More confusion over new rules on the California drought, Mexicali closes its two locations to honor Esther Gamez, and celebrating CSUB's run in the college baseball regional playoffs

 * ... DROUGHT: Here is a real head scratcher, compliments of Heather Van Arkel who recently replaced her lawn with artificial turn. "California Water Service recently sent out an informational flyer on water use during the drought. I read it thoroughly and was excited to read that they are now offering a new Turf Replacement rebate which 'provides a $1 rebate per square foot of turf that is

removed and replaced with low-water-use landscaping. This rebate applies to turf replaced between January 1 and December 31, 2015, or until rebate funds are depleted which means I will qualify as we put in our artificial turf in January. (And, like Terry Stoler in your column today, we love it!)
But then my bubble was burst as I read the next sentence which said 'Replacement with artificial turf is not eligible.' What is artificial turf if not 'low-water-use?' It is, in fact, no-water-use! A call to the Drought Call Center left the agent as perplexed as me - she had no idea why artificial turf was excluded."

* ... MEXICALI: The family that owns Mexicali and Mexicali West have decided to shut both restaurants down today (Wednesday) in honor of the late Esther Gamez, one of the owners who passed away at the age of 84. This one-day closure is a fitting tribute to a woman who meant so much not only to the restaurants, but to the community as well.

 * ... SPOTTED: On Twitter was this missive: "Have you ever listened to somebody speak and wonder who ties their shoelaces for them?"


* ... TRADER JOE'S: I read the other day that Whole Foods is getting to roll out a smaller, cheaper retail store that will compete with Trader Joe's. I know some folks in the Northeast and downtown who would kill to have a new neighborhood market.

 * ... RUNNERS: How fun was it watching the CSUB baseball team make it to the College World Series regional playoffs? None of this would have been possible without the effort that President Horace Mitchell and his team put into taking Cal State to Division 1, which was quite controversial at the time. There is not doubt that having the Runners play teams like UCLA and Ole Miss has elevated the program to an entirely different level.

 * ... FOODIE: I finally stopped by the new Johnny Garlic's, TV host Guy Fieri's new restaurant out at the Marketplace. Bakersfield always goes crazy over new restaurants and it took a couple months before the crowds died down and I could land a table without a 90-minute wait. My favorite: the lamb slider appetizers that include a thin slice of cucumber to give it that extra crunch.

 * ... THEATERS: I promised no more posts on old theaters in town, but this note from Bill Varner was too good to resist. He wrote that in the 1930s, the old Granada Theater in east Bakersfield was occasionally converted into a boxing ring. "There was a full card of preliminary bouts with a main event, featuring two local lightweights, Charly Sullivan and my brother Pat Varner. All went well (until) the middle round of the main event the lights went out. The crowd was stunned but I think most of them grabbed their wallets wondering what was happening. The lights were back on in a few minutes... Charly won the decision. I don't if that was the end of the Granada."

Time to support the Cal State Bakersfield Runner baseball team, and remembering when "Ray Ray" the ice cream man roamed the city streets

 * ... BASEBALL: If it's almost spring it must be time for baseball, and there's no better place to take in some big time college baseball than Hardt Field out at CSUB. Now that we're competing in Division 1, the Runners will be taking on teams like UNLV, Southern Cal, North Carolina State, New Mexico State, Fresno State, Nebraska and the University of Washington. And this after taking on Kansas State and winning two out of three. CSUB Athletic Director Jeff Konya has also announced a plan to raise funds to improve Hardt Field. If you haven't taken in a game, give it a try. This is a team worth supporting.

 * ... MEMORIES: From my mailbag comes this note from  a reader named Dena, who wonders if anyone who grew up in South Bakersfield remembers the "Ray-Ray" ice cream truck that used to roam the neighborhood. "In his pristine little white truck with freezer attached, very clean,..., Ray-ray was always a very dapper gentleman always wearing a clean white shirt, little bow tie and black shiny shoes. He was so kind to all of us neighborhood children and my mother relied on his summer rounds every day, keeping my 'ice cream money' in a special Ray-Ray jar."


 * ... OVERHEARD: Only in Bakersfield "will I drive out of my way just to get a look at a new gas station (Sully's Chevron market at Buena Vista Road and Ming Avenue)."

 * ... SPOTTED: Former Bakersfield City Fire Chief Ron Fraze, along with wife Shelly, at the outdoor Prairie Fire grill at The Padre Hotel this weekend meeting with friends and supporters and talking politics. Fraze has submitted papers to run for the Ward One seat on the City Council to replace the retiring Sue Benham.


 * ... ART: Looking for some good, affordable art for your home? If so, make sure you swing by the Bakersfield Museum of Art when it offers quality, previously owned art for sale. These are works that have been donated to the museum. The event will be held Thursday, March 8, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets for Art A Go-Go are $50 before the event and $60 at the door. Call (661) 323-7219 for more details.

 * ... OPEN HOUSE: The Independent Living Center, which helps folks with disabilities live independently and with dignity, is holding an open house this Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be food, a silent auction, a boutique and even Plinko to honor everyone who has helped support this organization. The event will be held at 5251 Office Park Drive.

Padre Hotel fights false rumors it is closing and the Cal State baseball team readies to host Kansas State

 * ... ROAD RUNNERS: If you haven't been to Hardt Field to support the Cal State baseball team, now is your chance  to do so. The red hot Road Runners, in only their third year of existence, will play eight games over 11 days at Hardt Field out at the Southwest campus. This includes two games against Kansas State on Monday and  Tuesday followed by UC Irvine. The team is 24-8 going into the Thursday night game and is playing some of the best Division 1 baseball in the country. These kids certainly deserve our support.

 * ... ON THE MOVE: Former Padre Hotel special events director Liz Netherton has joined Freestyle Entertainment, a locally owned company run by brothers Mark and Jared Perry. Liz will be marketing the company to the Central Coast as it expands its operation. She will be living in Shell Beach.

 * ... PADRE: Speaking of the Padre, it is alive and doing well according to owner Brett Miller. But apparently the hotel has been deluged by calls asking if it is going out of business. The reason? It all started after the The Californian ran a story saying it was closing. The story was actually part of a weekly historical feature called "Kern's Past," dated 1961, when then owner Spartacus Miller did announce he was closing the classic landmark property. But of course that was 50 years ago and today, the newly restored Padre is up and running and doing a brisk business.

 * ... COLLEGE GRADS: Laura Camp grew up in Bakersfield, graduated from Southern Methodist University and now lives in Washington, D.C., but keeps up with her hometown by following my blog online. She wrote to share the good news that her younger brother, Donald 'Max' Camp III, as well as three of her cousins are all graduating from college this May. "My cousin McKenzie Camp will be graduating from Eastman University in Rochester (NY) and heading to San Francisco and cousin Katie Camp will be graduating from San Diego State University and coming back to Bakersfield. My cousin Jack Pandol Jr. will be graduating from Washington and Lee University (VA) and brother Max from Southern Methodist University (TX) and am excited to have them both join me in D.C. after graduation. All my cousins, siblings and self included attended Bakersfield Christian High School."

 * ... NEW EATERY: A new restaurant has opened downtown in a building in the center of the arts district. It is called Chef's Choice Noodle Bar and is owned by the same family that owns the Thai Orchid off Brimhall Road and Dr. Nick Hansa, a local pulmonologist. I had a chance to dine there last week and it was excellent, pulling on the flavors that the Thai-born Dr. Hansa and his wife know so well. Locals are hoping the best for this effort. In the past 10 years there has been a revolving door of restaurants and bars at 19th and Eye streets, including Downtown Joe's, Capistrano's and the Do Wop Diner.

 * ... STREETCARS: From my mailbox: Lillian Rea wrote to tell me that she was "the last passenger to ride all the way to the car barn at midnight, February 28, 1942, on old number 17. The conductor was Mark Wade, and my husband. He called me and asked me to come and ride into the barn on his last run. And so it was, that I became the last person to ride on the last street car to run in Bakersfield. Making me a true Bakersfildian." Indeed, I think that qualifies you.

 * ...WHO KNEW? Bolthouse Farms sells nearly a billion pounds of carrots a year under a number of different brand names and supermarket labels. Only Grimmway Farms, a few minutes down the road in Bakersfield, sells more, and just barely. Together, the two companies control more than 80% of the carrot market in the United States. 

CSUB says no to senior discounts at baseball games while valley farmers deal with thefts of copper and other metals

 * ... COPPER THEFT: Valley farmers and many in the oil industry are being hit hard by copper thieves who are working under the cover of darkness in our vast rural areas. Attracted by the rising value of copper and other metals, thieves are hitting irrigation systems and oil facilities almost nightly, leaving farmers and oil producers facing high replacement costs. And, it's very difficult to provide security for large farms and oil production rigs in remote areas. The losses to the farmers and oil companies is said to run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 * ... MORE THEFT: The bad economy has also put homeowners across town on edge as burglaries continue to hit almost every neighborhood. Several homes in the La Cresta area up near Garces Memorial High School were burglarized this week of flat screen televisions, jewelry, computers and other items. And to make it worse, the criminals came back to the same houses later that night to steal the cars. Turns out they had stolen the spare cars keys and simply returned for the vehicles. But score this one for the good guys: Bakersfield police arrested an 18-year-old man and two juveniles in the La Cresta cases and recovered the cars.

 * ... NO DISCOUNT: Cal State Bakersfield would love to have more fans out at Hardt Field to root for the Runners baseball team when Ohio State comes to town later this week, but they're not willing to budge on the ticket price to draw a bigger crowd. That's what university spokesman Rob Meszaros told me after I passed along a complaint from 77-year-old Jean Sherwood, who wondered why there wasn't a senior discount. "My husband and I are 77 and 80 years old and we would love to go to all the home Roadrunner baseball games and cheer them on," she said. "But we live on a fixed income and $7 a ticket is too much. I called Cal State and they do not have a senior rate for baseball games. We are missing out and so are they." I personally think a senior rate would be a nice gesture to get a few more fans in the seats (it's painful how few folks attend these games) but Meszaros said it was a non starter. But guess what? The university does have discounts for youths 17 and younger. So go figure. A quick Google search found that both Fresno State and Cal State Fullerton, two of the perennial Division 1 powerhouses in college baseball, offer both senior and youth discounts. And if a seat is empty, why not provide an incentive to fill it? The university needs to take a few lessons in Marketing 101 (or better yet, just call the Bakersfield Condors to learn how to draw a crowd) instead of turning a deaf ear to its potential audience.

 * ... MORE RUNNERS: Another Cal State baseball fan wrote to complain that the program gets little support from the administration. "The bleachers have limited capacity requiring spectators to stand or bring chairs, they are hard with no backs and are dangerous to walk up," he said. "The rest room facilities consist of outhouses (porta potties) that smell of you know what. They have had three years to put these things in place. The administration really does not care." Given the budget problems facing all public colleges, I'm not sure this criticism is entirely warranted but it certainly reflects a growing frustration among the school's potential customer base.

 * ... WEST HIGH: The West High School class of 1976 is building a new legacy at the school with a $3,750 donation for a college scholarship. The 35th reunion of the class was held this past weekend, and it was attended by about 10 of the teachers who were so important to the students. "This is only a small token of their appreciation for the strong foundation going to West gave them," said alum Lamar Kerley.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Reader Joe Foster Thomas says you might be a Bakersfield old timer if you remember "going to Booth's Music Store to purchase 45 and 78 RPM records." Located across from the Fox Theater in the 1940s and 1950s, the store had a glassed-in room to listen to the records before buying them.

Staring down the barrel at a double dip recession, Laura Wolfe out at CSUB and country clubs feeling the pain

Right when you think things are getting better - a slight uptick in housing sales, a successful "cash for clunkers" program - the talking heads and analysts start warning us of a "double dip recession." Don't mean to be alarmist but more than a few noteworthy economists think we are far from out of the woods, and are fearing the current good times on the stock market will soon give way to a darker new reality. Consider:

* ... LAURA WOLFE OUT IN CSUB SHAKEUP: Before we get to the economy was saddened to hear that Laura Wolfe, longtime vice president of development for the university, has lost her job, allegedly due to the budget crisis. At least that's what a memo from Beverly Byl, new vice president of university advancement, says. Other insiders speculate it's Byl's way of using the budget crisis to build her own team, and it's leaving many folks with a bad taste in their mouths. Laura is a longtime fixture in the community, well liked and well respected, and one who has worked hard on behalf of the university, even when so many campus academics felt that building community relations was beneath their pay grade. I spoke with Laura who said simply she was looking forward to spending more time with her family and preparing for her son's bar mitzvah. She said she "hopes to do well by doing good." Now that's a class act.



* ... IT'S UGLY OUT THERE: Okay, back to the economy and folks, it ain't pretty. The American Bankruptcy Institute reports consumer bankruptcies jumped 34.3 percent in July, compared to last year, as high debt and unemployment took their toll. Also:
SECTOR ANALYSIS: A new survey of real estate investors by PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that over the next 12 months, apartment values will fall 7 percent, regional malls will drop 8.5 percent, warehouses will drop 8.2 percent and office values will decline 11.4 percent. This is the long expected commercial real estate crunch and no doubt we don't be able to avoid it.
BANK FAILURES: While we have been averaging 5 to 7 bank closures per week the past few weeks, it is interesting to note that the high was set in 1989 when 60 banks were closed in one week.
HOUSING DECLINE: Home ownership in the US reached nearly 70 percent in 2004, but has since fallen to 67.4 percent as of the second quarter of 2009. Interestingly, about 57 percent of housing units that are added to the market become rentals these days.
HOUSING SUPPLY: A study by ZipRealty finds the supply of homes available for sale in major metropolitan areas fell 2.5 percent in July compared to June. Yet, as reported here earlier, fully one in 10 home mortgages in California is now in a state of default



* ... MEANWHILE, OUT AT THE COUNTRY CLUB: Also learned that privately owned Seven Oaks Country Club has been hit so hard by this recession that it is reducing its full equity initiation fee from $30,000 to $10,000. In a letter to members, general manager Don Ciota says the club has sold only four new full equity memberships this year. Good news for new members but what about the folks who paid full retail? Another sign of the times.

* ... INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Lastly, spotted this Facebook post from Realtor Mary Christenson and thought I would pass it along. It's a good one:
"You never know when one act, or one word of encouragement can change a life forever." ~ Zig Ziglar

"The Rec" Opens at CSUB and a commuter school starts to grow up

It's a good day for the students out at Cal State Bakersfield where the new Student Recreation Center has officially opened. The school held a nice little dedication ceremony under a warm sun with the sparkling new "Rec" gleaming in the background. I use the term "the Rec" because student leaders said that's how it is already known among students, who voted several years ago to help fund the center themselves via a student activity fee. We did a quick tour and the place is stunning: four full indoor basketball courts, an elevated cushioned track, tons of cardio machines before a tall bank of flat screen TVs, karate room, cardio rooms, personal trainers available, a rock climbing wall... pretty much anything a student could want. Facilities like these, albeit on a much grander scale, are the norm at the large state universities and students have come to expect them as a place to stay in shape and socialize. This is yet another important step on President Horace Mitchell's stated quest to bring an authentic student experience to this largely commuter school. It seems to be working: as we toured the Rec Center there was evidence that "Greek week" had just ended. Photos below of inside "The Rec" and evidence of Greek week.

Bako Bits: From bad grammar to good marketing to honoring Dr. Hans Einstein

It may be national "Tea Party" day today as folks around the nation gather to sound the alarm over taxes and spending, but there's plenty of other things happening around our community. But let's begin with the "Tea Party:"
* GOOD MARKETING: You have to hand it to KERN AM 1180, home of conservative talker Inga Barks, for some shrewd marketing to tie in with the Tea Party. Parent company American General Media took out a full page ad in today's Californian with bold black print screaming "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!" and urged folks to take it to the Tea Party today at noon in front of City Hall. Inga will be speaking at the event which will certainly provide some good local theater.
* GOT SPELLCHECK? Spotted this license plate holder the other day on a small black car on Ming Avenue: on the top it read "I know, I know" and on the bottom "Licence and registration." The driver should be ticketed and her license revoked for failing to use spellcheck.
* BICYCLE RACE: Looks like they're going to have another bicycle criterium race in downtown Bakersfield May 1. They're looking for sponsors to support the "crit," which will feature fast and agile and very strong riders doing a circuit race in the downtown area. It's worth a look-see if you have never witnessed it and it is certainly an upgrade over some of the other more dubious and ill attended "downtown" events like the car shows and street fairs.
* CSUB WINE TASTING: Tickets are also on sale for the 13th Annual CSUB Party in the Park Wine Tasting, which coincides with the annual Jazz Festival. This is one of the nicest events at the university all year and is put on by the CSUB Alumni Association. The event will be held Friday, May 8 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with music from the Jazz Festival to start later that evening. You can buy a package just for the wine tasting or include the Jazz Festival as well. Call 661-654-3211 for more information.
* EINSTEIN PAVILION: Sue Benham, city council person and development director over at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, corrected me on an earlier post about the event next week (April 21) to pay tribute Dr. Hans Einstein. The actual Einstein Pavilion will not open until later this year but the 6:30 p.m. event next Tuesday will honor his contributions to our community.
* JUST FOR FUN: From the list "You know you are from Bakersfield when..." And the answer is: "You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink." (read the complete list here)

Bako Bits: Rumblings and buzz about banks, baseball, Twitter and a silly slow speed chase

Cleaning out the cupboard before a long Easter weekend, buzz about town:
* Lots of chatter about the Federal Reserve cracking down on locally owned San Joaquin Bank (read previous post here). Insiders say this is no time to panic, the bank has tons of cash and that San Joaquin is simply undergoing the same intense scrutiny that all banks are in this climate. Others say the folks over at the newly formed Valley Republic Bank (see previous post here) smell blood in the water and see this as an opportunity to boast that its balance sheet is clean of any toxic assets by virtue that it's a brand new bank in town being run by trusted locals. There no doubt will be more of this to come.
* You have to wonder what the folks over at KGET TV were thinking this morning, devoting way too much time having Kyoshi and lapmate follow an excruciatingly boring slow speed chase in south Orange County of all places. Say what? Can't believe there wasn't more compelling local content about our community that deserved airtime.
* CSUB baseball is getting a lot of positive buzz in its inaugural year. The Runners have beaten defending national champion Fresno State twice this year and I hear an afternoon over at the new Hardt Field is a delight. Hats off to President Horace Mitchell on his push to bring a bona fide college experience to this largely commuter school. The Runners have games today and Saturday at Hardt Field.
* Am always intrigued with the way politicians have taken to social networking to push their agendas, and few are as good at it than our own Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Kevin used Twitter this morning seeking input from local business people on ways to create jobs.
* Speaking of Twitter, if you are looking for deals and bargains begin following "Bakodeals" for some recession busting bargains around town.