Monday April 21, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle —
For decades, residents of Bakersfield have lived with a river that’s little more than a channel of dust.
The Kern, which pours from the snowy peaks of the southern Sierra, descends upon California’s ninth-largest city and, in all but the wettest of years, runs dry. A sandy, weed-strewn corridor is left winding unremarkably through the downtown, beside roads, beneath bridges and behind businesses.
“Any major city that has a river or that sort of thing, they try to take advantage of it and make it an asset rather than an eyesore,” said Bill Cooper, who grew up near the Kern and has lived in Bakersfield most of his life. “A river can really add to a community. But nobody wants to live in our crappy town. Unfortunately, Bakersfield has that reputation.”
A group of residents is trying to change that. Cooper and dozens of others are fighting to bring water back to the Kern River, hoping to create a lush, parklike centerpiece in a city best known for the sunbaked oil fields and farms that surround it.