Is the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Board out of control? One businessman thinks it is ...

 * ... AIR BOARD: The backlash against the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District continues. If you recall, the air district came down hard on the annual Thanksgiving Day "Pie Run" because - brace yourself here - the runners had the audacity to have a small bonfire to warm themselves after the run. I am now beginning to hear from others, business people, who share similar stories. Gordon Cantrell, manager of Electrical Motor Works off 21st Street, wrote in with another story that smacks of heavy-handed APCD tactics. "We were recently fined (actually, it was just a request for funds) for 'violations' of our permits to operate. In the so-called violations, it indicated that we used spray cans to paint our motors. In our permits, it indicates that we may use non approved methods of painting only for touch up and repair items. This means small areas that need to be touched. This is exactly what we have done in the past. In the 'violation' there was no proof of any date, no color, no amount sprayed, nothing to indicate that anyone had seen anything at all, just a simple fact that we purchase spray paint was the only evidence submitted.... We are very careful to comply with the laws and rules set forth legally.... It's very difficult to fight the government, but when it comes to the government misusing its authority, I believe we should all stand up together and just say NO." Bonfires and spray cans. In this economy, and at a time when we should be helping small business, this is what the Air District does with its time?

 * ... BRAINPOWER: Bakersfield showed up on another listof dubious distinction the other day, and it's not the kind of publicity we need. According to the Huffington Post, Portfolio ranked 200 cities in terms of "brain power," calculated by earnings and educational achievement. And you guessed it, we made the list of the ten "least brainy" cities in America. Merced topped the list, followed  by McAllen, Tx., Brownsville, Tx., Visalia, Bakersfield, Yakima, Wash., Laredo, Tx., Hickory, N.C., Fort Smith, Ark., and Modesto. Not surprisingly the top five smartest cities in America were all college towns: Boulder, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C., Durham, N.C. and Fort Collins, Co.

 *  CIOPPINO: It was good to hear from Barry Rosenfeld that the we have a date for the Bakersfield West Rotary's 18th annual Cioppino Feed: Saturday, March 26. I attend a lot of fund raisers in town and without a doubt this is my favorite. (The St. Frances Parish School's Crabfest is a close second) Cioppino feed combines an informal night of catching up with your friends while enjoying a hearty meal of clams and cioppino over at Garces High's Leddy Hall. If you haven't been, this is the time to start. Ticket prices will remain at $75 and West Rotary is looking for sponsorships and auction items. For more information call chairperson Angie Paquette at 661-617-3217.

 

* ... MEMORIES: Carl Bryan wrote to remember 1953, the year after the great earthquake. "We lived in a two-story house at 1724 Camino Primavera (near East High), and I turned eight that June (between my second and third grade years at Horace Mann School). Several times that spring and summer my father woke me up in the very early morning hours so that we could sit in what we called the sun room to wait for a big flash in the east. We now know these as the Operation Upshot-Knothole, U.S. Nuclear Tests at the Nevada Proving Ground, and they were apparently well publicized. The other event of that year that I remember very clearly was the first test pattern broadcast on KAFY-TV, which became KBAK-TV soon after. Our family had often visited Uncle Bill and Aunt Sally on Ray Street in Oildale to watch Los Angeles KTLA-TV (the Spade Cooley show, Roller Derby, and wrestling from the Olympic Auditorium) via a huge antenna on a very tall roof tower that blew over several times each year.  I seem to remember that the test pattern included a drawing of the Father Garces Statue."

 * ... INTERNMENT CAMP: Joyce M. Collins dropped me a nice note about a dark green produce stand that stood near the intersection of Golden State Highway and Union Avenue. "It suddenly became empty in 1943 when the couple that ran it were sent to a Japanese internment camp." Anyone recall their names?

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're a Bakersfield old-timer if you "recall the days of very small kitchen ovens when people used to have their turkeys roasted at bakeries like Cottage Bakery across from the old Williams School on Niles Street.

Valley air pollution control police threaten to shut down morning Pie Run fire. Yes, this is no joke

 * ... AIR POLICE: The Thanksgiving morning Pie Run,  an annual event at Hart Park that draws 300 to 400 hearty souls for a cold dawn jog through the hills, went off without a hitch. But for the first time in its long history, it was surrounded by drama. Why? It turns out someone at the Valley Air Pollution Control District read my earlier post about the pie run and became alarmed when they learned it featured a fire to warm to crowd. Next thing you know the arbiters of clean air were tracking down John Rous, the kindly retired insurance manager who has championed the Pie Run for years, and demanding that he give up on the idea of a fire. Rous appealed, arguing it was only a small warming fire that he made sure was extinguished when he left each year. But the District was not having it. Finally, Rous learned that, well, fires could be permitted but only if there was grilling involved, and only then the fire had to be commensurate in size with the amount of meat being cooked. Huh? It's okay to have a fire to grill a burger, but not to warm one's hands? Is this what we've come to? So for the first time ever, the Pie Run featured hot dogs that were grilled and later donated to the Homeless Shelter, along with all the other pies, cookies, muffins and cakes that were  left over. Meanwhile, it's comforting to know that while thousands of trucks spew pollutants into the air as they drive down Interstate 5, the local, taxpayer-supported air Nazis are scouring the newspaper looking for clues that health conscious insurgents like John Rous may be planning a warming fire. (photos below of John Rous and Pie Run participants)

 * ... COLLEGE KIDS: Nice to see so many college students home for the Thanksving holiday. They graduate from high school as slightly nervous "kids" and by the time they have a few semesters under their belts, they've got the college swagger and confidence that only maturity can bring. Among some of the kids back in town this weekend were Andrew Noriega, a freshman at the University of San Diego; Sam Brandon, a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder; sisters Michele Keathley of Fordham University and Kim Keathley of Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego, and Dustin Glentzer, a recent graduate of Pepperdine. 

 * ... WENDY'S RUN: It looks like Wendy Wayne is serious about her willingness to replace Michael  Rubio on the Board of Supervisors. Rubio of course is headed to the State Senate and the governor is expected to appoint someone to fill his remaining years on the Board. Wendy, the former First Five commissioner and local civic activist, is extremely popular locally and has said she would indeed serve if tapped.  And now, a local group is out promoting her candidacy. On Tuesday, at 12:30 p.m. at Mill Creek Park, there will be a "rally" to promote Wendy for the post. Expect to see a number of local heavyweights there supporting her candidacy. Other names that have come up for consideration include Karen Goh, director of the non-profit Garden Pathways, and Pete and Nicole Parra. 

 * ... OVERHEARD: A mother talking about an email from her 20-something son: "He told me he's looking for a woman who is a lady in public and a TSA screener in the bedroom."

 * ... RED MOTORCYCLES: Had a nice chat the other day with Evelyn Johnson, the beloved and long-term secretary for the Rotary Club of Bakersfield, the downtown club that meets every Thursday at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. She remembers when the city police department motorcycles were red, though she can't find anyone else who remembers them. "I don't consider myself an old-timer," she told me, "though I was born in Fellows, not far from here but gone now. I do remember that Bakersfield PD had red motorcycles though I'm the only one who remembers that." Anyone else out there remember that?

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Thanks to regular reader Craig Holland for this one: "You know you are a Bakersfield old-timer if you remember getting your weather forecast on Channel 10 from Marge Stiles and her see-through weather map (in black and white!)"