Bako Bits: hot new art shows highlight Friday downtown, the downtown Rotary Club awards $40,000 in grants and a reader recalls the glory days of the Bakersfield Racquet Club

* … DOWNTOWN: Not sure about you but I plan to spend this Friday downtown for the first First Friday of Spring. Among the attractions, both Uricchio's Trattoria and the Wall Street  Cafe have

new appetizers, The Padre has revamped its menu, Chef's Noodle bar is always a good choice and in my opinion, Muertos has the best burger in town. Over at The Metro Galleries on 19th Street, a new show titled "Echoes and Whispers-Listening to Nature" showcases the creative passion of artist Linda Brown. Ceramic works by Mark Ahlstrand will also be on display.

* … SPELLING: Dave Kettler told me a story that I simply must share. He was in the drive through lane at a downtown eatery recently when he saw a sign in the window saying, 'Thank you for your contentious business.' (Obviously they meant to thank the patrons for 'continuous' business.) When he came to the window, with his tongue planted firmly in cheek, he said 'Your prices are too high, the wait was ridiculous, the food cold and yes, you're welcome!'"

 * … GRANTS: Hats off to the Rotary Club of Bakersfield (the downtown club) whose foundation just awarded more than $40,000 in grants to local non-profit organizations. Among those receiving money were the Boys and Girls Club, Garden Pathways, Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, BARC, Friends of Mercy Foundation, Greater Bakersfield Chamber Vision 2020, Boy Scouts of America, Golden Empire Gleaners, Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

  * … ART: Thursday morning members of the Bakersfield Museum of Art's Blue Ribbon Committee toured the art and sculpture-filled Bakersfield Country Club home of Milt and Betty Younger and were treated to a surprise gift for one of the visiting members. At the end of the tour, Betty surprised them by giving a framed watercolor she painted in 1965 of the Oleander home of W.B. Camp home to committee member Karrie Kirschenmann Camp, who is married to W.B.'s grandson, Clayton. Betty recalled sitting on the curb when she painted it almost 50 years ago. She said she had entered it in the Kern County fair and took first place.

* … MEMORIES: This memory courtesy of reader Michael Perry: "The recent USTA tennis matches at Bakersfield Racquet Club reminded me that my grandfather, Earl Cook, one of the founding members of BRC, once hosted the Ozzie and Harriet Nelson family (including David and Ricky) at his home on Baldwin Road during a tennis tournament at BRC in the early 1950's. Ozzie and Harriet were a tennis family before they were the perfect TV family. Lake and Edith Lovelace often joined Earl and Eva ['Feathers' and 'Mimi' Cook for a spirited game of bridge on Baldwin. Lake, the real founder of the Bakersfield Racquet Club, allowed me to take my first swimming lessons there even though I was way too short. (He proved it by measuring the depth of the pool with his cane and showing me even the shallow end was over my head!) My teacher was Tommy Gallon. I kid you not! "

Bako Bits: Death by a thousand cuts in a terrible economy, and a tribute to the warriors from the 'Greatest Generation'

* ... GLASS HALF FULL: It takes the heart of an optimist to see blue sky in the midst of this recession, with its daily drumbeat of bad news across virtually all sectors of the economy. Continuing job losses, rising foreclosures and the specter of a double-dip recession are not exactly a recipe for optimism, even if the DOW did rally and settle above 10,000. But that's just me, which is why I admire those folks who always seems to see blue skies in the middle of a thunderstorm. One of those is Wayne Kress, principal at CB Richard Ellis here in Bakersfield, who has started a blog about industrial real estate that is worth a read. (check it out here) Wayne is a graduate of Cal Berkeley, married to longtime residential Realtor Leslie Walters, and one of the more knowledgeable folks when it comes to commercial real estate. Naturally optimistic, he thinks we're cycling out of this doomsday cycle and will emerge just fine. And speaking of optimism, I ran into Shai Gordon, formerly one of the owners of the popular bar and restaurant Cafe Med over off Stockdale Highway, who is also working in the commercial sector. Shai left Cafe Med about four years ago and now works for Western Realty Advisors. After catching up on things he advised me to "be more optimistic." I'll try. Promise.

 * ... LIVING WITH PAY CUTS: I was thinking about the budget difficulties over at Cal State Bakersfield while reading a story in the New York Times about how pay cuts have become so much a part of the economic landscape. The story (read the full report here) follows the emotional roller coaster of an ExpressJet pilot who took a 50 percent pay cut but is thankful to still have work. Many companies  locally, including The Californian, have instituted across-the-board pay cuts to deal with the lingering effects of the recession. And of course we have the county furloughs and other cutbacks that have simply become a way of life. These kinds of moves were unthinkable a few years ago, but then who expected to see an economy like we are dealing with today? An excerpt from The Times story:

 " In recent decades, layoffs were the standard procedure for shrinking labor costs. Reducing the wages of those who remained on the job was considered demoralizing and risky: the best workers would jump to another employer. But now pay cuts, sometimes the result of downgrades in rank or shortened workweeks, are occurring more frequently than at any time since the Great Depression."

 * ... FINDING WAYS TO SAVE: If there's a common theme these days, it's that we are all finding ways to cut back: canceling vacations, putting off major purchases and keeping our cars longer. Every penny counts, and I am amazed at how we are all dealing with it in different ways. I was saddened to hear that Riley Parker, a private investigator and owner of Parker and Associates, dropped his membership in the downtown  Rotary Club as one way to save a few bucks. Riley has taken on some significant investigative projects out of town, and continuing Rotary was simply not practical. In addition, his wife Jane fractured her elbow in a nasty fall and the recovery means Riley had to hire an employee to replace her-an unbudgeted expense that just made things worse. Keep Jane in your thoughts as she recovers from the spill.. On another topic Riley passed on this email that I wanted to share. It speaks for itself:

"Some time ago you folks ran a great little story on a retired Marine aviator named Don 'Slim' Harris. Slim is one of my neighbors and one of the most delightful gentlemen that I have ever known. I knew that his poker group of retired Marines, all having served from WWII through Vietnam, were coming today for a quick game. Most of them retired from the old Marine Air Station El Toro or Camp Pendleton and still live in Orange County. There were 10 of these old timers seated at the table ... their lowest rank at retirement was Lt. Colonel and a couple of them were as high as two-star general.... all part of that 'greatest generation' and I left with a sense that I had just been a part of something so special and honorable that it is difficult for the rest of us to understand."

. * ... BUSINESS EXPO 2009: Don't forget about the 19th annual Bakersfield Business Expo set for Tuesday, October 27, over at the Rabobank Convention Center. Admission is $5 and it runs from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. This is a Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce sponsored event and always a good place to network and find ways to grow your business. Need tickets? Call the Chamber at 661-327-4421.

Short takes around town: McCarthy's healthcare town hall meeting will be huge; Wendy Wayne's recovery and more economic storm warnings

Lots happening around town and more warnings that we have a long way to go before we can dig out of this hole. Here we go:

* ... HEALTHCARE REFORM: Spent lunch at downtown Rotary listening to Rep. Kevin McCarthy's take on the nation's political pulse and the battle over health care. Kevin said his upcoming town hall meeting on health care reform, set for Wednesday Aug. 26, has proved so popular he has been forced to move it a second time. It will now be held at the Icardo Center over at Cal State Bakersfield to accommodate an ever growing crowd. "We went from 300 confirmed to 800 overnight," he said. Kevin is dead set against the Obama legislation, but given the conservative temper of our community, it promises to be a lively forum nonetheless. Kevin always gets a warm reception at downtown Rotary, where he is a member and the membership consists of prominent business owners across town. It's a friendly audience and his message that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is crafting the reform legislation without input from either the White House or opposition was well received. Rotary president Duane Keathley, a partner with CB Richard Ellis, got a laugh when he presented Kevin with a special gift: a doctored picture of Duane and Speaker Pelosi for Kevin's desk.

* ... WENDY WAYNE AND A NIGHT OF MARGARITAS: The same Rotary club held its summer social Wednesday night at the home of Lou and Sheryl Barbich up in the Bakersfield County Club area. Lou and Sheryl are always terrific hosts but clearly one of the highlights of the evening was seeing Wendy Wayne, the former First Five Commission director who has been battling non Hodgkins lymphoma. (read previous post here) Wendy just underwent the grueling stem cell procedure and said the followup tests have all been positive. Though professing to some fatigue, particularly later in the day, she looked fabulous and seemed like her old self. Among the others attending were potato farmer Dick Porter and wife Becky, Castle and Cooke President Bruce Freeman, CASA director Coleen McGauley, the aforementioned Duane Keathley and wife Corey, H. Walker's Men's Store owner Tracy Walker-Kiser and husband Brian, Patti Houchin, AGM Radio Group president Rogers Brandon and wife Esther, Memorial Hospital CEO Jon Van Boening and wife Phillis, Uniglobe Travel owner Ray Watson, Northwestern Mutual's Paul Sheldon and wife Nesi and Steve and Pat Loyd of Loyd's Aviation.. The picture features Rotary president Duane Keathley and past presidents Dick Porter, Rogers Brandon and Richard Beene surrounding longtime Rotary secretary Evelyn Johnson.




* ... COMMERCIAL LOAN COLLAPSE: I've been warning about the next shoe to drop: commercial real estate and loans. Lots of evidence that things are tough and could get tougher, Moody’s predicts the default rate on corporate loans could rise from 2.4 percent last year to 12.8 percent by the end of this year – the highest level on record. Moody's says that isn’t surprising when you consider companies need to roll over $1.4 trillion in high yield bonds and loans in coming years, with more than half coming due in the next five years. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, is warning investors that the chances for a “double dip” recession remain significant.

* ... MORE HOUSING WOES: A study by the National Association of Realtors finds that 82 percent of people don’t have enough money for a down payment and 80 percent are waiting for the job market to stabilize before buying a home.