One has to make an effort to find the good news, as it does not hurl itself at the newsroom like police reports do.

People are always asking for more good news stories in the paper, and writing in to say thank you for good news stories.

It may be worth the effort to look into putting a system into place to flow good news into the newsroom as naturally, and start publishing some of it. There are some mechanisms to encourage people to write in, but just plain old good news, even just of the "these are the city streets recently resurfaced/repaved, so your tax dollars DO work for you, this is some volunteer work that happened the past week, here's some news on the efforts being made to revitalize downtown" variety, would be cool to read about.

Well, a newcomer with children should go to the newest member of our network of sites, RaisingBakersfield.com, where s/he can find a growing community of parents to connect with.

And anyone can post their own story to

. All approved stories appear online and we select some of them to appear in The Californian.

I can see right away the scenerio is ficticious. Since when does Bakersfield offer jobs that make it worth relocating from the east coast? At an insurance company, yet. Did you miss the recent blog from the young man who left town to find work in another state? 

I think the newcomer would get here and after about a week tell himself "I shoulda paid less attention to the front page, and more to the weather page..."

My suggestion is to check on other cities newspapers and see what their headlines say before deciding Bakersfield is in it's own time capsul.

Bakersfield is a pit, it`ll suck the life right out of you, it`s a dead end. Just read all the advanced,cultured  posts here. 1950`s in a nutshell and will not get better until the 50`s dies off soon.... Everything good about this town has fled, Transportation,petroleum industry,small farms,family life without fear.... jump on my case if you must but that is the lowdown, denial will get you nowhere...

lonely,desperate,failing,friendless 

you could live in Maui or Boston or San Francisco or another beautiful place on earth, but if you're not happy then you're not happy. i wouldn't blame the city for your depression.

I`m not depressed and I do live in other cities and countries and that is what is so bad about Bakersfield is the denial and the fact that they can cheerlead themselfs into dreaming that everything is alright. Bakersfield is dying slowly and with the bubble bursting on the housing and the loss of jobs it is becoming a place to flee....while the fleeing is possible without a huge loss, coming times will drain you if you lag. I wish it was better and had a future but it becomes a disease to deny and living elsewhere just enforces that fact,

What a sad commentary on a life. 

It's interesting to see that someone thinks Bakersfield is dying when you look at the population growth and the new businesses coming in.  Commercial real estate is also doing just fine according to reports.

As for the uneducated posts.  Ahem... and who is it that said that while posting here?  For the most part, the people on here are educated and well spoken.  It seems that when there's a senseless death, all the uneducated, illiterate  goofs come out of the woodwork to defend their son/brother/father/uncle/best friend/neighbor/ whatever and then they fade back into the woodwork.  It's hardly representative of Bakersfield as a whole. 

Finally, before criticizing people who blog here, a better way might be to show up at blog get togethers and see who the people really are behind the names.

According to reports, and the population is growing, business is booming...denial and dreams, you have just reinforced what I just stated...1950`s in a nutshell

Out of touch, denial, withered, grasping..

Where do you live Maggie?  Not specifically the town (unless it's Bakersfield.) but the general area.  And why are you so bitter about this city?

Have a house that I call my primary residence in Bakersfield plus 2 rentals, Have a Apt and a Summer home in Europe plus rent them out during summer to a couple of German families,we and also trade time with them when we are in Germany, been doing that for years..good friends, Have a house on Rhodes, that`s a small Greek island and a rental firm handles the season, that`s where I was last week to oversee some repairs, Any questions why I regret that Bakersfield is not the town I grew up in, A few more rental units and I will turn them over to a agency and buy a unit where my son will be attending University ( no way Cal State Bakersfield) and we are out of here, Times were good and I have nice memories but I am a realist,, It`s dying a agonizing slow death and denial is just adding to the pain.. 

Our own Donald Trump

Geezzz....Rest my case again....

Kern County/ Bakersfield unemployment grew to 10.4% in March, State average 6.4%....stats for April not out yet but it will be worse........RIP...

unsecure,lacking attention,small.seeking approval

Maggie. From your posts, especially the later ones.  I am sorry you feel that our intelligence does not come up to your lofty level.  I do think though Maggie po po  that when you leave, hopefully soon, that it will probably increase the average I.Q. of our great town.

..... and of this board in particular Never.

Remember the LynchRacing Swede?

I sometimes have to wonder....... a sock??  Hmmmm..................

I own the Taj Mahal and just bought a little wall in China.  I like to sit on it to watch the sun set as I spit on the people below.   But there's no place like my Paris apartment for little get togethers.  My intellectual friends and I get a giggle from the simple folk in Bakersfield who are too stupid to be unhappy at their plight. 

Ta Ta   I'm off to my summer place in Sandringham.

I wish people that call themselves "educated"  and  "sophisticated" or "wealthy" would use some common sense and try to better   their community, instead of belittling it.  But common sense is usually what they lack.

Good examples everyone, thanks for backing up my observations, good luck to all of you, you are gonna need it. Unemployment 10.8% and rising, property values dropping like a bomb, (17.9%) last data I browsed, inflation and energy cost climbing daily...What more good news do you need for the patch?

Then there's the theory that if you feel the need to brag about possessions, you probably don't have half of what you claim.  Who's to prove you wrong on a blog?

Hey Audrey, can I join you at your apartment in Paris?  I'll just hop in my private jet and be there in no time.

Maggiepoo

You'd better migrate to another planet if the examples you cite make you unhappy.  Those problems are evident all over America.  In fact they're become world wide.

Nancy

I just closed escrow on the moon.  Would you like to join me there this weekend so we can watch the Earth Set?.  

You asked me, I told you, Of course I`m happy with my investments, It took hard work and I`m not finished,only finished with this mentality of the 50`s revisited, sorry to burst your bubble folks but it is reality,look around you...

Audrey you are wrong, they are not evident all over the world,yes alot in the USA, Traveled out of the country lately?, Mexico doesn`t count...

Why don't we all just leave Maggiepoo alone?  We should all just be grateful that she graces us with her superior intelligence and deigns to live here among us bacteria.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Maggiepoo for gifting us with your magnificent presence.  I, for one, recognize the second coming of Christ, even if the rest don't. 

The voice of intelligence ... is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance.

Karl Meninger

Also, I spent two months in Germany when I was in college.  I lived with my best friend and wandered all over Bavaria.  I found the people to be a bunch of beer-swilling, uninformed rednecks, but leave it to the benevolent, awe-inspiring Maggiepoo to find worth where I found boredom.  Leave it to Maggiepoo to hobnob with the great minds (and drinkers!) of Europe and find something worthwhile there, and still have the wisdom to teach us about the beer-swilling redneckedness of our local failings.  All hail Maggiepoo!

Where does the line start for Disciples?

I`m impressed,a world traveler

Maggiepoo,

I always thought only dorks believed being a world traveler was reason enough to be impressed with somebody, but I denounce that belief, for it clearly must be wrong!  I thought it was the "it's only cool if it can't be found in Bakersfield" crowd that thought that way.  I thought it was just the Ikea shoppers (who bought Ikea products mainly because it's foreign and not because they like flimsy furniture they have to put together themselves) and the people who decorate their house with "Tuscany" stuff they found at Mor and people who sit around in smoking jackets sipping their imported claret while boring themselves with Baudelaire when they would really rather be watching porn-- I thought only those types of people were impressed with "world travel" for its own sake, but I hereby repent and will rethink my former belief that what should impress us is good works.

Clearly above your head, I was impressed that you have such a good grasp of a culture by spending 2 months there, that impresses me! I really think that you should be concerned with the quality of friends you stayed with as what you stated is possible but depends on the crowd you hung out with, if a foreign person was to come here and hang out in East Bakersfield or inner Oildale they would have 2 differnt impressions and go home and tell people about that, Sorry but you will not find a Bakersfield culture anywhere but here, if you enjoy that ,great