Monday, April 13, 2009

Bako Bits: From whitewater rafting to some downright appallingly bad behavior at our parks


Checking in from Easter weekend which was - in a word - glorious. Could not have asked for better weather after a week of being sand blasted by ugly wind storms. Here's some Bako Bits to chew on:

* BAD BEHAVIOR: It's a sign of the times that you can pretty much rely on a few dozen people being arrested for fighting and gun slinging virtually every holiday weekend in Bakersfield. And Easter was no exception. Today's Californian shows a picture of ambulance personnel wheeling away victims after 60-70 people got in a fight at Pioneer Park in the afternoon. Let me repeat: SIXTY OR SEVENTY people! This wasn't some isolated fight between a couple of drunks but rather a wholesale brawl. One person was stabbed and another clubbed with a baseball bat. Meanwhile three people were detained after fights broke out at Beach Park while over at Hart Park, cops had to close the place off because of crowding. Happy Easter everyone!
* GOOD BEHAVIOR: I did happen to drop by the Riverlakes Church morning service over at the amphitheater at River Walk Park. There were at least a couple thousand worshipers there and - voila! - they managed to get through the service without a single stabbing or clubbing. See? It can be done.
* MORE BAD BEHAVIOR: Another wild scene over at Pioneer Park where they had planned on an Easter egg hunt for 1,500 kids and some 3,000 showed up. And of course - you can guess what happened next - the parents ended up shoving kids aside to grab eggs during the hunt. Sheesh.
* SOME GOOD PRESS: Nice to see Kernville and our white water rafting featured in Forbes magazine as one of the best rafting sites in the nation. They are highly complimentary of the rafting and give us some good ink. Read the complete story here.
* ROAD EXTENSION: I also happened to end up on the bike path extension headed toward Enos Lane and noticed that the Allen Road extension - it will connect Stockdale Highway with Ming Avenue - seems near ready to open. That will be a welcome event for those Southwest residents.

3 comments:

ALittleGuitar said...

Have I ever mentioned that I once went whitewater rafting down the Chattooga in your beloved Georgia? This would have been back in the late '70s and it was much fun. That's the river where 'Deliverance' was filmed but no banjos were heard dueling.

Richard Beene said...

Glad you made it out without ending up being compromised by some of our north Ga. residents ...

Robin said...

I was crammed in the crowd among all the other people who showed up for the Easter service in The Park at River Walk. The service was pretty good, but the heat is always excruciating. It was hot last year, too.

That's too bad about all the fighting that went on that afternoon. I saw a bunch of the photos that were posted on the blogs by the Breaking News Team. What an awful scene!