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It's good to be the King
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Posted by petenewsone Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:46:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments It is not often that a city has a chance to celebrate in successful status as a two-tier city.

However, Bakersfield has always been and continues to enjoy this status with the help of the city's only major print media outlet firmly in their corner.

How can one segment of Bakersfield's population be so successful in promoting itself?

Political heavyweights in the right places, of course.

David Couch is the most effective member of the Bakersfield City Council and together with his counterpart at the county they are an insurmountable force for the elite Neocon community in the Northwest.

These people blessed by God and effective politicians who can produce amenities for the Northwest's choice few, such as extravagant parks at no cost to taxpayers, are truly clear examples of blessings from God; there can be no other explanation.

Let's see, these people have their own news outlet courtesy of The Californian in The Northwest Voice, to supplement the Californian's own propensity for extolling the virtues of these blessed people to the detriment of others.

But then again, what is wrong with that picture? The old Mel Brooks movie axiom applies, "It's good to be the King."

In reality, it is time to realign the city's wards to provide more equitable representation. Today, only Couch, Carson, and to some extent Hanson represent the majority views or interests of their constituents. The rest of the wards are gerrymandered to exclude rather than to include segments of Bakersfield's population. The effect of these gerrymandered wards is the over-representation of some to the exclusion of others.

And this with the blessing of "old" Bakersfield interests, including most of the local media.

It is not likely that any reform to Bakersfield's political institutions is possible in Bakersfield in the near future. What is possible is the continued promotion of the Northwest's "blessed people's" values at the expense of Bakersfield's other, less elite taxpayers.

What would be more likely would be secession by the Northeast to become the blessed Kingdom of RiverLakes.

Panfilo Fuentes

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