Survey Results by Location

"I think what Kalamazoo's struggling with right now is that we've always relied on the Upjohns or the big industry leaders to take care of the community, or maybe influence things in the way that maybe everyone agrees on and it gets done. But I think now we're seeing a lot of this globalization taking place and I think we all know that a lot of this leadership is kind of disappearing. - I think what we have to do is citizens have to become aware and become more involved." -Alternative Transportation Advocate

"And the other thing that I learned since coming here-is the incredible amount, really incredible amount of private philanthropy and leadership. I don't have the data at my fingertips-in Kalamazoo in the last five or eight years, but the library is an obvious example, the Civic auditorium and the museum." -Senior Citizen

"It's great to have the citizen input, and to consider that carefully, then when the leaders made a decision, they should carry forward and carry it out, implement the whole plan. They seem to get stopped in the middle, and never finish it! -And a lot of times it's because they get bad public-reaction, you know, the public doesn't want it, so they don't carry through with it, and I think that's wrong." -Service Organization Member

Citizens Speak

"Leadership may be necessary in our community, and we all know that a benevolent dictator is the most efficient for a little while. But if we can succeed in convening the community, I think we can unleash a power in the community that has the potential to far exceed the narrow focus power of a single leader." -Developer

"There's gonna be change, but it's gonna take a ton of motivation, and it's gonna take those people that aren't afraid of standing up and maybe not being accepted, and taking that challenge." -Teen

"I think it has to be all of us that contribute, you know, we can't just rely on the Upjohns and Gilmores." -Service Organization Member