Bako Bits: Cafe Med celebrates an anniversary and Raggae Fest leaves a reader unimpressed

 * ... CAFE MED: Hats off to Meir Brown and his crew over at Cafe Med, which is celebrating 20 years in business. I visited Cafe Med my first week in Bakersfield more than 17 years ago and it has remained one of my favorite dining spots ever since. Meir always makes his customers feel special and through July 10, he is offering a free dessert with lunch or dinner.

 * ... PROPERTY TAXES: Here's some good news for city and county officials: the taxable value of all property in Kern County has been put at $84 billion, an increase of about $2 billion over last year. Assessor James W. Fitch's office said that is largely due to increases in the oil and gas industry due to investments in new construction. Agricultural and wind energy properties also showed an increase. Homeowners, however, didn't fare so well. Of the 200,000 residential properties in Kern County, about 80,000 actually lost value. The office said some properties had lost value for four straight years. Of course, that does mean lower property taxes but also fewer dollars to local government.

 * ... KERN RIVER: The kayaks, paddle boards and tubes are out in force on the Kern River between Beach Park and the Park at River Walk. Of course, who knows how long we'll have water in the river, but it doesn't take much of an imagination to think about all the commerce - restaurants, water craft rentals etc - that would grow up along the river if we had year-round water.


 * ... RAGGAE: The recent Reggae Fest and Art Show in Stramler Park was apparently a big success, but not with everyone. One reader, Martha Gray, said he was appalled at the foul lyrics used by the bands at what she felt was advertised as a family event. "What I witnessed was dancing fit for Deja Vu that was also seen by many youngsters in the crowd, and triple X-rated lyrics that were sometime chanted by the crowd of maybe 500 people. Stramler is a county park and the county should be monitoring whether a concert is adults only or a family event." 

 * ... Y MEMORY: The movement to restore the local "Y" (formerly known as the YMCA) to its previous glory drew this memory from long-time Bakersfield plaintiff's lawyer Milt Younger. He was about six years old when he attended a summer camp in the Sierra's sponsored by the YMCA. The camp director was Pat Kelley, who later went on to become a state Assemblyman, and Younger said he shared a cabin with Pat's twin boys, Tom and John Kelly. Of course John Kelley went on to become a Superior Court judge while his brother became a real estate developer. Younger said a camp counselor once found the twins fighting and promptly hauled them down to a creek and dunked them. That stopped the fight, at least for a time being.

 * ... RIO GRANDE: Geraldine Sproul wrote to say she too remembers the old Rio Grande service station that stood at the corner of North Chester and Robert's Lane where the McDonalds now stands. "I happen to have a picture of Emmit Blaisdell and Richard Blaisdell sitting on a three-wheel Indian motorcycle" in front of the station in 1944. That would two years before the parents of Kenny Barnes ran the station. Sproul said the Blaisdells owned the whole corner there and the brick building that faces North Chester that is now Oildale Glass. "The brick building was originally a bakery. Then in the late 1940s or 1950s it become a cabinet shop."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Denney Evans writes that you may be a Bakersfield old timer "if you remember the Jimi Hendrix concert at the Civic in the late 1960s. Pretty sure I was there."

More warning signs on the economy , lamenting Halloween and a celebration at Chain, Cohn and Stiles law firm

 * ... A NEW  CHILL IN HOME SALES: In this dour market we're all looking for signs of hope that the economy is on the rebound, but it can be misleading (and reckless) to latch onto a headline and jump to conclusions. Take some recent housing statistics, for example, which showed improving sales and stabilizing prices, leading some to decry the rebound under way. The real truth always rests in the details, and as the New York Times noted recently, we may be looking at a new chill in home sales, not a rebound. Why? Here's a salient passage from the Times): (you can read the entire piece here):

 "Artificially low interest rates and a government tax credit are luring buyers, but both those inducements are scheduled to end. Defaults and distress sales are rising in the middle and upper price ranges. And millions of people have lost so much equity that they are locked into their homes for years, a modern variation of the Victorian debtor’s prison that is freezing a large swath of the market.
 "... The only hot sector of the real estate market has been foreclosures. Investors and first-time buyers have been competing for these, often creating bidding wars. But with the economy still weak, many analysts expect more foreclosures."

 Locally some 70 percent of our home sales come in the "distressed" category, so while that's a good thing in terms  of moving inventory, the larger threat (as the Times notes) is coming in the mid-to higher-end homes where folks with excellent credit are now getting into trouble because of job losses or simply being upside down in their mortgages. As the story noted, in California defaults are "beginning to migrate from the subprime inland areas to the more exclusive coastal region" in cities like Santa Barbara (defaults up 25 percent) and San Luis Obispo (defaults rose 46  percent). The truth is always in the details and we need to pay attention to it.

 * ... CHAINLAW CELEBRATES 75 YEARS: I stopped by the recent celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the law firm of Chain, Cohn and Stiles, the plaintiff's "slip and fall" law firm formerly known as Chain-Younger. Dave Cohn, a principal in the firm and a personal friend, held the event in the outdoor, shaded annex  next to the downtown Bank of America building where the firm is headquartered. The event was catered by Lisa Borda of Bord A Petite and among those attending were Carla Musser of Chevron, former Cal State Bakersfield development officer Mike Chertok, Colleen McGauley and Teresa Fahsbender of CASA and Jim and Beverly Camp of the Camp farming families. Conspicuously absent from the soiree was Milt Younger, Cohn's uncle who was one of the founders and driving forces behind Chain-Younger for decades, who left the firm and has continued law practice with his old partner Tim Lemucchi.

 * ... SWINE FLU UPDATE: I noted here recently that the folks over at Preferred Family Physicians on Truxtun Extension had seen a spike in swine flu cases, up to as many as 20 a day. (previous post here) Dr. Raj Patel, who owns the place along with Dr. John Heidrick, told me Thursday the numbers had now declined significantly. "We don't know why but it's quite a relief," he said. "This week we've had two or three cases a day, much better than last week." Patel said it was puzzling why he had seen such a dramatic change but warned "we shouldn't celebrate" or let our guard down. Like other medical providers across town, Preferred Family has yet to receive more shipments of the swine flu vaccine.

 * ... A SCROOGE'S TAKE ON HALLOWEEN: Accepting my own Scrooge-like tendencies, I have to wonder if I am alone in dreading Halloween and the carnival-like atmosphere it creates in Bakersfield. In many neighborhoods Halloween is marked by hundreds - seems  like thousands - of strangers showing up at your door, some pushing strollers with infants and holding a sack hoping for a large Snickers. It's a never-ending stream of total strangers who leave a trail of candy wrappers up and down the street until the supply runs out. When the Californian posted a question about Halloween and out of neighborhood kids on Facebook Thursday (the question was: Should parents be driving their kids to different neighborhoods to trick or treat?), a couple of responses that caught my eye. (go to the Facebook link here) Enough said.

 "NO. Leave the van and baby in strollers (who obviously can't eat candy) and accept the neighborhood you live in."

 "The bus loads of kids is why I don't give out candy anymore. I want to see my neighborhood kids, interact with them and their parents. When I see a bus or van unload of 10 plus kids I turn off my lights."

 "Children don't get to decide which family or neighborhood they are born or live. If the neighborhood is unsafe, then by all means, visit a SAFE neighborhood. All children deserve a fun and safe night of trick-or-treating."

The rupture is complete: Younger out at law firm

It appears that all hope of Milt Younger returning to the slip-and-fall plaintiff's law firm he helped found is over. If you remember, Milt's nephew Dave Cohn (pictured)took over Chain-Younger when Milt "retired" a few months ago. Then Milt, whose outsized ego is legendary, decided to return to active law (despite some health issues) with his old partner of Tim Lemucchi and launched a series of TV commercials. Meanwhile, word on the street was that Milt, who is 78, was thinking of returning to Chain-Younger (or asking to) but that didn't happen. Instead, Cohn and his partners moved on and today launched a series of new TV spots branding the firm "Chain, Cohn and Stiles," a final blow to any chance Milt might reunite with the old firm.

Milt Younger, the old lion, still manages a growl

< It's interesting to watch the public breakup of the old Chain, Younger, Cohn & Stiles law firm, one of the preeminent "slip and fall" firms in town. The firm is now under firm control of David Cohn, Milt Younger's nephew, and his partner Dave Stiles. Milt, who has long fancied himself as something of a kingmaker in local Democratic politics and has an ego to match it, didn't go quietly into the night when he left the firm. Instead, despite some health problems, he teamed up with his old partner Timothy Lemucchi to take on his old firm. They've launched an ambitious TV campaign featuring the two old lions. It will be fun to watch what happens. Stay tuned.