new industry clusters
- High paying
- Technology
- Business concerned with employees' health and well-being
Arts & Culture
- Children & youth actively participating in art & culture events/activities
- Diverse-reflective of our population
- People travel here to enjoy our talents
- Art for all; by all; respected
- Public art abundant
Heart of the city
- Vibrant!
- Tree lined streets!
- More schools
- Youth oriented
- Walkable
- Sooo…unique - featured in magazines
- Sidewalk cafes & entertainment
- Old and new work together
- Old neighborhoods are pleasing to the eye
- Less development on the automobile
- Invisible parking
- Riverfront commerce
- Good transportation to other parts of city
Technology
- Technology-website based businesses
- Tech Center for Southern Calif.
- Availability
- High speed communication network to every home/business
Transportation
- Big planes to big cities "non-stop"
- Electric vehicles/trams
- Street car from Baker St. to Chester
- Outlying communities with clean, easy access to hubs
- Public transportation accessible, affordable to all
- Attracting more airlines
Biggest Changes
- Incredible, easy access to the right educational opportunities
- Clean, healthy air & water
- Trees with lots of foliage
- Bakersfield becomes a destination not a dirve-thru
Break-Thrus
- High tech industry center
- We embrace divesity
- City & county work together
Looking back I'm most proud of…
- Of our successful youth!
- Of our community's being able to work together
- Bakersfield is a wonderful, desireable place
What's Our Vision for Our Economy over the next 10-20 years?
- Full employment in meaningful jobs
- Diverse ag-economy with value added production (world-wide)
- Utilize knowledge - don't discriminate by age (young or old)
- Respect for all professions - trash collection makes a big difference
- New industry clusters that bring new technology, high pay, diversity
- Jobs that pay enough to live well above the poverty level
- Well-educated workforce
What kind of Economic Development Incentives do we want to create?
- Include the whole population
- Farmland conversion (zoning) - be clear where we want it and don't
- Development zones (help it happen where it isn't)
- Small business education plan
- Incentives for private revitalization of neighborhods/business
- Support (financial incentives) to private businesses that contribute to public infrastructure development
What kind of Jobs do we want to Attract over the next 10-20 years?
- Jobs that pay a living wage at minimum
- High tech
- Professional
- Creative!
- Value-added to agriculture - food processing
- Medical
- Research
- Year round, livable wage, high tech, Ag industry
- Real good trained plumbers, automotive repair folks
- In field of personal development - emotional, spiritual as related to organizational effectiveness
- Diverse jobs..lots of opportunity to work and grow
Our Vision for Downtown
- More lights in trees
- Outstanding museums
- Large evening farmers market
- Street Fairs
- Unusual public sculpture & art work
- Bike lanes
- Very Colorful
- Outdoor theater
- Thriving downtown area with may private businesses
- More fountains and public squares
- Shops with display windows
- Create an entrance into downtown on Chester beginning at 58 freeway. Change off ramp from H Street to Chester
- Living space - rent and owned
- Fun! Neat place to go
- Clean attractive roads
- Combine fiscal/recreation activities
- Cool
- Unique, out of the ordinary; a place to be inspired
- Wonderful cafes
- Safety
- All ages together & ethnic groups
- Modest signage
- Flowers everywhere
- A department store indowntown
- A grocery store
- It's identifiably Bakersfield (like Santa Barbara is SB) - in a good way
- Separate bike and walking paths
- A clean Central Park
- Unifying aesthetics in duilding design
- River through Central Park with bike & walking lanes
- Fishing
- Water fountains
- Water theme
- No cars in the center. People watching
- Downtown electric trolley
- Easy/safe bike parking
Our Vision for the Riverwalk
- Public art
- Flowers
- Window boxes
- Pedestrian malls
- Lots of trees and grass
- Some water fowl to feed and watch
- Scheduled activities
- Art Shows
- Celebrates our diversity - food, entertainment
- Development of shopping malls and restaurants
- Outdoor cafes
- Open space
- Tulip trees
- Music everywhere
- Affordable child care facility
- Carousel ( a real one)
- Farmer's Market
- Integrated hotels, offices, shopping, housing
- Shuffle board, chess
- Outdoor stage
- Fountains
- Boat rides
- Trees
- Young/old together!
- Performing arts spaces
- Senior housing
- Street fairs
- Carnival
- Play structures
- Sand boxes
- Fenced areas
- Ease of public transportation
- Lake for non-motorized boats
- Expand the image of the river - within the community
Our Neighborhood Vision Image
- Complete neighborhood
- Safe - NE
- Clean - no abandoned buildings - East, and everywhere
- Youth-oriented
- Mixed use- single/multi-family dwellings in a village atmosphere so each section in town develops its own character
- Walkable, bike rideable ( no more walls and cul-de-sacs)
- SE redevelop and equal part of the community
Specific things to do
- Shopping mall - Stockdale/West
- Fine dining - East
- Grocery shopping SE (Vons)
- Neighborhood Park/Rec East
- Support development of basic commercial services at the neighborhood level
- Walkable communities
- SE develop housing/commercial/industrial project
Values
- Mixed in economic status and ethnic/racial diversity
- Family oriented
- Safe - families on porches, block parties
- No need for juvenile detention facilities
- Trust
- SE/location/affordable land
- All people respected
Goals
- Revitalize slums - NE
- Bike patrols (community policing)
- SE organize the business/property owners to get involve in leading the mvoe to develop the area
Biggest Changes
- Vision of neighborhood expands beyond the walls of the subdivision
- Shopping center that is supported and prospers in the Southeast and Northeast
- SE get the whole community behind effort to develop the area, working in the business/property owners as equal partners - public/private partnership
Other
- No graffiti
- Community based health centers
- Neighborhood association
- SE deal with crime/gang/drug problem for area so investment capital will come into the area
Common Themes
- A lot of interaction with other community members
- Economic development in all parts of the community
- Make it better…
- Trend to make things more attractive
- Optimistic but superficial in some respects
- High tech
- Need more diversity
- Transportation
- Quality of life
- More people places - opportunities for interaction
- Educate people to reach financial independence and diversity
- Diverse and unique but all works together
- Plan for growth by all - building on quality, taking our future in our own hands
- Attract something big/new/better
- Having FUN..even downtown
- We like the out-of-doors bike trails, sidewalk cafes, not inside
- Less dependence on single auto transport
- Inclusive
- Clean water
- Family
- Better transit system to clue outsiders
