Did high negative ratings sink the state Senate candidacy of Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez? Or was Andy Vidak simply more appealing to middle of the road Democrats?

 * ... PEREZ: One person who predicted the defeat of Leticia Perez in the state Senate race is Bill Thomas, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a longtime Republican insider and strategist. The last time I talked to Thomas, I asked him how a

Republican like Andy Vidak might defeat Perez in such a heavily Democratic district. His answer: Perez had failed to connect with voters on an emotional level and her campaign was perceived as highly negative. If Vidak could capture enough middle of the road Democrats, and apparently he did, he could win. Turns out Bill Thomas was right. Vidak will have to run again next year in a newly apportioned state Senate district. Perez, meanwhile, will fill out her Supervisor role wondering how she was unable to defeat a Republican in such a lopsidedly Democratic district.




 * ... LIFE LESSONS: I returned from lunch this week to find a heart breaking message on my voice mail. It was from a woman whose husband was dying of an undisclosed illness and whose friends and families have all but disappeared. She called to say she was moved by the story of Mark James, an old friend of mine who also is dying. Mark's lesson: live your life like every day is your last. Reach out to others and remember than in the end, it is the love of friends and family, not your bank account, that matters. "Like Mark the family and friends were there for my husband in the beginning," she said. "But they have disappeared too. People need to know that is matters to people when you are around."

 * ... PARKWAY: Earlier this week I suggested the idea that the public should be allowed a sneak peek of the Westside Parkway before it opens to cars and trucks. Susan Hamilton loved the idea and added this: "The suggested entry donation could be a plant or tree on the city's wish list!"

 * ... GOOD FORM: Spotted on a friend's Facebook wall: "I left my purse sitting in a basket in the Costco parking lot, wallet, phone and all. The person who took my space behind me was kind enough to turn it in instead of keeping it!"

 * ... BAD FORM: Shame on whoever was driving the Park Ranger white sedan that buzzed a bicyclist in front of Ethel's Corral last Sunday. "He must of been going 65 miles per hour on that curve and almost took me out," the cyclist told me. "The more I think about it the madder I get."

 * ... KARPE: Congratulations to Ray Karpe, the former president of Karpe Real Estate who is now director of operations at Stockdale Property Management. Ray told me the company manages 55 commercial properties with some 500 tenants that occupy two million square feet of space. Ray is a CSUB graduate who has been a longtime contributor to community causes.

* ... WATER SLIDES:  Here's a good thought considering the heat this summer. From Betsy Gosling: "I recently returned from British Columbia and noticed several water slides at various locations, mostly small towns. We really need a water slide in Bakersfield. Surely there is a private person and/or company who is willing to build one or two, nothing large, just a place for everyone, especially kids, to cool off in this weather. It is a win-win situation and would certainly be profitable.  Don't you know someone?"

'BAKOBOB' goes public, Ray Karpe lands at Terrio Therapy-Fitness and Stockdale C.C. celebrates a birthday

* ... BIRTHDAY FOR STOCKDALE: Stockdale Country Club is getting ready to celebrate its 85th birthday next month, a milestone that deserves some recognition. Club tennis pro Hank Pfister told me the club's history is a fascinating reflection of our community, starting when Lloyd Tevis and partners Ali Haggin and William (Bill) Carr formed the Kern County Land Company in 1890. In 1896, according to Pfister, William Tevis (son of Lloyd Tevis) purchased the land on which the club now sits and built a 9,000-square-foot mansion on the site. Lloyd Tevis later developed a nine-hole golf course on 300 acres, using the mansion as the club house, and opened the club for public play on February 18, 1923. Original dues were just $5.50 a month or $1 for a round of golf.  In 1925 Lloyd Tevis sold the property to a group of investors who formed the Stockdale Holding Company and began what is now the private Stockdale County Club, thus the 85th birthday. And as Pfister said, "now you know the rest of the story."

* ... BAKOBOB SHOUT OUT: All this good natured banter over whether the term "Bako" is an appropriate nickname for our town is old hat to Robert H. Brumfield III, a local attorney specializing in real estate and business law with Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann and Girard. Turns out Robert not only embraces the term "Bako" but also uses it on his personalized California license plate called "BAKOBOB." And he's had the tag for a full decade. That's what you call an early adopter.

 * ... KARPE IN AT TERRIO: It looks like Ray Karpe, until recently the president of Karpe Real Estate, has landed on his feet as the new chief operating officer of Terrio Therapy-Fitness, Inc. Owner Tim Terrio told me that his business had grown so quickly these last few years that he needed a right-hand person to help him "continue to grow, but grow responsibly. I'll continue to do the vision and program development and Ray will run the operations. I couldn't pass him up." Karpe ran the company bearing his family's name until he had a falling out with his father, Bob Karpe. He told me he's anxious to get started and is looking forward to his new career. Terrio now has 12 locations, including one in Fresno, with some 150 employees. 

* ... HISPANIC RADIO: The Bakersfield-area radio ratings for the Fall are out and - no surprise - reflect the growing influence of the local Hispanic market. The perennial winners continue to dominate the primary market, with American General Media's Rhythmic station Hot 94.1 continuing as the market leader by a large measure. AGM also has the leading Hispanic station in town with La Caliente 96.9 FM. Country icon KUZZ held its own and was in a respectable second place in the survey. The Hispanic influence in our market is interesting - and impressive. Latin heavyweight Piolin por la Manana is the leading morning host on the dial followed by Hot 94.1's Romeo and KUZZ's Steve Gradowitz.

Teagarden in as president at Karpe and what to do about all those scofflaws with expired tags on the road

 * ... TEAGARDEN IN AT KARPE: It looks like Tom Teagarden is the new president over at Karpe Real Estate Center, succeeding Ray Karpe who abruptly resigned last week. Teagarden is a longtime Karpe employee and local product who has worked with the family company for years. He told me that he had been out of town and wasn't even aware that Ray Karpe had resigned, and when he returned Bob Karpe (Ray's father) offered him the job. (In an earlier post I erred in saying Bob Karpe founded the firm. It was actually his father, Elmer) Nobody is going public on the rift between Ray and his father. Ray says only there was a difference of opinion on the company's strategic direction. Teagarden was born in Bakersfield, graduated from Garces Memorial High and later UC Santa Barbara. He moved to Virginia where he worked, moved back and began working at Karpe in 1989. He's been married for 35 years to Susan and they have three grown boys, Thomas, Adan and Matthew. Here's wishing him and the company success.

 * ... THE SCOFFLAWS WITH EXPIRED TAGS: I hit a nerve with an earlier post on all the cars driving around town with expired license tags. My email inbox was filled with responses, including one from Bakersfield resident Gary Denny who said this had been a pet peeve of his for years. His words:

 "At times, I have seen three or four vehicles at one location with expired tags. A couple of years ago I tried to find an agency to call or report this information to: CHP, city police, sheriff's department, Department of Motor Vehicles... none of these agencies were responsible... an individual has no way to report these vehicles. How many millions of dollars is the state missing from expired tags?"

 Yet another correspondent (who asked me not to use her name) speculated those driving around with expired tags are the same people who regularly fail to pay library fines or their student loans, and then are shocked when it negatively impacts their credit. "This is a blase attitude that I have noticed for all the years we have been living here," she said.

 * ... A DOWNTOWN RENAISSANCE? I had a nice chat the other day with Cathy Butler, head of the Downtown Business Association (DBA), who was absolutely giddy over what is happening downtown. She was raving about the new restaurant Victor Victoria's over on 19th Street, located in the same spot that once hosted Kosmo's and Goose Loonies. She also mentioned the new "O" sushi restaurant (owned by the same folks who run Toro sushi over at the marketplace; read the previous post here) and of course she's excited about the opening of the newly renovated Padre Hotel in six weeks or so. Bringing downtown Bakersfield back to life is a block by block project. The old central business district has come a long way and has an equally long way to go, but these developments are worth celebrating..

 * ... PCL MAKES A DONATION: I mentioned earlier the generosity of industrial services company PCL donating $10,000 to the Golden Empire Gleaners. Here's a picture of the check presentation, never a real compelling picture but these folks deserve some recognition. From left to right are Jim Blom, Todd Yepez, John Kerchinski (PCL president locally), Pam Fiorini, Pam Lindaman, Renee Massey and Ronald Eaves.

Short takes around town: a hard throwing local kid heads to the big leagues, dangerous mortgage default rates and a touch of the arts

Looking forward to a brief respite from the heat wave this weekend, when the highs are expected to stay a tad below 100. You know you're from Bakersfield when you welcome 99 degree days ... Lots happening around town. Let's get to it:

* ... JARRET HEADS TO THE BIGS: It's always great to see local kids excel, be it in athletics or academics or both. So here's to Jarret Martin, former Centennial High standout now at Bakersfield College who just inked a nice contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Jarret's mom is Dana Martin, a local writer and regular contributor to BakersfieldLife magazine and one of our community's great cheerleaders. Dana tells me her boy got what he wanted in terms of money, and on top of that he gets his college education paid for by the Orioles. So the kid can't lose either way. Here's to Jarret and all the other local kids moving up and out.




* ... MIXED NEWS ON HOUSING: I try to keep a pulse on the local housing market here and yesterday posted a short (and optimistic) note about home sales after talking to Ray Karpe, president of Karpe Real Estate Center. (read that post here) Then today I read in the Los Angeles Times that California's default rate has soared to 9.5 percent. That means that 1 in every 10 home loans in California is now in default. Ouch! So I touched based with local appraiser Gary Crabtree, who arguably has a better handle on local housing than anyone else in town. Let's hear it from Gary in his own words:

"We are in recovery mode now with increasing prices, but my real concern is the second wave of upcoming foreclosures, the unemployment and the ever increasing number of "short sale" listings (future foreclosures) on the market. I just ran some numbers today and found that out of 1,345 total listings, there are only 280 REO listings on the market (21%) and 389 short sale listings (29%). On the sales side out of 506 sales so far in July, 317 (62%) are REO and 53 (10%) are short sales. "This doesn't bode well for the short sales that will most likely turn into foreclosures. In spite of the record number of foreclosures, my sources are telling me that the lenders are actually showing some responsibility by only releasing a few each month for sale and holding on to the rest either in the form of rentals or leaving former owners/tenants in them. I hope this is true. If so, it will go a long way to curb the next "bloodbath". "

So let's all keep our fingers crossed. We need a steady recovery in housing to lead us out of this recession. There is certainly pent-up demand, so let's get to it.

* ... DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY: If you're in the mood for an evening of art and education, mark next Thursday (Aug. 6) on your calendar. The Bakersfield Museum of Art will host a lecture by Dr. Robert Crewdsen on The Divine Comedy. It runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and is free to members and just $3 for non members. The museum always does a good job with these lectures, so make sure to check it out. For more details check it out here.

Bako bits: With fingers crossed, is the real estate market finally turning? Some believe it is ...

* ... IS THE RECOVERY IN SIGHT? So here's some good news: it appears there is finally - belatedly - some firm signs that the local residential real estate market is beginning to turn. Really. First there was the release of Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index yesterday that showed home prices in most major cities gaining for the first time in three years. (Of course some markets, like Las Vegas and Phoenix in particular remain depressed.) That was good enough news to make the front page today of The Wall Street Journal, which has pointed out repeatedly that there can be no recovery without residential real estate leading the way. So I picked up the phone and called old friend Ray Karpe, president of Karpe Real Estate Center, to take his pulse. It was the first time I had talked to Ray in months that he seemed genuinely upbeat. In his words:

"Houses are going quickly and we're looking at inventory down to a couple months supply," he said. "And it's not just foreclosures but good homes, more expensive homes that are moving too. Look, we're not out of the foreclosure mess; we're going to have more of those. But the good news is you can sell houses now. The interest rates are good and prices have even ticked up a bit." Meanwhile, I heard on CNBC that tomorrow new statistics will be released by RealtyTrac, and that should help confirm if things are getting better. But they warned: there are indications that rising unemployment is leading to a new round of foreclosures that are unrelated to the earlier bad loan foreclosures. So, we'll have to wait and see.

Ray did go on to say that, contrary to single-family residential, everything from "apartments to heavy industrial" property is "in the tank. It's just awful." He said the same is true for folks in the development business or anyone who is holding debt on land. He continued:

"It's the single family stuff that is moving. Look, if you're going to buy a house, do it now. Don't wait. We've hit the bottom and you're going to see prices start rising again."



* ... BC RECYCLING PROGRAM: Got a note from Amber Chiang, marketing csar over at Bakersfield College, about a free e-waste recycling collection set for Aug. 15. You'll be able to take your old computer monitors, laptops, fax machines, toner cartridges, old cell phones and even car batteries and drop them off at the college's southeast stadium parking lot at the corner of Mt. Vernon and University. It will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m..

Economic outlook for California is bleak, but Bakersfield poised to be among the first to recover

In these times we take every nugget of good news, embrace it, rub it like a genie's lamp for good luck and hope more good tidings come tomorrow. So I'm celebrating a report in the Sacramento Bee today (thanks to Ray Karpe of Karpe Real Estate for passing it along) that says while the economic outlook for California remains bleak, Bakersfield will be first major California job market to recover within two years. The story quotes projections from IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, and paints a fairly bleak outlook for the country as a whole. (read the full story here) But hey, we're looking for signs of hope, right? So I'm going to celebrate the fact that - for reasons not explained in the story - only Bakersfield will recover within two years. The rest of California is much farther out. Some excerpts from the story:

"The areas poised for a jobs rebound later this year are: Anchorage, Alaska; Champaign-Urbana, Ill.; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Columbia, Mo.; Laredo, Texas; and the Houma-Bayou Cane- Thibodaux areas of Louisiana.
"Only five areas are expected to see a similar jobs recovery in 2010: Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, San Antonio and the McAllen-Edinburg-Pharr and Austin-Round Rock areas of Texas.
"Most of the country – 286 of 325 metro areas covered in the IHS analysis – aren't likely to regain their pre-recession employment levels until at least 2012.
"Of these areas, 112 probably won't return to their recent peaks until 2014 or later. These include Rust Belt towns such as Cleveland, Dayton and Akron, Ohio; Detroit, Warren and Flint, Mich.; the hurricane-ravaged Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., area; and the greater Los Angeles region, where the housing bubble and high unemployment have strangled the local economy.
"Already hard-hit by the economic downturn, the outlook for California is bleak. IHS Global Insight predicts Bakersfield will be the only California job market to recover within two years. Sacramento won't recover until early 2013; Los Angeles not until sometime after 2014.
"Overall, more than 70 percent of California's workers live in metro areas that won't fully recover until at least 2013, the study found.



Meanwhile, I heard from Watson Touchstone Realtor Mary Christenson today, following up on my earlier post about low appraisals torpedoing house sales across Bakersfield. Mary passed along an email from Charles McMillan, president of the National Association of Realtors, detailing his plans to meet with officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to clear this logjam. Talk to any Realtor in town on you will hear the same gripe: we have willing buyers and sellers, but the banks and appraisers are all under such pressure that appraisals are consistently coming in low, effectively scuttling deals and pushing us farther away from a rebound. Ugh.

Morning report: short takes around town

Cleaning out the cupboard this morning and found some nuggets to share about our community:
* A group of equestrians have formed an organization to lobby for the preservation and improvement of horse trails around town. They're fond of the network of trails along the Kern River near the Panorama bluffs. Check out their advocacy website here.
* Steven Mayer has a wonderful piece on an act of heroism by a Bakersfield soldier in Afghanistan. Read Sgt. Robert Fortner's story here.
* Those college acceptances are arriving and local kids have until May 1 to make up their minds. I'll be compiling a list to celebrate those kids moving on. If you have a name, shoot it to me.
* Media analyst and author of "What Would Google Do?" author Jeff Jarvis takes newspaper publishers to task in a scathing diatribe that has a lot of truth to it. Read his post here.
* Ray and Lisa Karpe of Karpe Real Estate spent yesterday in Fresno at a White House Regional Forum on Health Reform. They were there as directors of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter.
* The Women's and Girls Fund of Kern County will be handing out new grants on April 29 at Seven Oaks Country Club. This is the fifth annual event for this worthy group that promotes women and girls locally. Call 325-5346 by April 22 for infomation to attend.