Radio producer J.R. Flores gives his take on Kern County's drug crisis, it goes viral and the public anger reaches a boiling point

 J.R. Flores, producer of both The Richard Beene Show and The Ralph Bailey Show on KERN NewsTalk 96.1 FM, had planned to give this three-minute speech before the Bakersfield City Council during the public comment session at this week's council meeting. But that never happened because Mayor Karen Goh limited all speakers to just two minutes instead of the allocated three minutes. Here is your chance to read the Flores' take in its entirety. 

"Good evening Madam Mayor, members of the council. My name is J.R. Flores, program director for Kern Radio and producer of The Richard Beene Show and The Ralph Bailey Show. I wanted to address you this evening regarding the epidemic happening in our city, and I do mean epidemic.
 "This isn’t a homeless issue, this isn’t a housing crisis. This is a drug epidemic, this is a mental

health crisis, and if we are not careful a public hazardous health warning.
"With the human waste that plagues our downtown business alley and doorways, to the drug paraphernalia left in the playgrounds where my kids used to play. I understand the laws that come out of Sacramento, AB109 and Props 47 and 57. But I refuse, my neighbors refuse, my community refuses, the citizens of this city refuse to continue to hear 'Our hands are tied.' OUR CITY IS UNDER SIEGE, IT IS NOT SAFE!
 "A BHS teacher told us that he no longer lets his daughter put gas downtown, a neighborhood he grew up in. Yesterday my fiancé was told by a vagrant/street criminal at our neighborhood gas station 'Hey baby why don’t you just take me home with you?' How long till one of them, if not already, start sexually assaulting woman?  Just this morning as she dropped off my son at William Penn

Elementary, as many other parents dropped off their kids or while they walked to school, a drug induced or mentally deranged man had defecated on himself, buttocks exposed wandering about just outside the gates.
 "Our kids can’t go to school without being exposed to this? They definitely can’t play in the parks, as they’ve been overrun by drug addicts and mentally unstable individuals. AND YES DRUG ADDICTS AND MENTALLY UNSTABLE, NOT HOMELESS PEOPLE. Do they happen to live on the streets? Yes they do. But these are not the families visiting Louis Gill at the homeless shelter, that guy at the gas station isn’t visiting Carlos at the Mission, the man this morning isn’t the guy visiting Kern Behavioral Health.
 "I applaud the effort of those individuals working those places, on the front lines of the real homeless crisis. This, what we are dealing with, is not a homeless crisis. You want to give them low barrier shelters. I applaud the county for their leadership and moving forward with their site, even if I don’t believe that will solve this problem.

 "Providing drug addicts a safe haven is only enabling the problem. That is no better than the mom that lets her son get high down the hall rather than on the streets. These people will continue to plague or neighborhoods and break in to our cars, our homes and our businesses, harassing the law abiding taxpaying citizens of the city. I hope, I pray that the people that do occupy those beds are going to get the true help they need. We talk about wrap around services and setting these people up with the help they need. But the services are already there and these people aren’t taking advantage of them now, what leads you to believe they will once given a place they don’t have to conform to enter.  "Our sheriff has 600 beds… How about beds in a intervention clinic or at a mental health place? So when given the option those beds or Lerdo they have to take responsibility for their place in life. I hear the cries for compassion, but allowing these people to do drugs and wander aimlessly un-medicated is not compassion.
 "Hiring 100 cops that cannot or will not enforce laws is not going to solve the problem. All of this going on while a priority tonight is spending $390,000 of measure N money on staging lights inside of Rabobank. While we worry about Soccer parks and softball fields. While adopting a new brand and slogan. “Bakersfield, The sound of something better.”  How about we actually make it better and not just sound better. Thank you!

Kern County prepares to unveil a new branding campaign, the county moves forward with a low barrier shelter for the homeless and a beautiful new mural graces downtown

Monday, September 9, 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 community such a special place. Send news items to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... STREET CRISIS: You have to applaud the county and the Board of Supervisors for moving swiftly to confront our drug and vagrancy crisis on our streets. The county will vote this week on

erecting a temporary low-barrier shelter near Golden State and O Street on a 5-acre vacant lot owned by the county. This is a credit to county chief administrative officer Ryan Alsop and the entire board for moving with urgency. Meanwhile, we await as the city decides where it will put its shelter. Ironically, the earlier site for the city shelter was just a block away from where the county is going, and it would be wise for the city council to reconsider this spot and move with all due speed.

 * ... DRUG CRISIS: Despite all this, we have to be careful to rein in our expectations. These "low barrier" shelters are designed for the true homelesss. Our crisis here is a drug crisis disguised as a homeless crisis. Iy is doubtful that the addicts, vagrants, crazies and criminals who walk our streets causing mayhem will avail themselves to these shelters. That is going to take a different kind of enforcement involving the police. Speaking of addicts, a friend took this picture of a vagrant in a lingerie dress near Rosedale and Calloway. And so it goes.

 * ... BRANDING: Meanwhile the county and the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce will unveil a new branding campaign for the county Monday during a press conference at the historic Padre Hotel. Presumably this will replaced the dated "Life As It Should Be" campaign. Attending will be Mayor Karen Goh, Supervisor David Couch, Chamber president Nick Ortiz and other city and county elected officials. I will be moderating a panel at 3:30 p.m. in the Belvedere Room at the Padre.

 * ... MURAL: Hats off to local artist Jennifer Williams Cordova who added a little class and style to our downtown when she painted this mural near a local restaurant.

 * ... NO HANDOUTS: Check out this poster the city is using to advise people not to give money to street beggars.

 * ... MEMORIES: Now here is a trip down memory lane. Apparently this is a picture of the building that stood where the Silver Fox now stands. The caption: "This building at 700 18th in New China Town 1932 is the current location of the Silver Fox. Things have changed a little. :-)"