Talk:Bakersfield, California/Archive 1

Population
Current estimates are at 280,000 people. edit: I have heard estimates of up to 380,000 when including the suburban areas

Lzygenius 17:12, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Califormia State Department of Finance estimates are at 295,893 people as of January 1, 2005.

Lzygenius 17:17, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

8000 years ago?
The Yokut Indians were the first people to settle in the San Joaquin Valley, some 8000 years ago.

Is this correct? I would of thought maybe 800 but 8000? Iwish 05:37, 6 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I think so. Last time I checked, the consensus among scientists was that Native Americans walked over to North America more than 10,000 or even 20,000 years ago.  That would give them more than enough time to work their way down to the San Joaquin Valley.  --Coolcaesar 06:52, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Rollback
I reverted this back to the Revision as of 20:39, 29 October 2005. As near as I can tell, there was substantial damage done by Lotsofissues, but when the vandalism was reverted, I think it was a cut and paste job, and all the links were lost. I checked the subsequent edits, and most were wiki work, with 24.24.162.248 also converting imperial to metric. --Bookandcoffee 21:27, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Culture
"Recently, the white nationalist girl duo Prussian Blue, which was formed in Bakersfield, gained fame for its mixture of Nazi ideology and adolescent cuteness."

While I appreciate the delicate attempt at diplomatic language, this claim is fundamentally nonsensical. The other musical figures noted in the article have indisputably gained fame. In contrast, this duo apparently got some exposure on ABC news and got a short article on the front page of Bakersfield's newspaper when they were summarily cut from the county fair's list of performers. This events are not sufficient to warrant mention in an encyclopedia listing for a city of this size. I myself was once featured in an article in Bakersfield's paper. The article was even longer than the one devoted to this duo. However, this in no way means that I have "gained fame" in the community. Bottom line: this section of the article is devoted to the culture of Bakersfield. This duo has absolutely zero significance in that area. Bakersfieldteacher 02:08, 8 November 2005 (UTC)bakersfieldteacher

I agree completely with the earlier statement and the section should be removed, its a small trivial note that made headlines for one day and then everybody remembered they don't represent Kern county and are just ignorant rascists. -- Patman2648 — Preceding undated comment added Revision as of 07:45, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Titan gay porno movie "Bakersfield station"
There is a high-quality gay porno movie (running time about 3 hours):

Mens Room: Bakersfield Station - Titan Media. 2004. Written and directed by Joe Gage. Executive producer: Bruce Cam. Produced by Brian Mills and Harold Creg.

Would anyone care to put it into the trivia section? Erkabo 08:30, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism
What the hell has happened to this page? Someone obviously vandalised it, but it happened several edits ago, so it can't be reverted without ruining the edits that have been done since then. Dude, isn't anyone watching this page? Eixo 23:08, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

By the way, the vandal was 69.19.139.248 at 02:02, 13 April 2006. There have been 10 edits since then. Seriously, you guys have been sleeping in class... Eixo 23:17, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Not sure if it was still traces of vandalism, but just made a few minor edits, and moved a couple of the 'people from bakersfield' out of the trivia... - Adolphus79 (talk) 02:43, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Country Capital of California
I always thought it was just "Nashville West." Why isn't Red Simpson mentioned in this entry? Or that the "Streets of Bakersfield" was a #1 hit? Or that it was in a Bakersfield courthouse that Spade Cooley was convicted for beating his wife to death in front of his daughter? Where's the Blackboard? Where's Don Rich? This country segment is LACKING.

Cousin Herb Henson was a noted Bakersfield TV star in the early fifties and featured many early country stars such as Buck Owens on his television program. Why is he not credited?

It should also be noted that Merle was born in Bakersfield, and that Buck, in contrast, is a Texas native who now owns the entire town.


 * It should be noted Buck died in Bakersfield. Maluka 08:43, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know if Dwight Yoakam ever actually lived in Bakersfield? The article on him doesn't mention that he did... --Kfreeland 04:01, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Dwight Yoakam was born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio. He is not, nor has been a Bakersfield resident. He is, however,consodered an honorary Bakersfield citizen.

Clean up?
The article as a whole is wordy and in need of copyediting (I'll add it to my list of articles to copyedit someday), but something really needs to be done about the geography section. While it provides an interesting look into the future of Bakersfield's development, it needs a lot of fact-checking, sourcing, and POV-removal. I'll add a couple of tags to the section.

Related to this: this article speculates that Highway 99 may become Interstate 7, but the Fresno article says that 99 may turn into I-9.

66.230.119.67 01:22, 12 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Er, oops, I got logged out. That was posted by me. cluth 01:23, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

False traffic data
In the 2nd to last paragraph, under the Geography section of this article, it is stated that CA Route 99 is at its busiest in Bakersfield. This is simply not true.

According to CalTrans (2005 data), the busiest stretch of freeway along Highway 99 is located south of the U.S. 50/Business 80/CA 51 interchange in Sacramento, with an average daily traffic count of 235,000 vehicles a day.

The busiest stretch of the 99 freeway in Bakersfield is south of the 58 West interchange, with an average daily traffic count of 153,000 vehicles a day. This is a far cry from the traffic levels experienced in the Sacramento area.

The source can be found at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/saferesr/trafdata/2005all/r099i.htm

Based on a lack of referrences and sources, I would deem much of this article to be unreliable, and certainly not accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by USHighway101 (talk • contribs) 06:59, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

clean up attempt 1 - geography
Interesting to note: Here is my take. Welcome to anybody to put it in. Dilane 18:12, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
 * how a pretty neutral topic such as geography can be drawn into local politics.
 * how a definition (interstate highways vs state highways) can make so much difference; it sounds like a movie script.
 * the need for central valley to have direct access to San Luis Obispo.

Sister cities
The official Bakersfield web site only lists 3. Should the 4th one be removed from here? See: Bakersfield sister cities.

If you remove it from here, please also remove it from that other city's page. Skumarla 06:38, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

"Sister city." I just KNOW if the term "brother city" was used the feminists would whine and moan and demand that a gender-neutral term be used. I propose that "cousin city" be used since a cousin can be male or female. Hey!!!!! It's only fair, right? Or, is male bashing the latest trend and acceptable to the masses? Obbop mumbled this in a moment of semi-rage at what I, the Mighty Obbop, believes to be an era of anti-maleness within the general USA society.Obbop 15:45, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Anti-maleness? What? As a feminist, I agree that a more gender neutral term like "cousin city" or "neighboring city" would be appreciated. Feminism is not the same as "female supremacy." I would hope someone who calls themselves the "Mighty Obbop" would know that. On second thought...maybe not.

The League of Copyeditors
This page is receiving the attention of The Copyeditor's League. Rintrah 15:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Media references (now called "In media and pop culture") and Notable residents
I have cut a lot from the film and TV section in the interest of brevity. I'm sorry if someone's favorite something got deleted, but the list was simply much too long and undifferentiated. It should contain significant references only. IrisWings 01:59, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Same deal with notable residents--I cut out several people who had no articles of their own, and I left out Justin Berry (the web-cam porn kid) because I doubt the controversy surrounding him will be of note to later readers of this article.

I also felt that both sections needed less summary, so I only included the most pertinent information. If readers want to know more about any of the items listed, they can click the helpful wikified links. :) IrisWings 05:47, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Here's a potential solution that could please all potential parties (I'm indifferent on the issue): some articles simply create a separate article when one section gets too long. Thus there could be a brief list of highlights with a top of section notice reading "Main article: Bakersfield in media and pop culture."  For example, see how Los Angeles, California handles its history section.  What do you think? --Bobak 20:29, 8 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I plan to readd Justin Berry to the notable people list. The references in the article on him validate his notability within the meaning of Wikipedia.  I'd venture a guess that Justin Berry is more well-known than others who remain on the list.  Not all notability is positive, unfortunately.  I also endorse Bobak's comment, that the solution to one section growing too large is to plae it into its own article, linked from the main article.  --Ssbohio 02:58, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Demographics
There is too much information in this section, and it is very boring to read. Quoting statistic after statistic does not make good prose. The reader does not need to know all of this. I suggest the section be moved to another article, while the most important information remain. Rintrah 06:21, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

In addition the numbers are all wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.240.139.154 (talk) 19:01, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

The Politics and Society section has too much political rhetoric. Can someone make the information objective or cut out the rhetoric? Rintrah 06:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Consider deleting some of the content from Media references onwards. Imagine what the article New York City would look like if there were proportionate detail in relation to its size. Rintrah 08:58, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

This section mentions that Bakersfield is influenced by the Chinese community. As a long time resident, I have not met many Chinese people in Bakersfield and the bulk of the Asian population in Bakersfield is mostly Asian Indian, Filipino, and Vietnamese.Mrsmith93309 05:48, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Unreliable edits to this article
This article is getting a lot of unreliable edits by anonymous IPs that are not citing sources. Users with this page on their watchlist should be on the look-out. Ronbo76 18:10, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Bakersfield Fire Department
I recently came across Bakersfield Fire Department, which is currently an orphan article. Can anyone find a place to link to it from this article?  Squids ' and ' Chips  22:33, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Added Literature Reference
I added Where the Heart Is as a literature reference as Bakersfield was mentioned in the narrative and although it's not a major plot-point, it does provide back-story and the catalyst for the changes in Novalee's life. Naysie 01:31, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Notables added March 21, 2007 - request review by editor familar
Several names were added today. One incorrectly links to Cory Hall and James C. Wofford who appears to have lived most of his life east of California. Please review. Ronbo76 16:57, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * In addition, some of the edit summaries indicate "burke is my uncle" or inserted because this person "knows" this. These are unsourced edits that should be reviewed. In most articles on my watchlist, red wikilinks are not allowed unless the individual is well-known and allowed by consensus. Ronbo76 17:00, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Lots of red non-wikilinked names have crept into article. Recommend deletion of all non-sourced items. Ronbo76 17:29, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Neo-Nazi twins
There are neo-Nazi twin blonde girls, Prussian blue (duo) who are from Bakersville and are popular among white supremacists. Shouldn't they be included in the article?

-Sorry to upset whomever wrote this article but infact these girls are not from Bakersfield. Yes they are from Kern County but not from Bakersfield. They are actually from Tehachapi, Ca.

There was an earlier discussion regarding this topic (see the subject on notable people). I believe it was decided that these girls are not considered notable enough to be included. Please read the full discussion above for further details on this subject. hEireann 07:25, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Long History of Racism?
YES this is TRUE! Bakersfield is Racism Central. I live here.

"Bakersfield has a long history of racism and discrimination."

Is there any evidence to support this assertion? One third of the population is latino. Are they rascist too? Citing Grapes of Wrath and Chavez as a long history is wrong. I'd like to know who put this in and for what purpose. It doesn't serve any purpose other than offending Bakersfield residents of all stripes. Should we add that to Los Angeles as well? What about Hollywood's shameful propagation of race theory before WWII?

You know what I'm gonna take it out until someone can explain why it should be included.

--Dsquared 01:40, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

"Population: 296,000" is on the city limit size in Rosedale, the on-ramp from Oildale to the CA-99S, and the city limits size on the CA-99N at the south end of town. Sounds official to me.


 * Yup. City limit signs are almost as good as US Census Bureau figures, IMHO.  I've seen the signs you mention firsthand - I'm an eyewitness to your statement above.  --avnative 23:37, August 25, 2005 (UTC)


 * Bakersfield does have a long history of racism. I remember when Cottonwood Road aka Lakeview Avenue was strictly black and far from the white part of the city. The key word here is "long". It may be heavily populated by latinos, but that wasn't always the case.

Music is what began to break down the barriers, with popular bands of the 50's performing at Rainbow or Harmony Gardens and the kids who loved the music went there to see the bands live, breaking color barriers. Then there were groups that began playing white venues, I can't recall the name of the band Charlie Weldon had, but it was the beginning of changing race relations.


 * I just remembered the name of Charlie Weldon's band - The Paradons. Maluka 08:42, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm surprised Cousin Herb Henson isn't mentioned -- he gave so many their start and had all the top country performers of the early 50's as guests.

Country music wasn't popular at all during that time with the youth who tuned into Relaxin' With Jaxon, a DJ in Taft who played nothing but rhytmn and blues (now called oldies but goodies) ugh.

There's a lot of history missing. Maluka 05:16, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

For user Dsquared, Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1975 charged that the Bakersfield school district operated racially imbalanced schools. TeamX 18:34, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

George W. Bush
I have doubts about the accuracy of the claim that George W. Bush lived in Bakersfield. This is stated under the trivia section of the main article. Could this please be verified? --BorisFromStockdale 02:39, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


 * This is true. George Bush Sr. once worked for the oil companies and lived in both Bakersfield, CA and Compton (yes, that Compton) for brief periods during his time as middle-man on the move for the oil industry.  At the time, Dubya was in tow as a young man.  It was strange the first time I heard it (particularly Compton), so I looked it up and voila:
 * * Link: Seattle Times
 * * Link: San Diego Union-Tribune
 * I added a link at the end of that trivia piece. This moment of clarity provided by Bobak 20:43, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

It says, "President George W. Bush and President George H.W. Bush lived in Bakersfield while George H.W. Bush was working in the oil business in 1941." But the younger Bush wasn't born until 1946.


 * He did. It was sometime in the 1970's when he was a young man. I can't recall the exact date but I recall reading it in the newspaper. It will take some time to find it but I will then be able to cite it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jed Bartlet (talk • contribs) 09:03, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Bakersfield's Growth
I bothers me why people feel so optimistic about Bakersfield's growth. It went from 270,000 about three years ago to roughly 350,000 today (according to the city limits sign on Highway 99) History has shown, that a lot of cities that experience explosive growth ends up becoming a sewer. Los Angeles, Sacramento, Fresno, San Bernardino, Riverside, Washington, DC, Las Vegas, and out of America, several European cities are ratty due to explosive growth. Naples, Italy is a good example. So is the outlying suburbs of almost every French city, especially Paris. Bakersfield is aready one of the worst cities I've ever been to. Its just gonna get worse.


 * Shut up, do us all a favor, and go home. You know nothing about Bakersfield.  Trust me on this one that Bakersfield will NOT get any worse in the way you say it will.  I lived there for most of my life!  And don't give me any bullshit about "exploding populations" because Bakersfield does not have an exploding populus.  Oh, and the reason people feel optimistic about the growth is because the bigger the city, the more attention it will recieve on a map!  Pardon my senseless ranting, but this guy is just plain negative.Drakonis 19:04, 21 September 2007 (UTC)


 * You guys both need to relax. What you are doing is not constructive and not helping the article. He is entitled to his opinion and you are entitled to yours but you are both being negative. Try and keep your opinions within the context of the article. --Josiah Bartlet, President of the United States 19:48, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Is Bakersfield itself really growing into exurban LA?
Is it? I mean, personally, if I were your standard commuter, I wouldn't want to spend four hours minimum per day on the road. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.170.110 (talk) 04:48, 23 September 2007 (UTC)


 * LOL no it's not. I've had a couple people ask me that and Bakersfield's a good 100 miles from Los Angeles still. At the rate it's going it'll take between 30-50 years to hit LA. --Josiah Bartlet, President of the United States 19:49, 23 September 2007 (UTC)


 * That's what I thought. It did seem unreasonably far away from LA to be an exurb.

Though, that makes me wonder, why is Bakersfield growing so fast? And what's all the Kern County growth from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.170.110 (talk) 00:53, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * We're right in the middle of bigger cities...Los Angeles and Fresno. Property is still incredibly cheap here. --Josiah Bartlet, President of the United States 06:46, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * What I meant: what kind of jobs are in Kern County?

BTW, looking on the San Joaquin Valley article, it says that LA commuters are moving to Bakersfield. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.170.110 (talk) 23:45, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Greenfield
Why is the Greenfield region of town not listed anywhere on this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.54.138.126 (talk) 18:12, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Population for metro area
Hello everyone:

Do we have a source for the Bakersfield metro area population?

800,000 seems ridiculously high unless one is including far-flung areas like Tehachapi.

--Coolcaesar 02:04, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Kern County's population as of the 2003 estimate was 713,087 according to the US Census Bureau. Of that, 15,000 are in Rosamond, 11,000 are in California City, 24,000 are in Ridgecrest, and 3,000 are in Mojave totaling 53,000. This subtracted from 713,00 is 660,000. With an average of 7.8% increase (according to Census) in population in 3 years, this would add another 51,480 people by 2006 to the Bakersfield area of Kern County making a total of 711,567. However, southern Tulare County is also a part of the Bakersfield metro area, while northern Tulare County is part of the Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, MSA. Tulare County has a 2003 population estimate of 390,791 of which 360,000 live in the northern part of the county. The other 30,000, now presumably 35,000, live in the southern part of the county and are part of the Bakersfield, CA MSA. So therefore, as of 2005, I would estimate the Bakersfield Metropolitan Area at 747,358 persons.


 * OK, but where is the published reliable data for the above long statement? Nice reasoning, but no cigar.  It's gonna get pulled.  The figure as it stands currently might be good for the Mojave Desert and San Joaquin Valley portions that together make up Kern County, but not Bakersfield, or Bakersfield metro.  Bakersfield metro, BTW, does not extend into places like Ridgecrest.  So, in the absence of a published reliable figure from the US Census Bureau, it's simply gonna get deleted.  It's not a verifiable fact.  --avnative 23:35, August 25, 2005 (UTC)


 * As a former long-time resident of Bakersfield, who goes back yearly, I'd say the metro pop of Bakersfield is somewhere in the 400k range. I'm not going to change any numbers, but I have to say that there was this theme among Bakersfield natives to believe that the metro population was somehow near one million, despite reality.  Bobak 20:38, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
 * What is Bakersfield Metro? Think Oildale, unincorporated island county areas, East Bakersfield/Old Town Kern, the Edison Highway/Niles area, Fruitvale, Rosedale, Greenfield. Add that to the current (2006) Bakersfield proper pop. of 311,000+ and you'll have a metro pop. of close to or over 400,000.

The Bakersfield metropolitan area population depends on what you consider to be part of the metropolitan area. Like some people consider Riverside and San Bernardino part of the Los Angeles metro area, some demographers (including the U.S. Census Bureau) consider all of Kern County, including the Mojave Desert Area, to be part of the Bakersfield Metropolitan Area. If you include all of Kern County, Bakersfield's metropolitan area has about 800,000 people. If you include only Western Kern County, the metropolitan area has a population of about 725,000-750,000. If you include just the local area (Bakersfield, much of East Bakersfield thats not in the city limits, Oildale, Rosedale, Green Acres, Edison, Greenfield, Pumpkin Center, and Rexland Acres) Bakersfield around 500,000. Mrsmith93309 05:38, 20 December 2006 (UTC)Mrsmith93309

The 'metro area' figure comes from the SMSA data from the federal government. It includes ALL of Kern County. --Airplane1967 (talk) 00:51, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Merge from Bakersfield Fire Department
The FD article has languished, orphaned, unreferenced, since it's inception. There isn't really a lot there that can be referenced to 3rd party sources or is notable in an encyclopedic way. I say leave the details to the FD's own website and merge any important info into this article. Pairadox (talk) 08:44, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Violence
This is the last time I will discuss Bakersfield and how it is MORE violent than the national average. I have lived in a few other states and been to the their worst cities and it's not as bad as Bakersfield. So, why then would Kern county also be building more prisons than anywhere else in U.S.? There is no way you can tell me we live in a safe city! I have taken many criminal justice classes and had to study more reports than I would like to recall. Believe me, parts of this city are said to be worse than even parts of Compton and South Central. Take a little trip out of your little world over in Haggin or Seven Oaks and go over to the South and East part of town. Actually, walk it alone in the evening. Bet you wouldn't! Or at least, how about you do this? Go the Bakersfield.com and start a discussion on how violent Bakersfield is on their message boards. State your opinions and see how many people disagree. All I did was try to contribute some correct information to help inform readers who want to know more about Bakersfield, but false information keeps being posted over my contributions. Your souse is accurate, but like I stated before, table 16 has other variables involved and the correct murder rate per capita is 5.6 in any city in the U.S. Bakersfield is the 59th largest city in the county, so why would the crime and murder rate be more or less depending on city size? Again demographics, race, and economic status plays the main roll in violence. Bakersfield is pretty much screwed in all three. Being a Black Male, I see so little respect for culture in this city. That is respect from one culture to the other. And truly, it's sad. And if the national murder rate were 14.1 per 1,000 people, that means that for every 100 people you see in a day, 1.4 of those people will be murdered by the end of year!!!!! That's ludacris. But as bad as Bakersfield has become over the years, there are still many good things about it and it's the place I call home. You have your information and the way you interprete it and I have mine. With all due respect, since we have been editing and changing what one another writes all the time, lets leave both and get some opinions from other people. I guess, if you see Bakersfield as a safe city, hit edit next to population and put a 1 a the end under "votes." If you see Bakersfield the the other way, as a rough, violent city put a 2.

Votes:

(posted by User talk:67.49.192.15 on the article page and moved to the talk page by B rien C lark Talk 22:33, 23 March 2007 (UTC))


 * Okay, so you've discovered that Bakersfield has bad parts of town. While lamentable, it's hardly unusual.  Frotz 20:03, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

"Demographics"? I love that term. It's always used when people don't want to say what they mean. What you meant to say was "Black people and brown people are responsible for the violence in my community." Glad you had to mention you're a black male, as if that loans you some legitimacy, as if that means you're not being racist and defamatory, which you are. Economic status plays the main role in violence and crime. Take a look at Oildale. Largely white population, isolated community, lots of drug problems, violence, etc. Look at the hazing crimes committed by white teenagers on the west side. The drug use in private schools like Garces or Bakersfield Christian. Rapes and sexual violence all over the map. Race plays a role in economic status, but people of color are not inherently violent. Signed by me.

I don't go east past Gosford, south of White Lane, north of Camino Media, and go west of Allen past 9:00 p.m. Basically, the safest bubble of the city. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.212.43 (talk) 23:07, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Congrats, you hang out at the Marketplace. You're officially inducted into the spoiled teen brat club. You think people don't commit crimes there? They just don't get caught.

Education
"In 1982, Santa Barbara Business College was founded, destined to be one of Kern County's best and brightest colleges."

This is my first Wikipedia article discussion I have ever participated in, so please forgive me if I have done something incorrectly. Alright, so my comment is how is this supported? I realize that Bakersfield and Kern County in general has very poor education, but is Santa Barbara Business College really one of Kern County's best and brightest colleges? In my opinion, it goes #1-California State University Bakersfield, #2 Bakersfield College, #3 Southwest/Northwest high schools, #4 Santa Barbara Business College. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.212.43 (talk) 23:01, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Quite right. I removed the WP:PEACOCK language.  Frotz (talk) 20:22, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

So Many Errors on this page its not even funny.
Come on people, get out of your boxes and explore Bakersfield. Most of the people that added to this page seem to live on the West Side out there in your little suburbia and don't explore the infamous east side or south side. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KuRuPt (talk • contribs) 23:30, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I won't leave the safety area of north of White Lane, south of Camino Media, west of Old River, and east of Buena Vista. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.212.43 (talk) 01:23, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Racist UPS Guy
The Racist UPS Guy story got over 2000 diggs on digg.com. So I think it is a pretty notable and should stay. -Photar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.246.74 (talk) 07:22, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The article you cite makes no mention of Bakersfield as a city, the only thing that this has to do with Bakersfield is that the photo shows the package is being shipped to Bakersfield... this is also unencyclopedic information... - Adolphus (talk) 07:37, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a notable event that happened in Bakersfield. The image, is an integral part of the content of the story tying it to Bakersfield. This information is no less encyclopedic than the Prussian Blue girls. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.246.74 (talk) 07:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Where in the words of the article is Bakersfield mentioned? Please read WP:NOTABILITY, Prussian Blue has been mentioned in several newspaper articles, released several albums, etc...  Just because some dumbass redneck called someone a terrorist, he is not notable... if you continue to add this information without further discussion, you could be blocked for vandalism (and or 3RR violations... - Adolphus (talk) 07:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * WP:N only applies to establishing independent articles. It doesn't regulate the contents of an article.  But yeah, he needs to stop edit warring.  -- Kraftlos  (Talk | Contrib) 08:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Why in the world would the words of the article have to say, Bakersfield? It is an article about an image which clearly has the word Bakersfield in it at least twice. He's no less of a dumbass than the Prussian Blue girls. If anything probably less so. His identity may not be noteworthy but this act was clearly noteworthy. It has over 2000 diggs on digg.com. There is a story about it on turnto23.com, facebakersfield.com, kget.com, and current.com. I find your removal of this information without any discussion to be unilateral and unfair. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.246.74 (talk) 08:02, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Digg.com cannot be used to establish whether or not something should be added.  Wikipedia can only have information that has previously been published by reliable sources, (and turnto23.com, facebakersfield.com, kget.com, and current.com are not reliable sources).  Please read WP:V and WP:RS; then discuss this edit here before adding it to the page, it's obviously controversial.  -- Kraftlos  (Talk | Contrib) 08:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

The article should format to WP:USCITY
Now that this article has gotten past a certain size, it's time to bring it into a more organized, standardized format in WP:USCITY. Its a fairly logical format and most of the information in the article falls into those categories --they were just incorrectly placed within the page. I've made some basic fixes. This article is also missing a few key sections; e.g. it doesn't have a media section, which I'll start. I think the template at WP:USCITY is a great source for answering questions about "what makes a good city article on Wikipedia?" I have noticed that the long section on Communities and Neighborhoods will probably be better served as a separate article (with cross link) in the future. --Bobak (talk) 17:52, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Video Games as Cultural References and Fallout
I've noted that there are no Video-Games cited as Cultural References in this article. Is it because video games are discredited as references or not to be included in articles like this? If that is not the case, there is at least one significant reference to add, pertaining to the Fallout Universe. Zephyr Arsland (talk) 14:50, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Improving this article
I will be improving this article as best as I can. I am trying to get this article in a good article status. I will be adding many references. It may take me a few days to complet. -- Zink Dawg  -- 20:16, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Split page?
This article is getting too unwieldy. Are there parts that could be split off into subpages and linked to here? The article is approaching 85KB, See WP:SIZERULE. Comments? --Manway (talk) 02:47, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

I also have concerns about the size and structure of the article. Listed below are my recommendations.

There are two sections that should be reduced to a summary, and its contents moved to a separate page. The first section is “Transportation.” Recently, I wrote an article detailing transportation in Kern County, and Bakersfield (called “Transportation in Kern County”). Much of the information mentioned in the Transportation section is duplicated in the new article. As a result, that section could easily be reduced to a summary.

The second section is “Communities and neighborhoods.” This section is large, and unorganized. Bakersfield tends to refer to regions of town by directions (e. g. northwest, southwest, northeast), and within these regions are the communities and neighborhoods (e. g. Stockdale, Riverwalk, and Kern City are apart of the southwest). This section could be moved to a new page called “List of communities and neighborhoods in Bakersfield.” That page could be organized by region, which would make it easier to find information. The old section could be reduced to a summary.


 * List of communities and neighborhoods.
 * Transportation in Kern County (already created)

There are also other possible candidates. These are possibilities not because they are currently too long, but after adding additional information, they could become too long. They are:


 * History of Bakersfield
 * Arts and culture of Bakersfield
 * Sports in Bakersfield (after splitting off a new section, “Parks and Recreation;” See WP:USCITY)

I would also recommend that future sub pages, both for Bakersfield and Kern County, not include “, California” in their titles. Most people who view these pages would have navigated there from other pages that already listed the state. As a result, there is little chance for confusion by the reader. Also, no other city named Bakersfield is large enough to require subpages. In addition, the title looks cleaner. --Skyman9999 19:46, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

Incorrect Media Reference
The reference to Every Which Way But Loose in the media section is incorrect. The film in question is actually the sequel, Any Which Way You Can. A significant part of this film occurs in Bakersfield. I will change this if someone working the page doesn't.--Jlodman (talk) 07:02, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Worst City Article
Aside from being home to the worst type of suburban sprawl in the state, I love Bakersfield. I spent alot of time there during my youth, but this article is atrocious. There are parts of the article where one sentence is stretched the length of a paragraph. It's OK to use commas, semi colons and periods, really. Parts of it read like a City of Commerce brochure, and other parts are filled with speculation and unverifiable claims. I like that it is full of information, but it needs alot of cleaning up. (Dcmcgov 02:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC))

I actually have the opposite reaction, though that may be due to revisions to the page since you posted. I loathe Bakersfield and dread having to drive through it when fate hatefully requires me to do so, but I thought the city's wiki page was clear, academic and informative without delving into trivialities. Good job to everyone who's cleaned up the page for this awful city! The Cap&#39;n (talk) 16:33, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with File:Bakersfield College logo.png
The image File:Bakersfield College logo.png is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check


 * That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
 * That this article is linked to from the image description page.

The following images also have this problem:


 * File:Bakersfield, CA Police.png

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Media copyright questions. --22:56, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

2000 section
The 2000 section starts off by citing the 2010 population figure.

It is unclear whether the other statistics in this section are therefore 11 years or 1 year old. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.175.109.15 (talk) 18:12, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

11th fastest growing city in California
The following sentence is copied and pasted from the opening paragraph of the article: "According to the city's official travel website, www.visitbakersfield.com, Bakersfield is the 11th fastest-growing city in California.[7]" Even if we assume it's notable to be the 11th fastest growing city in a state, I can't find that info anywhere on visitbakersfield.com, although it's possible someone misunderstood this sentence&mdash;"Bakersfield is the 11th largest city in California and one of the fastest growing regions in the nation"&mdash;from the home page. It should also be noted that the citation at the end of the sentence (http://www.bakersfieldhomes.com/) does not mention visitbakersfield.com, nor does it say that Bakersfield is the 11th fastest growing city in California. It does say "Bakersfield is the 11th fastest growing city in the United States with a population of over 100,000" but I'm not sure I want to trust that since the same page lists Wikipedia as a source just one paragraph later. I plan to remove the sentence in question, unless someone can provide a source for the information or thinks we should trust the current source and change the information accordingly. Thatotherperson (talk/contribs) 03:22, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Thatotherperson (talk/contribs) 01:05, 19 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm going to remove it for now. If someone wants to put it back, you can make your case here.

Geography
Bakersfield is located at 35.35722°N, -119.03167°W (35.357276, -119.031661), at 120 m (400 ft) in elevation. It lies near the southern "horseshoe" end of the San Joaquin Valley.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 296.3 km² (114.4 mi²). 292.9 km² (113.1 mi²) of it is land and 3.4 km² (1.3 mi²) of it (1.14%) is water.

Bakersfield is surrounded by mountain ranges on three sides:
 * On the Southern side are the Tehachapi Mountains (feature: the historic Tejon Ranch).

Currently the hop-scotch pattern of housing developments is pushing the city limits and zones of future annexation towards I-5 and the base of the Temblor Range.
 * On the Western side is the Temblor Range (feature: the Carizzo Plain National Monument). The San Andreas Fault lies approximately 35 miles across the valley floor.

On this side, Bakersfield is dominated by a large bluff and plateau that used to be the delta to the Kern River. 20,000 years ago the Kern River flowed atop this bluff until a large earthquake changed its course to the north of this delta. Currently this bluff has been developed for the last 60 years with houses moving to the east towards the Rio Bravo and Kern Canyon area. The steep north facing edge of the bluff provides spectacular views of the foothills, mountains, and Kern River.
 * On the Eastern side is the Sierra Nevada's southern end. The city limits extend to the Sequoia National Forest.

Community fears
Bakersfield desperately wants to keep its identity and not be similar to the crammed housing developments that are typical of the Santa Clarita Valley in Los Angeles County along I-5. The general fear among residents is having Bakersfield become a bedroom community to Los Angeles and become a rubber stamp community controlled by Los Angeles like so many other cities and towns in and around Los Angeles have become.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Another town being overrun by the barbarian cultures below the USA southern border. Expect B'field to become more akin to a 2nd-world city due to the influx and very high birthrate of the invading barbarians. Comprende?68.13.191.153 20:59, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

People like you are why Bakersfield is the armpit of California. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.60.156.182 (talk) 16:21, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Wow. I hate to think I grew up there and that people like you would think people like me or my family are barbarians. By the way, do some research. The fertility rate of Latinas (citizens or non-citizens) is only slightly higher than the fertility rate of white American women. I'm talking 2.9 average amount of children compared to 2.4 average amount of children. "Barbarians"? You should be ashamed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.231.99.32 (talk) 00:06, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

Climate chart
I removed the climate chart (WP:BRD) because it seemed to be WP:Original research, and a look at the Reference cited did not back up the information shown on the chart. GeorgeLouis (talk) 22:06, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Structure
Hi. I'm going through all the US Cities (as per List of United States cities by population) in an effort to provide some uniformity in structure. Anyone have an issue with me restructuring this article as per WikiProject Cities/US Guideline. I won't be changing any content, merely the order. Occasionally, I will also move a picture just to clean up spacing issues. I've already gone through the top 20 or so on the above list, if you'd like to see how they turned out. Thoughts? Onel5969 (talk) 19:41, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Cousin Herb Henson
I really think Cousin Herb Henson should be included in this article for discovering Buck Owens when he had him on his television show back in the fifties. [] --calijazz — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.160.200.45 (talk) 22:49, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

There are a list of people and information that need to be in this section. Bakersfield was known everywhere for it's music. We will be needing citations to other articles and facts to all of them.

List includes Bill Woods, Cousin Herb Henson, Red Simpson, Bobby Durham, The Durham Brothers, Joe Maphis, Don Rich, Gary Paxton, Amy Adams (American Idol Contestant & Vegas Actor and Vocalist), The Blackboard, Trouts, Capital Records relationship with Bakersfield musicians and artists. The Connection to the national TV show HEE HAW. "The Streets of Bakersfield" the song. Buck Owens Crystal Palace (on Buck Owens Blvd), Buck Owens Recording Studio on North Chester which was later changed to Fat Tracks and ran by Rick Davis the father of John Davis (KORN), and more recently being purchased by KORN and now known as KORN Studios (same location). During the Fat Tracks years included production with Disney and other Hollywood Productions. American Sound Studios downtown Bakersfield being managed by Music professional Rick Stevens and the label ANR Records which holds offices at American Sound in Bakersfield as well as Nashville and New York. Semie Moseley and Mosrite Guitars (Which includes Ed Sanners who developed and built the first Fuzzrite Pedal for Jimmy Hendrix, also the Ventures model Guitar, The Surf Music era with The Ventures. The new production of Mosrite Guitars now owned and operated by Semie's daughter Dana Moseley in Bakersfield). Garth Brooks proposing to Trisha Yearwood (Now his wife) on stage outside of the Crystal Palace during a presentation to the Country Music Hall of Fame from Buck Owens. There is a big gap in info on this page regarding the music side to Bakersfield so we need to gather as many articles and website links to valid information. Also there is enough information floating around the internet regarding The Beatles talking about Buck Owens and the Bakersfield Sound being a strong influence and shaping their own sound during their early years. I would agree with who ever said something about branching this off to it's own Wikipedia Page, because Bakersfield has more history in music than people understand. --bakersfiledmusic 12:42, 31 May 2014 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bakersfieldmusic (talk • contribs) 12:42, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

Air Quality issues and Pollution
This is apparently the most polluted city in America, but there is no discussion about why. I'd like to see some better information here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Meekohi (talk • contribs) 14:43, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Timeline of Bakersfield, California
What is missing from the recently created city timeline article? Please add relevant content. Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 09:33, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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