A blog about Politics and News.
Real Name: Gretchen Wenner Address: 1707 Eye Street Bakersfield, CA 93301 Member Since: November 01, 2007 Last Signed In: November 18, 2009 Profile Views: 1858 Blog Views: 37788 Wednesday night meeting Bike riders: Watch for drilling rig on bike path! Canyons meeting under way... Bldrs Exchange drama... Recycling wackiness State's property values decline for first time since 1933... City seeking applicants for Board of Building Appeals Homebuilders v. city (and county): Latest buzz Council, Weds night: development "freeze?" Suing Bakersfield: Pork hits fan? And they're off! City Council seat beckons... November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 Get e-mail updates from this blog, and download to print on the go with the City Beat Printcast.
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Bakersfield did it. Now Taft can, too. On Tuesday night, the Taft City Council will consider their own resolution in support of the Second Amendment.
Bakersfield passed it 6-1. Anyone care to hazard how the five Taft councilmembers will vote?
Judge Twisselman cleared the Wal-Marts to proceed. The empty shell on Panama could be the scene of the Black Friday stampede this year.
Are you ready to shop at the new Wal-Mart? Are you ready to avoid the new Wal-Mart? Are you ready to not care?
Four-term Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan has a challenger, in the form on Assemblyman Bill Maze staffer Mark McCallum.
McCallum is pulling no punches, and Sullivan is ready for the campaign.
"Let the race begin," she told me. "Let the fun begin."
Bakersfield City Councilman Ken Weir wants to appoint a planning commissioner, and he doesn't want to wait until next year to do it.
Weir introduced a proposal to alter the way planning commissioners are appointed at last night's council meeting. It would allow for commissioners to be removed by the council, and would tie planning commissioners to the councilmember appointing them.
Currently, councilmembers take turns appointing planning commissioners but they're not tied to the ward. Until...
The Supreme Court last week heard arguments in a case over whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns. Councilman Zack Scrivner wants Bakersfield to take sides.
The case, at the court level, is the first time in decades that the court has considered whether the Second Amendment to the Constitution confers an individual the right to bear arms.
“Cities shold not be able to adopt laws that violate the Second Amendment, or any amendment, to the Constitution," Scrivner said....
While some cities are running into trouble with debt, Bakersfield Finance Director Nelson Smith says the city is in good shape.
The biggest problems are with auction-rate securities, a form of debt that is issued, paid-off and re-issued frequently, sometimes even daily. With the dry-up of the credit market, there are fewer investors competing for municipal bonds, and the cities have to pay higher rates — or sometimes nobody buys the bonds at all. (Everything I know about this issue, I...
In case you missed the big public information meeting on Westpark and the rest of the Centennial Corridor, TRIP has put most of its exhibits on its Web site.
These include broad maps, but not the aerial photo map, which some people spent a while squinting at at the meeting. But the five options are so loose at this point that releasing it might give people a false sense of certainty.
As I was setting up my workstation at city council last night, Councilman Harold Hanson walked by. Can you get Lois on the phone? he asked. I need her to tell me how to vote.
After he led the council in approving the re-zone for Mustang Square (it's in his ward, so most of the council followed his lead), there was a break, and half the people left in the chambers congregated in the restroom. Hanson repeated his request, and people chuckled — except City Manager Alan Tandy, who laughed...
The Franzen family, not fans of Mustang Square, had handouts for the City Council. Not something dry like exhibits, photos, or maps, but little notepads. Councilman Hanson was so amused he passed out pages to those of us who didn't get one, and it's reproduced for you here.
I am so making this my user icon.
(Note to bosses: No, not really!)
Planner Jennie Eng told us last week that it was unlikely the Canyons, the controversial development in northeast Bakersfield, would be ready for its scheduled hearing on March 20 in front of the Bakersfield Planning Commission.
Today, she confirmed it. She said staff are still going to aim for the April 3 meeting, but that's unlikely. The next available hearing date, she said, would be June 19.
The Canyons is in the EIR-comment-evaluation stage. Comments came in, and they were extensive,...
Four men have signed up to be mayor. Only one will actually get the job.
The primary is June 3. If you're even going to bother to vote, what factors will you take into account? What do you want in a mayor?
Filing closes for mayoral candidates at 5 p.m. today. We already have four candidates:
• Marc DeLeon, owner of Mad Dog Tattoo
• Dennis Martinez, a building contractor
• Joseph Caporali, a filmmaker
• And of course two-term incumbent Harvey Hall, owner of Hall Ambulance
There are also two more men who have taken out papers but haven't filed.
Filing to run for mayor requires picking up paperwork and getting signatures on a petition, so don't wait until 4:45 p.m. today....
Yesterday, March 3, was the first day of Bakersfield's quiet zone.
If you live or work along the downtown-to-east-Bakersfield corridor, and you've heard the trains blowing their horns, let me know.
Meanwhile, tonight is the big open house for the Westpark freeway. It's kind of a public hearing, in that there will be a court reporter taking official comments. But it's set up in a way that will diffuse the people coming, rather than focusing the room on a person at a microphone.
Westpark...
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