Housing prices still heading south and four from Bakersfield named All-American in skeet shooting

* .. HOUSING BLUES: The long feared "double dip" in housing prices is now taking hold in as many as one in five major housing markets. That's the word from Zillow, the national real estate sales and data provider. Our own market here in Bakersfield remains slow, and local Realtors tell me there isn't a lot of inventory on the market. We are still working through thousands of foreclosures, and there are more to come. Zillow identified the top five cities to find a "bargain" for a house because of depressed prices. They are Naples, Fla., Cape Cod, Mass., Charleston, S.C., Merced, CA. (one house that sold for $337,000 five years ago just sold for $80,000) and Chicago. (read the Zillow and ABC report here) Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal referred to the pending flood of new foreclosures as "shadow inventory" and said there were enough homes expected to hit the market to last about 10 months based on average sales rates. It said the worst hit areas are California (naturally), Arizona, Florida and Nevada.

 * ... TRAVELING HOPWOODS: Reader Dale Hopwood wrote to remind me that Bakersfield was known as "Quakersfield" after the 1952 earthquake that devastated our once historic downtown. But he really wanted to talk about his children, some of whom moved away but came back home to live and work. His son, Ken Hopwood, is a North High graduate who was living in the Southland but moved back to work as a software engineer for Prosoft. Ken 's wife, Becky Coats, is working with the reading class at Endeavour Elementary. Meanwhile daughter Dana Villicano is teaching science at Fruitvale Junior High and another son, George Hopwood, is working at UC Santa Barbara in the special projects office. Finally, the last of the traveling Hopwoods is his daughter Sara Holm, a geologist living in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

 * ... SKEET HONORS: Kudos to four Bakersfield skeet shooters who have been named to the 2010 All-American Teams by the National Skeet Shooting Association. This is really unusual to have so many from one club make the All-American squads, and it's a credit to the programs and facilities at the Kern County Gun Club located near the Lake Buena Vista Recreation Area. Ben Wagoner, the 45-year-old owner of Air Control Services heating and air conditioning, was named to the Rookie First Team while Brian Foley was named to both the Open Honorable Mention team and the Junior First Team. Foley graduated from Ridgeview High and is now a freshman at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. Also named All-Americans were sisters Emily and Rachel Shuford, a senior and sophomore at Bakersfield High respectively. Rachel made the Sub-Junior First Team and Emily the Junior Honorable Mention Team. 

 (Above picture left to right Emily Shuford, Brian Foley, Brooke Shuford and Rachel Shuford. Lower picture is Ben Wagoner with Brian Foley)


 * ... B-TOWN JUST FINE: Reader Dave Collins, who works at the local collection agency Commercial Trade, dropped me a nice personal note and ended it by saying "... by the way, I think 'Bako' is just fine along with B-town and Bake-in-the-field." Add him to the list who think 'Bako' is not an insult.


* ... BAKERSFIELDISMS: You know you are from Bakersfield when ...  "You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink" and "You know Trouts and we're not talking about the fish."

Short takes around town: Another financial institution on the ropes and Fred Drew is out at the Kern Community Foundation

  

* ... AND THE DOMINOES BEGIN TO FALL: The news that Kern Schools Federal Credit Union is on the ropes is further evidence of the depth of this recession. The credit union has lost over $54 million since the beginning of last year, a figure that makes the losses at the now shuttered San Joaquin Bank look absolutely paltry. And now we learn the credit union, like the bank, has been put on notice that it must dramatically increase its liquidity or face the consequences. Unlike commercial banks like San Joaquin, which got into trouble on soured development loans, the credit union issues are more consumer based - bad auto loans, delinquent personal loans and the like - and reflect the depths of the recession in Kern County, where our jobless rate is hovering around 14 percent. Another just stunning aspect of all this is the fact that at least one Kern Schools board member, Jim Fillbrandt, told The Californian he was unaware of the demands and written agreement with the National Credit Union Administration until Monday when outgoing CEO Vince Rojas mentioned  it. How and why the board would be left in the dark (if indeed it was) are questions that need to be answered. Looks like Rojas got out just at the right time, handing over the reins to Steve Renock, who previously worked at a credit union in Orange County. Here's hoping Renock is well versed in crisis management, because that's the job he's inherited.

 * .... DREW OUT AT FOUNDATION: I learned today that Fred Drew is out as CEO of the Kern Community Foundation. Drew has only been on the job since January. The press release from the Foundation was short and to the point and offered no explanation. But obviously things didn't work out between Drew and the Foundation Board of Directors. Judi McCarthy, the Foundation board chair, issued a press release saying only that Drew and the Board of Directors reached "mutual agreement" that he would leave effective October 31. In the meantime, retired CEO Noel Daniells "has been engaged by the Board to offer continued guidance and assistance" and McCarthy will serve as acting executive until a new CEO is in place. An appreciation dinner was just held for Noel last month at Stockdale Country Club. Looks like he'll stick around longer to help in the transition.

 * ... INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE REBOUND?: We all know about the funk that residential real estate is in, but what about the commercial and industrial side? I follow the blog of Wayne Kress, a principal over at CB Richard Ellis Bakersfield,  and learned that things are indeed slow but may be showing signs of a rebound. (check out his posting here). Kress said we have recovered a bit from the "lowly performance" of the first and second quarters. Some of the numbers and percentages here are staggering. From his blog:

 "Sales volume is down 30% over 2008 and a whopping 91% over 2007.  Average prices have actually increased over each of the last two years (+11% in 2008 and +7% in 2009), but this is a little deceiving, as the average building size has also declined in each of those years (by 43% in 2008 and by another 53% in 2009).  There is generally an inverse relationship between unit pricing and size:  the smaller the building, the higher the unit price.  This holds here."

* ... HOT SHOT WINS THE WORLD: Kudos to Bakersfield's Brian Foley, the college freshman who just won the World Championships in skeet shooting. Brian did it by not missing a single target in the 410 bore competition at the World Skeet Shooting Championships in San Antonio, Texas, and then beating perhaps the world's best shooter,  Todd Bender of Atlanta, in a shootoff. Brian graduated from Ridgeview High and is a freshman at Lindenwood University, a private college of about 13,000 students in St. Charles, Mo. He's the son of Tim and Kim Foley of Bakersfield.

Bako bits: a video tribute to a fallen friend, the shame of Roy Ashburn and a holiday weekend

We're heading into a holiday weekend with temperatures (mercifully) down a full 10 degrees to the high 90s. (You know you're from Bako when a weekend high of 98 sounds good). Let's wrap up some news around our town:

* TRIBUTE TO A FRIEND... I'm still mourning the loss of Alton Saceaux, one of the tribe of avid recreational cyclists around town. (see my previous post here) I was moved by what he told Californian reporter Steve Swenson some years ago, that you simply have to "assume you are invisible" to try to stay out of harms way. I do a good bit of riding and can't count the number of times when you hear the truck behind you and wonder if your time is up. You simply can't worry about it and have to concentrate on holding a straight line. There will be a memorial ride Thursday evening starting at the Bike Bakersfield headquarters downtown (everyone is asked to have lights on their bikes) beginning around 6:30 p.m. One of Alton's friends posted this moving video tribute which I'd like to share. Keep his family in your thoughts.




* THE SHAME OF ROY ASHBURN:.. Columnist Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times took Bakersfield's Roy Ashburn to task today for being one of two state senators to refuse to join others in agreeing to a voluntary 5 percent pay cut. Ashburn is already in the hot seat for voting with the Democrats to break a budget logjam and I can't imagine this will endear him to his constituents. Roy gave a Times reporter a pitifully lame excuse for failing to do so, saying the money may simply go back to the budget controlled by Senate Democrats. Really Roy? I'm just stunned how these guys just don't seem to get it. Folks are being laid off, struggling, and everyone I know (including employees at The Californian) have suffered pay cuts as well as cuts in the 401(k) match. Roy's earlier move was hailed by some as an act of courage; I see this an act of self serving cowardice. (Photo courtesy of Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)



* SKEET CHAMPIONSHIPS ... Can't get enough of explosives this weekend? Head out to the Kern County Gun Club next to Lake Buena Vista Recreation Area for the California State Skeet Shooting Championships. Two hundred of the best skeet shooters in the state will be on hand for three days of busting clays. There's no cost to come watch these incredible shooters. Among the stars will be some junior shooters from Bakersfield who have made names for themselves, including Brian Foley, a recent Ridgeview High grad headed to Lindenwood University in Missouri on a skeet scholarship. Brian is the reigning world champion in the 12 gauge. Also, Bakersfield High sisters Brooke, Emily and Rachel Shuford will be there shooting the lights out of the targets. Shooting runs Friday through Sunday all day.

Kids and guns: the other side of the story

Tragedies like the shooting rampage that killed 14 at an immigrant counseling center in Binghamton, N.Y. always lead to questions about gun control. I don't think that's a bad conversation, and I personally am not offended by some of my friends who believe all weapons inherently evil, even if I don't agree. But I wish those folks could meet kids like those shown in this picture (click on picture to enlarge). They're our kids, all from Bakersfield, good kids from good families with good values. And all happened to be reared in families where hunting and the shooting sports were the norm. This is the other side of the Binghamton story that seems rarely told. I had a chance to see all these kids this weekend out at the Kern County Gun Club where 150 shooters from across the nation converged for a skeet shooting competition. Two of those pictured above (Brian Foley and Elizabeth Key, seated above)are Ridgeview High seniors headed to Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo., on shooting scholarships. The girls seated on the tailgate are the shooting Shuford sisters, all high achieving kids in their own right. Brooke (seated right) is a BHS senior deciding between theUniversity of San Diego and Cal Poly (she's interested in micro biology), Emily (seated left) will be a senior at BHS and Rachel will be a freshman Driller. For every Binghamton tragedy there are thousands of examples like these high achieving kids who have learned to use and respect firearms.