Dealing with an invasion of dragonflies, the homeless and plunging home sales

* ... DRAGON FLIES: Gretchen Knaggs shot me an email wondering what is going on with all the dragonflies on the west side of town. "I'm not sure if it is just in our part of town (out near Brimhall and Old Farm roads) but it is really something else. There were close to 15 in our front yard the other evening!" Gretchen ended with her own memory of east Bakersfield. "You know you're an old school east sider if remember Plahn's Bakery on Niles near Mount Vernon. That's a throwback to my grandparents Eric and Agnes Plahn."

 * ... HOMELESS: A local therapist took issue with my earlier post citing "one of the nuttier" areas of our community populated by the homeless and recently released parolees. Wrote Ethel C. Katz: "The 'homeless denizens' and 'scary looking parolees" are often suffering from chronic illnesses. They do not chose to live on the streets but without the necessary medication are relegated to them or to jails ... Most of this population do not have middle class homes to go to nor do they have incomes to purchase medication which would quiet their 'animated conversations with invisible partners.' A bit of sensitivity would go a long way to helping this under-served population." Sorry if I sounded insensitive, and I understand the issues, but it nevertheless is a nutty scene.

 * ... HOME SALES: Hard to be optimistic after hearing that home sales dropped 27.2 percent in July in another signal that this recession has a lot of life left in it. Regionally, the west dropped 25 percent and across the country, homes in the distressed category accounted for more than a third of all sales. This is not good news folks. It's easy to underestimate how important steady growth and a healthy real estate market are to our local economy, but the consumer is wary and lacking confidence. On the plus side, it is a great time to be in the market: mortgage rates are near historic lows and there is a lot of property to choose from. But consumers remain skittish, banks have raised their lending standards and many folks are just sitting on the  sidelines until this mess gets better.

 * ... UCSB: Local attorney Harley Pinson and his wife Cindy will be hosting a reception for all the young people heading to UC Santa Barbara. The Pinsons, both Gaucho grads, will host the incoming freshmen, their parents and local UCSB alumni on Sunday, September 12 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Meetings like this allow the kids to exchange contact information for car pooling and are great opportunities for the parents to learn more about the school. If interested, call Harley at (661) 599-5584.

 * ... OLD EATERIES: Local farmer Dick Porter shot me a message recalling a restaurant that his parents took him to in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Called "Mr. and Mrs." it was located on the west side of Chester Avenue a few blocks south of California. "Their specialty was pan fried steaks, not breaded, just steaks fried in pans. I can still smell the absolutely fabulous aromas coming from the frying pans just across a stool counter. I can remember the floors were black and white linoleum tile and there were pictures of movie stars on the wall. Just fantastic food!"
 
  * ... SPOTTED: From reader Sue Allred: "Observed in the dress department at a Valley Plaza department store on Memorial Day afternoon. A young man said to a woman: 'If you choose a dress in the next 15 minutes I will pay for it.'" And Sue added: "You know you're from Bakersfield if on your summer walks you know what 'follow the shade' means. It can lead to some great new paths."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're a Bakersfield  old timer if "you remember what was on the northeast corner of 19th Street and Union Avenue before Stan's Drive-in. (the old street car barn)

Local housing market struggles to get back on its feet, while one local school serves up some healthy eating

* ... LOCAL HOUSING: I heard from a few local Realtors after I posted an update on the local housing market. My own personal Realtor of choice is the hard-working Mary Christenson of Watson-Touchstone (pictured). She reported good buyer activity and reduced inventory, especially in homes under $400,000. She also noted the first time tax buyer credit ends April 30th and "buyers need to get offers accepted now in order to close by that date. I've had very good closing activity for sales generated in December during the last five weeks-by the end of February I will have closed a full 50 percent of my entire sales volume for last year!" Meanwhile, fellow Watson Realtor Katy Glentzer took me to task for citing the online real estate sales website Zillow in reporting slow sales in other markets. "We are not singing the housing Blues in Bakersfield," she said. "For the past several months our prices have increased. Yes, inventory is down, thanks to the banks wising up. Is there anything wrong with supply and demand? They are releasing foreclosures at a slower pace and actually helping owners through the short sale process."  We'll keep an eye on the local market and my thanks to Mary and Katy for their input.


 * ... HEALTHY EATING: I received an interesting email from local writer Teresa Adamo about a new after school day-care snack at the Downtown School. Each child receives a bowl holding different fruit, all cut into chunks. The kids are each given a plastic glove to gather their chunks of choice, and a skewer for the creation of their fruit kabob. Said Teresa: "As you can imagine, it was a huge hit! I saw happy kids making second kabobs because they enjoyed the process so much, not to mention the ingredients! The fruit choices included: oranges, bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew melon and kiwi. Of course, from a Mom's perspective, I saw the healthy value in this interactive snacking. With the alarming rates of childhood obesity -- not to mention the unknown, long-term affects & impact on health care -- this scene was at least a little reassuring." Someone from that school is thinking.

 * ... GAUCHO WORLD: I heard from two University of California at Santa Barbara graduates who wanted to give their alma mater a shout-out. Marciano Flores, activity director of the AVID program at East Bakersfield High School, wrote to say he was both a proud Gaucho and an East High Blade. Also weighing in was old friend and Gaucho grad Laura Wolfe, who is now working with the Arts Council of Kern after many years in development at Cal State Bakersfield.

* ... CAR CLUB DONATION: Hats off to the Bakersfield Car Club and its annual Super Cruise show that was held at the Kern County Fairgrounds. Club member Roy Romagno told me the club raised more than $10,000 to benefit the the Society for Disabled Children of Kern County. Always nice to see local folks pitching it to help others during a difficult year.

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Reader Bobbie Hulson offered this one. "You know you are from Bakersfield when even old people pick their parking spaces by how much shade there is, rather than how close they are to the door." And add this one: "Someone from out of town talks about how foggy it is and you tell them, 'just wait!'"