to make people look at the problem differently.
We found that when approaching this concept, it should be framed as if you are talking to an individual. When making a general statement, people feel as if they are lost in the shuffle.
When you make it a personal matter, people become reasonable to suggestions and to ways which they go about commuting. More over, devolping a conversation that allows the individual to reflect upon where they live with out inadvertantly insulting them or putting them on the defensive seems to be the path to solutions.
The irony to all of this is: people get defensive about where they live because they honestly believe they made that choice. When in fact, a persons choice to live where they do has less to do with their own decisions and more to do with an ingrained belief system. And that is at the heart of how to change peoples minds and it's challenge. People don't like to feel they have made a wrong choice.
If you can understand their perspective and use that in helping a person see other options and other opportunities, then the battle to change society for the better takes a step foward.
Making genreal statements along the lines of, "they will have to figure it out" puts me on the defensive because that goes against everything that I had worked against in hoping change the conversation to something more positive where all could potentially benefit.
Throughout all the research and work I did with the group, the bottom line is: for the most part, it's not that people/ families aren't open to trying something different, by and large, it's the political atmosphere that is acting as the biggest obstical to anything moving forward. The hurd mentality destroys any positive message/ work that was made fairly quickly.
Many of the meetings I had attended would end in a lot of shaking heads and frustration due to a glacially slow reaction by various city council members or their inability to listen and engage. They feel that by listening to our concepts or ideas, somehow that would make them appear weak. There were many times when I knew that council members were being purposely obtuse just to score political points.
Humans are a reactionary bunch and rarely plan long term. That is the crux of the problem and made worse of those humans are the ones in charge.
Cheers. 
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