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In June 2002, the City Council passed a Resolution requesting that the
Community and Economic Development Office:
- review and identify reasons leading to the decline in the number of
families with children living in Burlington,
- submit a broad-based plan that the City Council could adopt to help
reverse the trend, and
- identify specific recommendations to the City Council that could be
implemented immediately to strengthen Burlington's commitment to families,
This report is presented in three (3) parts. The first part provides
information on the demographic trends for the City of Burlington in such areas
as families, children, homeownership and the impact of the student population.
The second part provides information on the characteristics of a family
friendly city. Much of this information is available through the National League
of Cities' efforts on children and families in cities.
The final part provides a list of recommendations. The report will make
recommendations in three areas most cited as critical to a family friendly city:
Education (Education, Early Childhood Education and Child Care), Community
Safety (Quality of Life: Neighborhoods, Citizen Involvement and Public Safety)
and Recreation (Cultural and Recreation Programs). We added two recommendation
areas: Housing and Homeownership, and General Recommendations. Housing was added
principally due to the correlation of homeownership and families and its
particular impact on certain neighborhoods of the City. General Recommendations
were added for areas that were broader in nature and that did not fit any
particular category.
This report also recognizes that there are many extraordinary efforts
currently underway that support children and families.
What's not included: Jobs and Economic Growth, Physical Environment and
General Climate.
Regarding jobs and growth, we found that the region's workforce is highly
mobile. Burlington had the highest percentage of people who lived where they
worked (53.5%), followed by Essex (and IBM) at 41.6% and South Burlington at
32.4%. As a result, the communities in Chittenden County with some of the
greatest rates of children to total population sought work in other communities.
In addition, 20,293 of Burlington's 31,447 jobs are filled by residents of other
communities. So although jobs and economic growth may be critical to the
vitality of the City and the region, the region's mobility indicates that job
opportunities per se do not seem to be a significant factor in determining a
family friendly city.
Page last updated November 22, 2002
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