Bakersfield?? (environment, travel, wages)

[camsgirl]

I've been stuck in Bakersfield for over 20 years now. I first moved here in the '80's and it had a nice small town feel and you could even see the surrounding mountains for 6 months out of the year. People were friendly and the gang activity was mostly in the lower east side of town. Housing was incredibly affordable.

Fast forward to now:

*the town is twice the size it was, people often judge you-especially the growing population of Christian fundamentalists
*the air has gotten increasingly bad-I never had asthma, but in the last 3 years my lungs have gotten increasingly irritated to the point of chronic bronchitis bordering on asthma (childhood incidences of asthma have become ridiculously high)
*the only time the mountains are visible is right after the token occasional rain
*gang activity is being seen all over town and taggers are rampant
*housing prices jumped outrageously a couple of years ago and are beginning to calm down-mostly because nobody could afford to buy anything and people were losing their shirts not being able to make payments
*I did social work for a year with at-risk youth (yes, like the ones going around tagging and in gangs) black suspects are frequently injured during apprehension and often the first to become the "suspect". There's a lot of racism and good ol' boy attitude in law enforcement.
*the division between the have's and have not's in Bakersfield, actually California in general, has grown increasingly wide with little in between. Most are either enjoying the good life or barely scraping by.
*Oh, I almost forgot the heat. It hangs around 105-110 long enough here to make a walk across the parking lot feel like a convection oven. The heat bakes the nasty stuff in the air and it can be stifling. If you run your air conditioning at a comfortable level for more than the bare minimum of hours a day, the bill is huge and that is usually the situation for at least 2 months often stretching to 3.

There are some good points to B-town:

*There is a healthy mix of races in the schools and for the most part the kids seem to respect that (my husband and I both teach). The wealthier neighborhoods, such as the northwest that was mentioned in another post, have their own gang activity-white supremacy gangs/skin heads
*The new neighborhoods in general, are nice and it's hard to beat the beautiful older homes in the Oleander area near the older downtown/civic center.
*It is close to all the before mentioned places and it only takes an hour and a half to two hours to get to some beautiful coastline.
*The high schools are relatively small, around 2,000-2500 students in 9-12 grades, and so there are many of them. That seems to create a tighter community among the students.
*Traffic here, despite what some may say, is negligible compared to the L.A. area. The freeway system seems in a state of flux, but it does the job and it's pretty easy to get from point a to point b.

Really, it depends on what you want in a hometown and what your priorities are. For me, depending on 2 inhalers to get me through the day, and that getting increasingly necessary, it just isn't worth it.

[viraj]

Originally Posted by camsgirl

I've been stuck in Bakersfield for over 20 years now. I first moved here in the '80's and it had a nice small town feel and you could even see the surrounding mountains for 6 months out of the year. People were friendly and the gang activity was mostly in the lower east side of town. Housing was incredibly affordable.

Fast forward to now:

*the town is twice the size it was, people often judge you-especially the growing population of Christian fundamentalists
*the air has gotten increasingly bad-I never had asthma, but in the last 3 years my lungs have gotten increasingly irritated to the point of chronic bronchitis bordering on asthma (childhood incidences of asthma have become ridiculously high)
*the only time the mountains are visible is right after the token occasional rain
*gang activity is being seen all over town and taggers are rampant
*housing prices jumped outrageously a couple of years ago and are beginning to calm down-mostly because nobody could afford to buy anything and people were losing their shirts not being able to make payments
*I did social work for a year with at-risk youth (yes, like the ones going around tagging and in gangs) black suspects are frequently injured during apprehension and often the first to become the "suspect". There's a lot of racism and good ol' boy attitude in law enforcement.
*the division between the have's and have not's in Bakersfield, actually California in general, has grown increasingly wide with little in between. Most are either enjoying the good life or barely scraping by.
*Oh, I almost forgot the heat. It hangs around 105-110 long enough here to make a walk across the parking lot feel like a convection oven. The heat bakes the nasty stuff in the air and it can be stifling. If you run your air conditioning at a comfortable level for more than the bare minimum of hours a day, the bill is huge and that is usually the situation for at least 2 months often stretching to 3.

There are some good points to B-town:

*There is a healthy mix of races in the schools and for the most part the kids seem to respect that (my husband and I both teach). The wealthier neighborhoods, such as the northwest that was mentioned in another post, have their own gang activity-white supremacy gangs/skin heads
*The new neighborhoods in general, are nice and it's hard to beat the beautiful older homes in the Oleander area near the older downtown/civic center.
*It is close to all the before mentioned places and it only takes an hour and a half to two hours to get to some beautiful coastline.
*The high schools are relatively small, around 2,000-2500 students in 9-12 grades, and so there are many of them. That seems to create a tighter community among the students.
*Traffic here, despite what some may say, is negligible compared to the L.A. area. The freeway system seems in a state of flux, but it does the job and it's pretty easy to get from point a to point b.

Really, it depends on what you want in a hometown and what your priorities are. For me, depending on 2 inhalers to get me through the day, and that getting increasingly necessary, it just isn't worth it.

hail bakersfield

[Roaddog]

I've lived in bakersfield for 35 years, never seen a gang or had a problem.

[camsgirl]

I just got this in my email from the Bakersfield Californian (local paper), I am signed up for news alerts:

Bakersfield police Officer Dennis Eddy�s right leg was amputated below the knee because of complications resulting from a gunshot wound on Feb. 9.

Eddy was transferred to a Northern California hospital last week to receive specialized treatment, Police Chief Bill Rector has said. The condition of his leg continued to deteriorate following the shooting, even after several surgeries at Kern Medical Center.

He was shot when Leon Anderson Jr., a high-ranking member of the East Side Crips criminal street gang, ran from police on Feliz Drive and then turned and fired at them. Officers returned fire, killing Anderson.

Of course, this can't be true as we don't have gangs. If you keep to your immediate neighborhood and only shop in the neighborhood stores, never interacting with the rest of the city, the gangs will not appear to exist.

No, there are not the stereotypical large groups of youth prowling all the streets. They keep to their own turf, except when they want to expand that turf. In sections of the once gang-free southwest, there have been drive by shootings. They have been predominantly in the vicinity of West High. I've spoken with kids at that high school and some of their neighborhoods are dangerous for them to walk in, even in the daytime.

Whether we like it or not, gang and drug activity is here and expanding. It just depends on whether we want to admit it or not.

[Roaddog]

Like I said, I haven't seen any gangs, thats not to say there are none, of course there are gangs but then agian I stay away from bad areas, every city has gangs and crime, i haven't been affected in any way from it and i shop all over town, i see groups of kids at the plaza, are they gangs? I don't know, am i scared? not one bit. Policemen see gang members all the time, thats part of their job, it's sad the officer got shot but it doesn't mean anything toward the gang population in bakersfield, people are robbed and asulted everyday here in bakersfield and anywhere else you want to live, it's just part of life.

[Caliguy2007]

I go to Bakersfield often and i've never seen any gangs either and I never felt unsafe.

Originally Posted by Roaddog

Like I said, I haven't seen any gangs, thats not to say there are none, of course there are gangs but then agian I stay away from bad areas, every city has gangs and crime, i haven't been affected in any way from it and i shop all over town, i see groups of kids at the plaza, are they gangs? I don't know, am i scared? not one bit. Policemen see gang members all the time, thats part of their job, it's sad the officer got shot but it doesn't mean anything toward the gang population in bakersfield, people are robbed and asulted everyday here in bakersfield and anywhere else you want to live, it's just part of life.

[grimstuff]

The town that produced the band Korn is enough information for me.

[bioxvirus]

our gangs are just as mean if not worse then L.A only difference is they have more people thus more statistics in killings. But dont kid ur self bakersfield makes meth for alot of citys in cali. we have alot of gangs and alot of tagger crews. in the nicer part of town, but even then the badness is going that way too. personally ive only seen a small part of town that didn't have gang members walkin down the street and thats way out there were all yall are in ur little homes wit the walls surrounding them. and a over by rosedale. im not trying to..say bakersfield is sum uber gang place no not at all if i had to throw a random number out id say there was about 10,000~30,000 druggies/gang/tagers/dealers. out of everyone still thats alot, also we have high rates of crime here more then alot of cali. so we are not avg we are above avg in crime bakersfield is not a "good city" its more of a "good if u are educated/financed city" also the police here are not so good either. ive witnessed three instances where ive seen gang units beat people down after surrendering and interlocking there hands behind ther eheads. i got stopped before searched and they found a knife and a ounce of weed on me and they just took it and left. i just thought id give a little view of what you guys apperantly dont see happening in bakersfield this is not a small time town dont underestimate.

[Roaddog]

Originally Posted by bioxvirus

our gangs are just as mean if not worse then L.A only difference is they have more people thus more statistics in killings. But dont kid ur self bakersfield makes meth for alot of citys in cali. we have alot of gangs and alot of tagger crews. in the nicer part of town, but even then the badness is going that way too. personally ive only seen a small part of town that didn't have gang members walkin down the street and thats way out there were all yall are in ur little homes wit the walls surrounding them. and a over by rosedale. im not trying to..say bakersfield is sum uber gang place no not at all if i had to throw a random number out id say there was about 10,000~30,000 druggies/gang/tagers/dealers. out of everyone still thats alot, also we have high rates of crime here more then alot of cali. so we are not avg we are above avg in crime bakersfield is not a "good city" its more of a "good if u are educated/financed city" also the police here are not so good either. ive witnessed three instances where ive seen gang units beat people down after surrendering and interlocking there hands behind ther eheads. i got stopped before searched and they found a knife and a ounce of weed on me and they just took it and left. i just thought id give a little view of what you guys apperantly dont see happening in bakersfield this is not a small time town dont underestimate.

You paint such a bad picture, why in the world would you live there? I also hear they eat their children

[Caliguy2007]

For anyone who's interested in Bakersfield to please visit the place,because honestly their are quite a few who Over-Exaggerate about the problems in Bakersfield because they either just Hate the place or are just Bored.

Bakersfield does have problems like every other mid-sized city that's experiencing growth,but it's not like Detroit,Compton,Oakland,Etc.