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?

Memorial Day in Bakersfield, Monsignor Craig Harrison readies for a 10-day fast in an Italian cave, and the end of an era on local television

 * ... MEMORIAL DAY: Did you know Memorial Day was initiated to honor those in the Union and Confederate armies that died during our Civil War? Originally called Decoration Day, it was first

celebrated on May 30, 1868. On this Memorial Day, I took time to remember Harold Swysgood, a young infantryman who died in the battle of Anzio in January 1944. He was 20 years old when he died in Italy. His younger sister back in the tiny hamlet of Saint Marys, Ohio, was my mother.

 * ... FATHER CRAIG: I had a chance to catch up with Monsignor Craig Harrison at a dinner party this weekend, and he shared that he is headed to Italy next month for his annual pilgrimage to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan religious order. This will be Harrison's 44th trip to Assisi, where he spends 10 days alone in a dark cave (no bathroom, no electricity, just a notepad, one candle - it has to last 10 days - and the barest of meals that show up at the cave entrance). "I don't see anybody for 10 days, nobody," he told me. "It's a time of reflection and you find yourself talking to butterflies and birds." Harrison called it a "Franciscan cleanse" and it is something he looks forward to every year. Curiously, I find the whole concept appealing.

* ... END OF AN ERA: When Jackie Parks left KERO TV after 27 years in Bakersfield, it truly seemed to mark and end of an era when local anchors stayed on and embraced this community as their home. Within an hour of her last newscast last Friday, Parks joined fellow former anchors Lisa Kimble Edmonston (KGET, KERO) and Robin Mangarin Scott (KERO, KGET) at the home of former KBAK reporter and marketing director Don Martin to share stores and toast the future. Parks is headed to Maryland to join husband Todd Karli at a local affiliate.

* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Whenever I start to hate my job I think about the camera crew who has to follow the Kardashian’s 24/7."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: Friend at Memorial Day BBQ: I see you wasted no time with the white pants. Me: These are my legs.

 * ...MEMORIES: My friend Susan Reep submitted this tidbit to see if it would spark any memories: "I have lunch quarterly with a group of Hollywood High alums, and one said her family used to stop for ice cream long ago in Bakersfield on their way up the valley. She thinks it was Carnation. Does anyone remember a Carnation ice cream shop or plant? By long ago I mean 60 years or thereabouts."

Robin Mangarin moves to Catholic Healthcare Bakersfield and remembering when German POWs ended up in Lamont during World War II

 * ... MANGARIN TO MEMORIAL: Former KGET anchor Robin Mangarin Scott has joined Mercy and Memorial Hospitals to begin her new career in healthcare and community service. She has been named the Director of Strategic Marketing for the CHW Bakersfield Service Area. Robin has had a long relationship with Memorial through the Children’s Miracle Network. In addition, she has been a longtime supporter of Relay for Life and CBCC, which is now serving Mercy’s patients at the Florence Wheeler Cancer Center. This is a big coup for CHW Bakersfield, given Mangarin's long ties and deep equity in the community.

 * ... RENTALS: One of the upsides of this long real estate slump is the fact that single family homes are cheaper than they have been in a long, long time. And that means investors are gobbling up homes and renting them out, and turning a nice profit doing so. In a recent survey by HomeVestors/Local Market Monitors, Bakersfield ranked No. 5 on a list of best cities to invest in rental homes. Ranked first on the list was Las Vegas, followed by Detroit, Warren, Michigan, Orlando, Bakersfield, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdalae, Rochester, NY, and Stockton.

 * ... INTERNMENT CAMP: Dick Porter is a local potato farmer whose family has owned property near Lamont for many years. It turns out part of the land his father purchased in 1949 was the former site of the Lamont Detention Center, an internment camp for German POWs during World War II. "The internees were pressed into helping grow a crop called Guayule which surrounded the camp," he told me. "Guayule was a source of latex. The sources for latex in Africa and South America had all but dried up and it was a most necessary commodity for the war effort." After the war, the internees were released and the detention center was torn down. "My father built a potato packing facility right on top of the old prison site," Porter said. "For many years our employees would find buried in the soil all kinds of small items left behind by the internees. That packing facility still stands today."  During the war, several hundred thousand Germans were held at camps across the United States, including Lamont and Delano.

 * ... SPOTTED: Singer Sheryl Crow, in town for a concert at the Fox Theater Thursday night, was spotted in the Farmacy coffee bar at The Padre Hotel downtown. Her tour buses were parked outside the Padre. She is just the latest dignitary to stay at the Padre while doing business in Bakersfield. (photo of Crow's tour buses by Don Martin)

 * ... DOWNTOWN GRANTS: Good news for folks interesting in helping revive downtown Bakersfield. The Bakersfield Californian Foundation has identified improving downtown as its focus for its next round of grants. The Foundation will be accepting applications on September 6 from non-profits focused on improving downtown. This would include groups devoted to beautification, theenvironment, historical preservation, public art and public safety. For more information or to contact us directly, please refer to our website: bakersfieldcalifornianfoundation.org

* ... SPORTING CLAYS: If you're looking for a fun way to support the Independence High School swim team you might want to calendar Saturday, August 27. The 2nd annual Sporting Clay fund raiser for the team will be held at the Kern County Gun Club, starting at 8 a.m. Entries before August 14th get a discount price of $75; after that it is $80 per person for a five-person team. Contact Amy Regan at areganranch@aol.com.


 * ... WHO KNEW? The famous Bakersfield welcome signs that promoted "Sun Fun Stay Play" were located on Highway 99. The signs stood 49 feet tall and 60 feet wide and were intended to encourage travelers to stop in Bakersfield and patronize local business. They were torn down in 1983.

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