Considering Bakersfield? A visitor's 3 month summary (San Francisco, Fresno: high crime, house, buy)

[mandom]

I relocated to Bakersfield 3 months ago from San Francisco and wanted to give an honest opinion about this city for others who are contemplating the same thing. I know there are a few backers of Bakersfield on this forum who have helped me out, so I will try to do this without stepping on too many toes. Keep in mind, this is only 1 person’s opinion.

Weather: People were not lying—this place is hot. Not the humid heat that you get in Texas or Asia during the summers, but a dry heat. I believe most days when I got here in July were in the 100s, a few 110s. Coming from SF, where 80 degrees was considered very hot, I was miserable. Mornings ran in the 80s and I had to run my car’s A/C driving to work. Of course, getting off from work, I had a 110+ degree car interior to greet me. Even at full blast, my A/C could barely cool down my car fast enough as I drove home in the suffocating sun. Repeat this scenario all through July, August, and September. Our electricity bill ran around $500 these months, cooling a 3,000 sq ft house to 78. Inefficient. Now it’s October and with highs in the low 80s, it is finally tolerable.

Air quality: Unhealthy. I didn’t say that—accuweather.com did. “85 with haze”, said weather.com one day. That pretty much sums up the air quality here. People believe that because of Bakersfield’s central valley location, it collects all the pollution from the Bay Area and LA. Not true, according to a study. Bakersfield’s own pollution from factories/oil refineries/traffic actually contributes more to the poor air quality than does the pollution from the north and south. What does this all mean? I stay indoors as much as possible. Wait, I’m already indoors trying to get away from the summer heat. On some days during the summer, I would drive home to a brilliant setting sun drenched in brown, sooty air. It was as if I were putting on a pair of brown sunglasses—everything around me, including people, appeared to give off a bronze hue. I found it very disgusting and just ran into my house to hide.

Streets and traffic: “Not that bad” people said. I was told that “the traffic in Bakersfield will be better than what you experienced in SF and LA.” LA? Yes, to an extent. SF? Not from my experience. Bakersfield’s streets are poorly designed and inefficient. The biggest problem: The major east-west arterial roads (Rosedale, Stockdale, Olive) are 2 lane roads in either direction, which renders the 55mph speed limit useless. At some points, the road widens to 3 lanes. Today, there was construction on the 99/Olive off-ramp, effectively cutting off 50% of the lanes. Traffic was backed up at least a mile. “Only in LA!” Yeah, right. Secondly, the city is so spread out that getting anywhere is again, inefficient. Just getting from my house to the 99 freeway (4 miles), I pass 2 stop signs and 7 traffic lights. It’s a complete waste of time and gas to constantly having to go from 0 to 60mph then 60 to 0mph, 10+ times on a single commute. At least the equivalent streets in SF are 4-5 lanes wide and shutting down one won’t cripple the entire street. Moreover, SF is walkable if you decide not to drive; you don’t have that choice in Bakersfield. Your experience may vary; people here don’t seem to mind driving their behemoth tanks around.

Transportation: The only way to get around is by car in this city unless you live downtown, in which case you could take the bus and waste hours of end. Flying? Forget it. Know how everybody talks about “1 hour to the mountains, 2 hours to LA, 5 hours to SF…”? That’s cause it will cost you 2 arms and a leg to fly out of here through Meadows Field Airport. 3 month advance purchase ticket from BFL to SFO? $520. BFL to LAX: $300. BFL to Denver: $420. Like I said, you’re better off driving. There’s only 1 international airline that flies nonstop out of BFL, and it’s to Mexico. They really should rename their “International Terminal” to “Mexican Terminal.” If you’re in no rush, Amtrak comes through this city.

Crime: I have a 1998 Acura and in its 8 years being driven around the Bay Area, not once did anybody try to steal it or anything off of it. After 3 months here, I had my emblems stolen off the back of my car, during the day. Granted, my car was parked at the county hospital here (on the east side of town). But I’ve parked my car at SF’s county hospital (also in a high crime area) multiple times at NIGHT and never once had anything happen to it. “Small city with big city problems,” was what I read once about Bakersfield’s crime and I agree.

Food/Culture/Recreation: I did my homework and read the restaurant recommendations from the local paper (Map Index > Pete Tittl's Restaurant Picks | Bakersfield.com - Kern County news, events, shopping & search (http://www.bakersfield.com/restaurantmap/ - broken link)). Still, I can count the number of edible Chinese restaurants on 1 hand. Same with the number of Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants. Bakersfield boasts 1 Korean restaurant and even fewer Japanese restaurants with edible or fresh fish. There are a few good ones: Dewar’s for ice cream, Mama Tosca’s for Italian, 24th Street Café for breakfast, KC Steakhouse, Café Med, and Luigi’s (notice the diversity). I haven’t tried Basque food, which is supposed to be one of Bakersfield’s claim to fame. Otherwise, there isn’t much culture going on here if you aren’t white or Latino or listen to country music or drive 10 foot tall trucks. A couple of my colleagues went the Bakersfield Museum of Art and were very underwhelmed. Same with Lake Isabella (“The name sounds better than the actual lake,” another one of my colleagues told me). I know I’m generalizing and missing some of the outdoor activities like rafting on Kern River, etc. If you’re into that, by all means come and see for yourself. Sure there are people of all nationalities here, but white people still outnumber them greatly. I’ve looked hard, but I just don’t see the culture and diversity that Bakersfield’s proponents on this forum claim.

Miscellaneous: Recycling bins costs extra and are an option from the waste disposal company. The Costco’s here do not take your food court order at the line so you have to wait in line twice if you want to shop and buy food. Cal State Bakersfield has the nicest library in town—very spacious with wireless internet access and with an impressive collection of books. Bolthouse is based here in Bakersfield and has some of the best vegetables and fruit/vegetable smoothie/drinks, but it’s nothing I couldn’t get from LA or SF. People are nice here, but you can find nice people in the Bay Area and LA too.

Overall, I think people are accurate in stating that Bakersfield is an affordable place to live. The caveat is that, as in life, you get what you pay for. The climate, air quality, traffic, food choices, and overall efficiency are not to my liking. Colleagues in my line of work have said that there is potential to earn 3, 4, even 5x the income in Bakersfield compared to SF or LA. As of now, I would not do it. The trade-off in quality of life is simply not worth it to me. I have 7 more months before I can leave Bakersfield and I am counting the days. It has been a real lesson so far, but I hope I don’t leave with the bad impression that I have now as I am not a negative person by nature.

I will update this periodically.

[Californiaguy2007]

Hi Mandom....Bakersfield is not for everyone,so I understand your feelings on this City.

I found nothing Offensive about your post

[awsmom]

If you are considering Bakersfield, look up Bear Valley Springs or Tehachapi, CA, about 40-60min from Bakersfield

[katie45]

Mandom: why did you choose Bakersfield as a place to live?

Your posting is very informative and very accurate! Just curious why you moved there in the first place. And what keeps you there.

[18Montclair]

Interesting perspective.

That sort of place isnt for everyone-others Im sure just love it.

[viraj]

I relocated to Bakersfield a month back; noone compared Bakersfield to LA or SF, of course those r bigger greater cities! however I still feel Bakersfield is green and pretty overall, with lots of quiet posh areas; may not be a place u want to live all ur life, but I still like this place a lot!!

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by mandom

Colleagues in my line of work have said that there is potential to earn 3, 4, even 5x the income in Bakersfield compared to SF or LA. As of now, I would not do it. The trade-off in quality of life is simply not worth it to me. I have 7 more months before I can leave Bakersfield and I am counting the days. It has been a real lesson so far, but I hope I don’t leave with the bad impression that I have now as I am not a negative person by nature.

It was very interesting reading your post. After living in OC we took a long hard look at Bakersfield four years ago and ended up moving to the High Desert instead. Mostly because the housing boom was starting to hit Bakersfield and people kept raising prices on us after we would put in a bid on the house. The whole point of moving inland was to save money and High Desert prices hadn't jumped much yet (although they did shortly thereafter) so, we walked away from Bakersfield mostly for that reason.

But what you say pretty much applies to all of the inland areas. Although there are a few variations ... for instance, air quality isn't as much of an issue out in the desert but then, people complain about the wind so ... pick your poison, so to speak.

In many ways, you do get what you pay for but, as you pointed out ... there's a lot of money to be made out here.

Financially, we are doing great ... we're finally getting ahead, are living very comfortably and are now on track with our retirement plans. We're in our '40s and tend to be homebodies so ... a lot of the stuff that other people care about (lack of things to do, restaurants, clubs etc.) doesn't bother us much.

So thanks for you post ... I think you summed up the trade offs of living in the inland areas very well. As always, it really depends on what people want. For us the bottom line was the bottom line .... money ... because financial security and retirement is really important to us. And, of course, making more money tends to improve our quality of life in other ways.

[Californiaguy2007]

I'm one of those that love it

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Interesting perspective.

That sort of place isnt for everyone-others Im sure just love it.

[Californiaguy2007]

Bakersfield is surprisingly green,despite having a lower annual rainfall than Phoenix.

Their are lots of Nice Areas in Bakersfield,and because of Bakersfield's Proximity to L.A,this City is just going to get Bigger.

Originally Posted by viraj

I relocated to Bakersfield a month back; noone compared Bakersfield to LA or SF, of course those r bigger greater cities! however I still feel Bakersfield is green and pretty overall, with lots of quiet posh areas; may not be a place u want to live all ur life, but I still like this place a lot!!

[getnrdy]

We moved to Bakersfield from Nebraska in August. So, I have had time to develop some outsider opinions of the area as well.

I have to agree with many of your comments. However, I have not experienced the traffic problems some talk about here. My work area runs from Tahachapi to Fresno to San Louis Obispo to Ventura and to Bakersfield. I am always on the road. Of course the coast is much nicer than this area, but the cost of living there is prohibitive. I have driven enough in Fresno to decide that I am glad we did not relocate there. I have only been in one traffic jamb here.

So far we have found Bakersfield to be pleasant. Yes, the air is bad. Yes, the smell is sometimes bad. Yes, the Crime is up. And the California drivers are just crazy. But every City that I have ever lived in has good points and bad points.

We are slowly aclimating ourselves to Bakersfield. Banks are different. Gas stations are different. ATM's are different (almost non-existant). And traffic flow is different. I have never been in a place that requires as many U-Turns as Bakersfield. There is no freeway system around Bakersfield.

But, we live a simple life. Bakersfield has all of the services that we need. There is plenty of green here. I bike and there are lots of bike lanes.

The politics here are just as screwed up as everywhere else.

I figure in about one year, we will be settled in and be almost native. There are lots of things here that I don't like, but lots of things I do.

Parker