Post #281449 by mzoltarp on Sun, Jan 28, 2007 7:58 AM

Assuming this is the Kern City in Bakersfield, which was a master-planned community (probably Dell Webb), I will have to drive over and see if the tiki is still there. The place is a total throwback to the Atomic/Eames Era. The dwellings are duplexes with one common wall, many surrounding a golf course. The area has some front "lawns" that are rockscapes. Across from the golf course club house was a Safeway supermarket and a Thrifty drugstore (before RiteAid destroyed them). The shopping center lasted a nanosecond because when it was built, there was no real population mass near them aside from the oldsters (hey I'm coming to resemble that statement) so the Safeway and Thrifty went vacant. In fact, there were no real roads to the area when the houses were built. In 1965 a high school was built a block away. These days the high school has gone from country club kids to gang kids (I taught there for 22 years before getting the heck out of Dodge). The low income apartments have major crime. A driveby shooting happened next to the school last week. Despite this Kern City seems oddly idyllic. The Safeway and Thrifty building is now the home of the Kern High School District's administrative offices (the largest high school district in California).