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There is no place like Bakersfield!
Bakersfield is a city which is known by
colorful descriptions such as the country music
capital of the West (US), the oil town, the farmer
town, and the home of red necks(including Karen
rednecks), among other delightful associations.
Yes, it's true, high nosers from other parts of
California look down on Bakersfield because of its
provincial history and settings but in truth, most
of those critics haven't even been in Bakersfield
in person, or if they have, had not stayed here
long enough to discover what a really great mix of
country and metro cosmopolitan exists here.
Bakersfield has a briskly growing population of
about three hundred thousand people, majority of
whom are white, with the hispanics quickly catching
up to likely overtake that majority status. There
are sizable communities of Indians, Chinese,
Phillipinos, Laotians, and of course, Karens here
as well, but combined, they make up less than 10%
of the total population.
None-the-less, there is a mix of various
cultures here, typical of other great cities. For
example, the Sikhs hold an annual parade downtown
along with Mexicans-Americans who celebrate various
religious and secular holidays. And when it comes
to ethnic food, if you want to eat, for instance,
Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, German, Spanish, or
Middle Eastern food, there are several of such
ethnic restaurants in town. Mexican restaurants, of
course, are all over town like mushrooms, many
serving authentic Mexican dishes, not the Tex-Mex
adulterated food.
As a Karen, if you happen to want to eat Nya Oo
Ti(fish paste), frog legs, or Gazoon Ywet, you can
pick them up in local Asian grocery stores easily.
In essence, you can purchase almost anything here
that you can get in Burma or Thailand.
Geographically, Bakersfield is located in the
San Joaquin Valley in central California, which is
about 120 miles inland from the Pacific coast.
We're surrounded by three mountain ranges which
form sort of a large sprawling bowl around the
city. To our north, 300 miles away is San Francisco
and the bay area; to our south, Los Angles is 120
miles away; Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara
are all around 120 miles due west; Las Vegas is 290
miles to the eastersfield has a dessert type of
terrain, and areas of marsh lands created by the
Kern River. Actually, much of the land, which is
now Bakersfield, used to be under water before the
Kern River was tamed by the Lake Isabella damn, 50
miles upstream to the east. As a result there are
areas in Bakersfield where vegetation is very lush.
Water, in general, is very abundant here with
private developers and the city building artificial
lakes.
The dominate industries in Bakersfield are
Agriculture, oil, transportation and warehousing,
and healthcare. By far, agriculture and oil are the
biggest employers here.
The Karen settlement in Bakersfield dates
back to the 70's when the first ones arrived here
as nurses to fill American's nursing shortage.
Since then the Karen population grew slowly with
conventional immigration until, 1995 when the first
Refugee family arrived. Refugees continue to
trickling in, however, the resettlement of Refugees
didn't begin in earnest until 2008 when the
International Rescue Committee opened its first
office in Bakersfield.
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