Enter Bakersfield - a locale that's a far cry from its Bay Area brethren - and better known for its heat and pollution.
It's comprised mostly of cows and open farmland - and now, real estate data shows, thousands of coastal Californians.
-Michael
*****
Bakersfield? Fucking Bakersfield?
I've been to Bakersfield only a few times but the one thing that always stood out to me was how fucking dusty it was there, and this is coming from somebody that lived on farmland surrounded by even more farmland. It was so dusty in Bakersfield that the first time I went there, I left my truck for 2 hours and when I returned, there was a layer of dust on it that was so thick I could've written my name on the hood.
Bakersfield has a ton of homeless. Absolute trash.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia city? Thats an armpit
Kenny, one of Jeff Coopers early instructors, Mike Waidelich, implemented a training program when he was the Rangemaster at Bakersfield PD. They had a 95% hit rate. Some LA cops met him and when he told them where he worked, they said, oh that's where our bank robbers go to get killed. He had a very useful 10 shot drill/qualification. Here is a nice writeup about it. https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/requiem-for-an-unsung-hero
ReplyDeleteLove that course of fire! Shot for the 1st time back in 1986 at Gunsite.
DeleteMy Grandmother, who was born in Hanford in 1898, used to say "Don't get off the highway in Bakersfield or Stockton. Nothing in either place but bedevilment". Worst air quality in the state.
ReplyDeleteHaving been to Bakersfield on a regular basis -- and having been to Trona on a regular basis, Trona beats Bakersfield for the title of "worst air quality in the state". At one point, in order to purchase a house in Trona, you had to sign an acknowledgement that you knew the place was polluted and unhealthy. If your house caught fire, the volunteer fire department would ask if you had insurance. If you did, they'd let your place burn (while trying to keep the fire from spreading to the neighbors).
DeleteBeing an armpit would have been a step up for Trona. That said, the good people of Trona look down their collective noses at Argus.
In all fairness, I've met some great people that live in Trona. I would never want to live there. I wouldn't want to spend the night there. Trona is best seen in the rearview mirror.
How dare Bakersfield culturally appropriate the nickname "The Armpit of California" from Stockton.
ReplyDeleteStinkin' Lincoln, class of 64.
DeleteI strongly suspect that some editor gave a cub reporter this assignment because no one would have thought of this angle before--for good reason.
ReplyDeleteB-field stole the armpit title from Fresno!
DeleteBakersfield was a splendid garden of Eden back a hundred years ago and only became really dusty because Tom Joad and his Okie low life pals brought the parched soil with them when they migrated in the early 1930s to California.
ReplyDeleteFuck you. Both sides of my grandparents were part of that 'low life' crowd.
DeleteMy 4 grandparents were low life Micks escaping the potato famine when they hit Ellis Island, Ken, so, in addition to hating Commies we got something in common. :)
DeleteYours is a better story. Mine were probably running from the law.
DeleteHaving never wanted to live in either state, my history of them is woefully lacking.
DeleteIt was my understanding though that the Okies who migrated didn't want to live close to the pseudo Texans around LA, men with names like Jose, Juan and Pablo, so they settled further north on the east side of the bay which is why that town is called Okieland.
According to Lou Gossett, in An Officer and a Gentleman, the only thing to come out of Oklahoma were steers and queers. Did a bunch of them also repopulate San Franfreakshow?
Fleas will jump off of a dead corpse and find fresh blood elsewhere
ReplyDeleteEverything is relative. One of the things that Bakersfield has going for it is the schools have excellent facilities. The oil companies invested in the schools as a means of attracting skilled labor to the area. Some of the competition swimming pools at the high schools rival college facilities. IIRC, one of the junior high schools hosts the regional basketball tournament.
ReplyDeleteOf course, most of the oil is starting to be tapped out -- and California has been waging a war against oil for a few decades now.
The sheriff of Kern County (Bakersfield is in Kern County) is Donny Youngblood. Youngblood challenged the sheriffs of Riverside County and San Bernardino to see who could write the most conceal carry permits. Despite Kern County being significantly smaller in population than either Riverside or San Bernardino, Youngblood wins those competitions.
I wouldn't want to live in Bakersfield, but there are worse places in California.
Like Stockton.
DeleteDon't forget the Bakersfield sound. All hail Buck Owens.
DeleteAnyway, the inhabitants of the big cities have been fleeing to smaller towns for decades.
They move in droves. They've infected amiable areas once wholesome and pleasant now become rancid of an ever present aggressive rancor.
LA and SF are breeding grounds of the decrepit.
I’ve been listening to Buck Owens all week.
DeleteBelieve it or not, Bakersfield was once the SEAT of Country & Western music!
ReplyDelete"Was"
DeleteLived here for 73 years. Honestly, it's no paradise but it's clear most here think it's worse than it is. Too big now, ninth largest city. Too hot but I can get to the coast in 2 hours or the mountains in less than 1. Fact is these fools moving are only doing it because they can afford it. Sell the LA tract house for 800k and come here and byt a micer one for half that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, like Fresno, Bakerpatch's claim is it's 2 hours from everywhere.
DeleteHaven't lost anything in Bakersfield worth going back to look for...
ReplyDeleteI know Bakersfield better than I like to admit. Back in my hang gliding days we regularly traveled through there on the way to the Owens Valley.
ReplyDeleteAs for the article, "some have dubbed it the 'Texas of California.'" A lot of Texans with ropes are looking for those insulting, ignorant morons.
Can someone explain how the carbuncle on America's ass has an armpit?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, since liberals took control the whole state sucks.
Lived there in the 80's. Hot and dusty for sure. Good bars in Oildale.
ReplyDeleteHad a couple of really good Basque restaurants.
Anon
Always heard about Bakersfield from the Likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens so last time I was in the area I drove over there and looked around. And then I left.
ReplyDeleteI'll drive up to Bakersfiled each year, well, just past it, to go to Famoso Raceway for the March Meet (from Long Beach). https://famosodragstrip.com/march-meet/
ReplyDeleteBakersfield is OK. Now Oildale, there's a city.
ReplyDeleteWe were driving to Yosemite once and stopped in Bakersfield to buy something we'd forgotten. My daughter picked up a tick while we were in the store. We've camped all over the western US and the only tick we've ever even seen had to be removed in a Bakersfield parking lot.
ReplyDeleteJust a bit further north on 99 is beautiful Manteca.
ReplyDelete