What Are Barriers to Making That Happen?
“Need to bring diverse people to the table and open the opportunity for all to be involved.”
Money, of course, is often a barrier to making things happen and realizing a vision, and that was identified by several participants, as well as economic/workforce issues. But the category of response that came up the most to this question was resistance/negativity, with two respondents giving “CAVE people” as their answer: Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
Economy/Workforce
- Economics: low income, limited education
- Economy/workforce issues
- Income levels
- Jobs/workforce/raising per capita income
- Lack of industry and businesses to invest in our community
- Lack of investment in workforce development and housing
- Lack of talent pool
- Need to attract talent from outside of Laurens County to offer a different perspective
- Need to market the area to promote all of the unique opportunities
- Not enough well-paying jobs/education in the trades
Housing
- Lack of housing, workforce
- Need more builders to build more affordable homes
- Need of housing options for families
Infrastructure
- Lack of developed road systems
- Lack of zoning
- No land use planning in place
- Utilities
Leadership
- Lack of community support
- Leadership
- Politics—people out for self-gain, not community gain
- Divided leadership
Money
- Money/Lack of money (4 responses)
- Lack of funding (2 responses)
- Lack of investment
- Monetary funds
- Tax base
Resistance/Negativity
- CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) (2 responses)
- An entrenched group of citizens who refuse to consider change and positive momentum
- Attitudes
- Changing the mind/mentality of the people
- Distrust of progress/desire to stay put and not change
- Fear of change/fear of failure
- Forward-thinking leadership (lack of) and community division
- Insecurity
- Lack of unity and vision (2 responses)
- Mindset of some of the people
- Much of our community is VERY resistant to change and growth
- Naysayers and groups that oppose without wanting to find solutions to problems
- Negativity: people don’t want to change (3 responses)
- People who hang on to negative past, don’t accept change well, don’t accept new ideas well
- People who oppose taxes to have better services
- People who resist change and are happy with how things are (with no regard for growth)
- Resistance to change
- Too many like it the way it is
Other
- Age of population
- Need more options for young adults to be involved in and grow/opportunities
- Lack of retail/restaurant spots
- Lack of trails/green space
- Education/education level