-Visioning Program For 2020-
Chapter 2
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

What follows is the Vision for the City of West Covina as collectively expressed by those who participated in the visioning process. It portrays what we imagine West Covina could be like twenty years from now if actions are taken to turn the Vision into a reality. The Vision is written from the perspective of a citizen living in West Covina in the year 2020. This future resident of West Covina is looking backward from the year 2020, describing both what has been achieved and some of the steps taken between 2001 and 2020 to make this possible. Although some may feel this Vision is too optimistic, what seems difficult or impossible in the short-term merely becomes an exciting challenge over a period of two decades. The Vision, if it is compelling enough, becomes a catalyst for action.

West Covina - Focusing on Our Youth as the Catalyst for Transforming Our City

By the year 2020, the residents of West Covina had transformed their city, making it the most distinctive community in the San Gabriel Valley. Although still surrounded by other cities, both residents and visitors alike could always tell when they had entered the "Diamond of the San Gabriel Valley." As the leading city of the San Gabriel Valley, West Covina now stood apart in both look and feel from other nearby cities. Still a city of many beautiful neighborhoods with single-family homes, over the past two decades a variety of new aspects were added to both community life and the city landscape creating a sense of place that makes West Covina unique and special in the eyes of all those who now live here. In the process, West Covinans had created a new kind of suburban city - not one modeled after more urban cities where people lose touch with their neighbors - but one which folded a vital community life into the very fabric of the city structure and how it operates.

How did this transformation come about? Primarily, it was because the people of West Covina and their civic institutions had all pulled together to take the steps they felt were necessary to protect what they cherished most. The chief motivation for what has now become an enduring partnership was the growing need to take care of the youth of the community. In the past, many people had been drawn to West Covina because they saw its many attractive neighborhoods, single-family homes, and good schools as a great place to raise a family.

As time went by, however, changes in the way people work and other social trends meant that suburban neighborhoods, like those in West Covina, were no longer sufficient by themselves to ensure a healthy environment for raising children. With both parents working and an increase in single-parent families, neighborhoods became more isolating for children, especially those in the middle years. Parents began talking more about the need to provide the city's youth with a wider range of positive outlets for their creativity and energy while also voicing concerns about overcrowded schools and increasing drop out rates. They also wanted to take pro-active steps to make sure West Covina remained a safe environment for all children by making sure youth gangs would never establish a foothold in the city.

People throughout the community soon recognized that no one civic institution or community organization, acting alone, could fully address the needs of the city's youth. What was required was that city council, city staff, all the school districts, religious and social organizations, as well as the parents and other concerned residents, work together to develop and implement programs in a coordinated, comprehensive manner. This citywide partnership became the source for all the many positive developments that led to the transformation of West Covina.

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