Kern County needs to do more work to keep up with its growing population.
Bakersfield is growing at a rapid pace along with other towns that make up Kern County. According to the Kern Economic Development Cooperation’s Website, Kern County is home to 779,869 residents and reports that by the year 2012, the population will reach 835,297. There are approximately 456,600 people who live in metropolitan Bakersfield, which include smaller cities immediately surrounding Bakersfield. With all of the new residents that are coming to our county and cities, Bakersfield should be flourishing with new developments.
It is true that Bakersfield has indeed been building for the newcomers, but they’re not building fast enough. We have tons of new tract homes, new schools, plenty of Starbucks, and retail businesses, but still there are many things that Bakersfield lacks.
Because Bakersfield and Kern County are growing at such a rapid pace, there should be more dining opportunities. Bakersfield has expanded its dining and opened newer restaurants like The Elephant Bar, BJ’s, and California Pizza Kitchen, but Bakersfield needs to offer more new dining in more areas.
The northeast side of Bakersfield is becoming the home for new residents, but there is a lack of new construction going on in that area. There are many new homes and housing development, such as City in the Hills, being built, yet the nearest grocery store is miles and miles away.
Retail development has improved with the new upscale stores in the Valley Plaza like BEBE, Sephora, and a Lucky Brand store, but what about the other mall? At the mall everyone has forgotten about, the East Hills Mall, there are numerous empty lots and hardly any stores to shop from. There is a market on the east side of Bakersfield that is not being catered to.
Highway construction is also moving slowly. With re-paving roads and the installing of more traffic lights, it seems that the city and county are moving toward building a better Bakersfield, but, again, they are not moving at a fast enough pace. The traffic is becoming very congested, and there aren’t enough lanes for all of the cars.
It is no doubt that Bakersfield is transitioning from a small town to a small city, but at the rate the city is growing, the development needs to grow at a faster pace in all areas.