The documentary Seattle is Dying is a stark warning for any number of American cities, including Bakersfield, city staff deals a blow to those proposed private dorms and hundreds fan out to clean up the town

Monday, April 8, 2019

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... SEATTLE IS DYING: If you haven't seen the hour-long documentary "Seattle is Dying," you should make the time to do so. Produced by KOMO-TV in Seattle, the documentary takes a hard and

sober look at how homelessness, egged on by well intentioned laws that back fired, have left the city awash in urine, feces, street urchins, crime and drugs. And yes, it is happening here in Bakersfield, for many of the same reasons: state laws that emptied our jails and flooded the streets with criminals, rampant drug addiction and mental illness. Unfortunately, we can't buy our way out of it by writing checks for equally well intentioned but ineffective programs. Talk to your local city councilman and county supervisor and tell them we must find real answers before we become Seattle. Go to YouTube and search for "Seattle is Dying." It will be worth your time.

 * ... CSUB DORMS: The city planning division has put the proverbial fork in a developer's plans to build two five-story dormitories at the corner of Gosford and Stockdale Highway. In other words, I think we can consider this idea DOA (dead on arrival.) The staff indicated the idea was not "in harmony" with the surrounding area, a recommendation that is bound to please the residents of Stockdale Estates who have rallied to vehemently oppose the plan. While staff recommended against it, the ultimate decision will be up to the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) which could always vote to approve the plan, but I wouldn't bet on that. Stay tuned.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Stop trying to please everybody. You're no tequila."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "All alcohol should be half price if you can provide proof that you are married with kids."

 * ... HOMELESS: Check out this picture and the caption written by a reporter at KGET TV. It says volumes about the problem we have in this town. The caption read: "Have you seen this man?
The owners of Blue Oak Coffee downtown say he came into their shop this morning—demanding money, touching himself, and threatening to rape them. The city believes it’s part of Bakersfield’s growing homeless problem."

 * ... RILEY PARKER: And speaking of the homeless, I received this note from retired private investigator (and ex Bakersfield police officer) Riley Parker, who left California fed up with high taxes and liberal state politics. Said Parker: "Our son and daughter-in-law fled Seattle’s Green Lake for a small village in Wales, and with broken hearts Jane and I fled CALI for a village of 3,000 on Colorado's western slope. Unfortunately, there is now a Democratic super majority in Denver and they are in lock step with Gavin Newsom. The good news... at 73 I am deep enough into life’s fourth quarter that that they can’t do us a lot of harm. Gas is still $2.49, we buy fresh organic foods at great prices from local growers, have our own garden, socialize with our migrant field workers, and take our kayak to the Colorado River and nearby mountain lakes on the Grand Mesa. And we enjoy CBD oil in our coffee at Pressed in Palisade. Heartbroken every time I return to Bako and see the trash alongside the broken concrete of Highway 58."

 * ... CLEANUP: Here is to all the hundreds of volunteers who participated in the Great American Cleanup on Saturday. Ward 2 City Councilman Andrae Gonzales spent his birthday picking up trash, and I saw Memorial Hospital CEO Ken Keller along with Dignity vice president Robin Mangarin-Scott leading a big group in the effort. Imagine how clean our city would be if we all participated.

 * ... MEMORIES: A Hell's Angels motorcycle rider in front of the Kern County Museum in the 1960s.

 * ... MORE MEMORIES: And lastly, who remember's Larsons dairy?

Friday's Bakersfield Observed: Homelessness is out of control across the country, Ken Keller becomes CEO of Memorial Hospital, and are women in Bakersfield more likely to cheat on their husbands?

Friday, December 21, 2018

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... HOMELESSNESS: For the second consecutive year, the number of people living homeless on our streets has risen. There is a critical shortage of affordable housing, opiod abuse is adding to the

problem and despite the best efforts of cities, the problem remains out of control. Sound familiar? If you thought I was talking about Bakersfield, you are wrong. These are excerpts from a new report on homelessness across the nation. Like Bakersfield, cities big and small are facing the same vexing problem in confronting homelessness: it is bad and it is getting worse, and there are no easy solutions.  In Los Angeles just two hours south of us, Mayor Eric Garcetti has responded by dedicating special funding to set up temporary shelters across the city.

 * ... PEREZ: Supervisor Letitia Perez will go on trial in March for allegedly violating conflict of interest laws when she voted to regulate marijuana while her husband, consultant Fernando Jara, represented clients seeking to get into the business. I am still betting this will be settled before trial, but the pressure is on to find a compromise before the March trial.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Apparently putting Alka-Seltzer in my mouth while getting baptized and pretending I’m being possessed by the devil is not funny."

 * ... RIP CHRISTOPHER: Christopher Kreiser lost his battle with cancer this week and with that our community lost a good soul. Kreiser, son of Carney's owner Rick Kreiser and the late Kristen Kreiser, was just 39 years old. He had been undergoing experimental treatment at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for a few months when he passed. Ironically, it was 10 years ago that his mother, Kristen, died of cancer. Rick Kreiser is the founder of the Guitar Masters concerts series that has raised tens of thousands of dollar for the Kern County Cancer Fund. Christopher is survived by his wife, Katie, and their three children.

 * ... KEN KELLER: Ken Keller, chief operating officer at Memorial Hospital, has been appointed president and CEO following the promotion of former CEO Jon Van Boening. Keller holds a masters in the executive program from the University of New Orleans and a bachelors in pre-medicine from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Van Boening is now president and senior vice president of operations for all the Dignity Health hospitals in Central California.

 * ... CHEATING: I spotted this on Facebook. Are our women here more likely to cheat? Yes, says the cheating website Ashley Madison.

 * ... MEMORIES: Enjoy this walk down memory lane with this shot of the old Allard Furniture Company building on Baker Street from 1920.

Another Basque pub crawl goes into history, Ken Keller is promoted to CEO of Dignity Health's Memorial Hospital and media executive Louis Amestoy heads to Colorado

Monday November 26, 2018

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special place to live. Send your news tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... BASQUE PUB CRAWL: I rarely miss the celebrated Basque Pub Crawl, that annual ritual when thousands of people flock to the iconic Basque eateries and bars on the east side around

Thanksgiving. This is the biggest night of the year for people like Rod and Julie Crawford, owners of Pyrenees bar and restaurant. Rod Crawford said Pyrenees was packed all day and well into the evening. When I popped in Friday afternoon, it was buzzing with people and young professionals who return home for Thanksgiving. Other spots on the crawl list include Woolgrower's, Noriega Hotel, Amestoy's, Luigi's Deli and Delicatessen, the Silver Fox, Mexicali downtown and Bill Lee's. They aren't all Basque, but that doesn't mean they don't make the list.

* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Saw a guy wearing a winter scarf with a T-shirt in Los Angeles today and I just can't live like this anymore."


 * .. SPOTTED ON A FRIEND'S FACEBOOK PAGE: "My parents moved a lot when I was young. But I kept finding them."

 * ... OVERHEARD: Two men are talking about the Rite-Aid on 23rd Street, notorious for the amount of homeless who gather and beg for money at its entrance. "About two weeks ago I am driving east and I see a Rite Aid employee, a small woman, tackle some homeless guy in the parking lot. He who stole something - booze, cough syrup- not sure what, but she chased him down. She got it back and let him go. Happens all the time I hear."

 * ... KEN KELLER: Ken Keller, chief operating officer at Memorial Hospital, has been promoted to chief executive officer, replacing Jon Van Boening who has moved into a more corporate role at Dignity Health overseeing multiple hospitals.

* ... MOVING UP: Congratulations to Louis Amestoy, a public affairs specialist at Aera Energy who is moving to Colorado to become director of content for the Greeley Tribune. Amestoy previously worked as editor of The Bakersfield Californian before moving on to a stint in radio at American General Media and later Aera. Greeley is owned by Carson City-based Swift Communications, which operates newspapers and magazines across Colorado and much of the west.

 * ... MEMORIES: Check out this shot of JC Penny's on Chester in 1930 compliments of the Kern County of Old Facebook page.