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I Asked 43 11th Graders What They Like & Dislike About Houston County–Here is What They Had to Say

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Brandon Shoupe is the Chairman of the Houston County Commission in Alabama. He writes about community development, leadership, Alabama, and righting the American ship.
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I Asked 43 11th Graders What They Like & Dislike About Houston County–Here is What They Had to Say

The youth loves our Peanut Festival & parades but want an even better downtown

Brandon Shoupe 🇺🇸
Feb 10, 2023
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I Asked 43 11th Graders What They Like & Dislike About Houston County–Here is What They Had to Say

www.brandonshoupe.com
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Photo curtesy of my good friend, Walter Hill

In recent posts, I asked a group of primarily young professionals what they liked and disliked about our community. That group was the Leadership Dothan Class of 2023. Just a few days ago, I had the privilege of visiting with the Dothan–Houston County Youth Leadership Class of 2023. Youth Leadership is comprised of local 11th grade students who have been selected by their teachers.

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I was very impressed by their attentiveness, their passion for our community, and the questions they had at the end.

But similar to last time, I asked them to take an index card and on one side write one thing they like about Houston County. Then, on the other side, I asked them to write one thing they hate.

It’s always interesting seeing the different cares and concerns of various age groups and demographics. I must say this group impressed me with their responses, which I have transcribed unedited below:

Things Young Leaders Love About Houston County

  1. Desirable events - good community

  2. Opportunities/friendly atmosphere

  3. The opportunities for performing arts

  4. Restaurants; the fair

  5. Support of small business

  6. The fair; Westgate complex; places to eat

  7. Local restaurants

  8. Local coffee shops; places to eat

  9. Downtown (KBC, Bookstore, Boutique)

  10. Local shops (Mural City Coffee & KBC)

  11. Forever Wild Trail; Westgate Trail

  12. Parades (Mardi Gras), Foster Fest, etc.

  13. Parades

  14. Eastgate Park/recreation

  15. Performing arts; festivals

  16. The Peanut Festival

  17. The Peanut Festival

  18. Enthusiasm of leaders trying to get people to come back later in life

  19. The thought in daycares

  20. The people and opportunities

  21. I like the parks

  22. Eastgate + Westgate Parks

  23. Industry/professional opportunities such as Southeast Health and Hudson Alpha

  24. The Peanut Festival

  25. The school system

  26. Peanut festival

  27. Scenery

  28. Plenty of places to eat

  29. Parks, events (downtown)

  30. Plenty of food; nice parks

  31. Places to eat/food

  32. Good variety of restaurants

  33. Mardi Gras (NYE Peanut Drop b4 it stopped)

  34. Fast food options

  35. The community/all the people

  36. The food options

  37. Mexican restaurants

  38. Our restaurants (food options)

  39. Lots of opportunity for Ag because that’s our whole economy such as row crops as well as cattle

  40. Westgate/outdoor recreation

  41. Support of school teams

  42. Westgate recreational access

  43. Recreation; Westgate Tennis Center

Things Young Leaders Hate About Houston County

  1. Construction

  2. The construction

  3. Traffic patterns are confusing/aggressive drivers

  4. Traffic, all the construction

  5. Traffic & roadkill

  6. Traffic

  7. Traffic-bad drivers

  8. Multiple chain restaurants

  9. Not a lot of fun things

  10. Need more trails/places in nature

  11. Cityscapes park/water (lake); Downtown

  12. Chain restaurants

  13. Construction/traffic it causes

  14. School (rats) buildings/education quality

  15. Traffic due to construction

  16. Construction on 84

  17. Construction always happening

  18. Ongoing construction on the circle & bad traffic

  19. Money towards certain schools

  20. Construction on the roads constantly

  21. Education system

  22. The constant road work

  23. Lack of shopping; No Lululemon; no dress shopping

  24. Downtown

  25. Construction, traffic at Brannon Stand light

  26. Never ending construction every 2 years

  27. Weather

  28. [Need a] bigger downtown with more shops

  29. Need more culture/places to hang out

  30. Road work

  31. Traffic block ups; limited places to shop

  32. We need a more advanced downtown area; We also need more places to hangout and outdoor activities

  33. Homelessness

  34. The crazy traffic at 5

  35. [Need] more food options farther away from Dothan

  36. The road construction/traffic

  37. Constant road construction & traffic

  38. The roads (construction); traffic

  39. Expedite road construction/re-pave

  40. [Need better] Things to do on the weekend

  41. Not a lot of recreational activities

  42. Not many things to do besides sit at Sonic

  43. Not many places to go have fun at with friends

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I Asked 43 11th Graders What They Like & Dislike About Houston County–Here is What They Had to Say

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