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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