Imagine Greater Tucson
Phase I Data Gathering
| Tucson Baha'i Center | ||
| Baha'i Center - 220 E Kelso St, Tucson | ||
| Date of Conversation: Sunday, January 16, 2011 Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM | ||
| Facilitator: Patrick Hartley Recorder: Allison Vaillaincourt | ||
| Number of Tables: 1 Number of Participants: 7 | ||
| Theme 1. Education | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| School and Education | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Let educators focus on educating and not have to be stand-in parents, disciplinarians, and a thousand other things | ||
| We need to develop more holistic curriculum that teaches kindness, empathy as well more traditional subjects | ||
| Need to fund and support more educational TV programming (PBS, Discovery etc.) It has raised people's IQ levels | ||
| Need to ensure adequate funding and improve the quality of education | ||
| We need an education system that values different abilities - dropping shop, PE, and other manual arts classes has failed many students | ||
| Lack of healthy education can contribute of deepen prejudices, health challenges, and connections to others | ||
| Low-skilled people have fewer job opportunities and quality of life - need to improve skill training in the schools | ||
| Students need to be more connected to community issues | ||
| People shouldn't have to compete for a good education | ||
| Theme 2. Total Health | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Social services are available | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| More funding for education and social services; especially mental health | ||
| Affordable health care | ||
| Need a more integrated, effective mental health system | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| People running the health care system need to accountable to the community | ||
| If we don't have health, we can't work or make our community better | ||
| We need to be efficient with our resources and make sure we are meeting the basic needs of every community member | ||
| The current health care system is skewed to provide expensive medications and treatments (and to generate profits). We need to look at providing care, human interaction, shelter and other basics and not just at giving out medications | ||
| The resources that go into these services help people so they need to be maintained; particularly mental health systems | ||
| We as a society will pay a price if we don’t invest in our total health | ||
| Theme 3. Transportation Options | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Decent public transportation | ||
| Bicycle friendly roads | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Make SunTran so efficient that people prefer to driving to school/work | ||
| Good public transportation | ||
| Too many cars and not enough viable transportation options | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| All of our main streets should have bike or shared use lanes - separate from the auto travel lanes | ||
| Transportation projects (such as the Grant Rd widening) need to take into account landscaping and the businesses that will be displaced by such projects | ||
| SunTran needs to extend the hours of service to all areas - some lines stop at 7 or 8 | ||
| Having a walkable city (such as is found in Europe, parts of South America, and elsewhere in the world) improves our overall quality of life. A person can get their bread, coffee, and produce all within a short walk | ||
| Better transportation options will give the people that need it most access to basic services | ||
| Individualistic transportation can lead to many negative outcomes; such as auto accidents, drunk driving, and poor health | ||
| We should be promoting cleaner transportation options | ||
| Options other than cars (public transit, bikes, and walking) promote connections and interactions with other people in the community and to our physical surroundings | ||
| Alternative transportation options will allow us to reduce pollution | ||
| Theme 4. Economy | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| It's difficult to start a new business in this city because of existing codes and regulations | ||
| Jobs | ||
| More job opportunities | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| We need to remove the legal barriers that make it difficult to start and maintain certain businesses | ||
| We need to decide as a community which jobs we value, and work to promote and attract them | ||
| Low quality jobs place barriers to building strong communities | ||
| Job pools are very selective - it's difficult for older laid-off or unemployed people to find a job unless they "know someone," or are well-connected | ||
| Quality jobs allow the individual to express their best talents and gifts | ||
| Individuals need a way to express themselves and give to their communities - they can do this through meaningful work | ||
| Theme 5. Arts and Beauty | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| The cultural wealth (the arts) | ||
| Creating beauty as we re-develop areas | ||
| Lively arts community | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| More free community events | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Exposure to the arts helps people to develop their own unique talents and find ways to express them | ||
| Arts and beauty helps foster our spiritual side | ||
| It feeds the soul | ||
| Arts heal the spirit and the body | ||
| Arts are important because they help us understand ourselves better, as well as others | ||
| It is important for mental health | ||
| Being in the outdoors makes one feel healthy and spiritual | ||
| It touches the empathetic side of us - there was a case in which prisoners incarcerated for violent offenses were exposed to classical literature and developed empathy and remorse as a result | ||
| When you are in tune with your spiritual side (channeled through the arts and beauty) you can then give more to others | ||
| We have a wealth of options to experience culture, regardless of income | ||
| Arts and culture contribute to an overall healthy community environment | ||
| Theme 6. Community Connectedness | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Social conscientiousness | ||
| Friendly people | ||
| Friendliness of the people | ||
| The small town feel even though Tucson is a large city | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Lack of neighborhood ownership in some areas - disconnection/isolation | ||
| Community connectedness | ||
| Less physical sprawl and the isolation it engenders | ||
| Safety/security | ||
| Greater control and tracking of weapons purchases | ||
| Less crime | ||
| Social ills and inequalities (drugs, poverty, violence, etc.) | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| If we don't connect with each other our systems and society as a whole will deteriorate further | ||
| Being aware of others' experiences and circumstances may lead us to different decisions; both as a community and as individuals | ||
| Maybe we could implement home visits to connect people - use the Baha'i as a model | ||
| Not seeing each other and interacting face-to-face results in isolation - we only communicate via devices (text, email, etc.) these days | ||
| We all experience the negative effects of disconnectedness | ||
| We have a community of support so we can have total health | ||
| Lack of community connectedness causes health problems and can result in a reduced level of public safety for all of us | ||
| Community connectedness helps us to support others; those that need it most. This can help to prevent future tragedies | ||
| We must develop systems in which troubled individuals can receive more love and support | ||
| We need to become "one big neighborhood" | ||
| Theme 7. Unity and Diversity | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| The blend of Anglo and Hispanic cultures | ||
| Diversity | ||
| Native-American spirituality and energy | ||
| Multi-generational community | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Less political tension/partisan politics | ||
| Tools to help identify and replace stereotypes and bias | ||
| Increase involvement and participation of teens/youth in community-building | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| It's time to accept that we are all in this together and that there is room for us all to thrive | ||
| We need to find ways to include diverse voices in building community | ||
| Lack of appreciation of universality and diversity can lead to war and violence | ||
| Appreciation of diversity enhances communication opportunities | ||
| This reduces the sense of alienation that many may feel | ||
| The world is smaller than it used to be- we must learn to live with that fact | ||
| We've become a multi-cultural society, so we need to learn to appreciate others | ||
| People are not marginalized when differences are appreciated and celebrated | ||
| Without diversity we will never reach our true potential | ||
| We have a nice mix and genuine appreciation for historical influences and cultural contributions | ||
Wednesday, January 19, 2011