National Lists Slant Negatively Toward Bakersfield
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A new list of the nation’s most dangerous cities has Bakersfield in the middle of the pack, ranking 123rd in the nation out of 400 cities. The Bakersfield Metro Area ranks as the 21st most dangerous area according to the study by CQ Press released on Sunday. That number puts the area near the top of another national list and not in a good way.
It seems like every couple of months the last few years Bakersfield and Kern County end up at the top of a list for something negative. But these negative lists aren’t making any real impact on our population or economy as people aren’t leaving in droves and tourists continue to visit.
Last week, the American Lung Association named the Bakersfield area the dirtiest in the country. Back in August, “The Atlantic” magazine listed the area dead last in “human capital levels,” in terms of education related to economic growth.
In July, “Men’s Health” said we were merely the 84th most patriotic city in the nation. In May, the metro area ranked third in the nation for car thefts and in February “Men’s Health” labeled Bakersfield the tenth drunkest city.
Finally, a year ago “Forbes” magazine listed us as one of the nation’s ten most boring cities. But such lists don’t concern those who’s job it is to sell Bakersfield to businesses and visitors.
“If it’s a good list, I’m jumping up and down,” said Don Cohen, Manager of the Bakersfield Conventions and Visitors Bureau. “If it’s a bad list, it’s just another list, much ado about nothing for us.”
Cohen says such negative rankings don’t have any real impact on those who already work and live here, nor do they impact tourism.
“If it was going to impact us, it was going to impact us the same way that people say ‘I’m not going to California, because they have earthquakes there,'” Coehn said. “And we have more earthquakes than most states and that doesn’t seem to impact people.”
Rick Davis, Executive Director of the Kern County Board of Trade says they have no impact and will not change the way the county is marketed, though officials always preach the positive.
“We market Kern County from a positive perspective, not only for visitor-ship, but for filming, business, business travel, leisure travel, all of those things,” Davis said. “And the way you combat negatives is with an enormous amount of positives.”
Some of those positives include the Kern River Valley and East Kern, where tourism continues to grow. And in Bakersfield proper most visitors only stay for a couple of days where the threat of bad air quality isn’t a big deterrent.
And while ultimately the way to get off these lists is by improving things like the air, it doesn’t hurt to try and change the perceptions of those who made them in the first place.
“When those lists come out, what I like to do is send them an e-mail and invite them out to change their mind,” Davis said. However, no one has taken him on his offer just yet.
Another sign that these lists and rankings don’t hold any real bearing is the fact that companies, like State Farm last week, continue to set up shop here. So while it might come across as a black eye when you first hear about them as Cohen said its much ado about nothing, after all, those living here know what kind of community we have despite such problems as air quality and crime.
