Din of Hammers, Oil Wells Signal Bakersfield Boom

For most of its existence, Bakersfield has inhabited that awkward in-between place. Not as sophisticated as Los Angeles, just over the Tehachapi Mountains to the south, not as wealthy as its longtime economic rival Fresno, equidistant to the north.

But as many communities continue to struggle economically, good things are happening in this place best known for endless oil fields and the "Bakersfield Sound" ? a twangy style of steel guitar music made popular by hometown country crooners Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

Bakersfield and surrounding Kern County find themselves in lofty positions on key national lists measuring economic vitality: No. 1 metro area for long-term private sector job growth, No. 1 county for construction gains and No. 1 large metro area for annual economic growth.

Cheap land, affordable housing, proximity to Los Angeles, a location that's within a three-hour drive of 90 percent of the state's population, and a planning department that doesn't throw up roadblocks are driving the region's economic revolution, business leaders say.

Caterpillar's new parts distribution center at the confluence of Interstate 5 and Highway 99, the state's two major north-south transportation arteries, went from handshake to grand opening last August in just eight months. It joined 35 other logistics centers near there such as Ikea, Frito Lay, Dollar General, Famous Footwear and Target, drawn to the county because it is a one-day turnaround for truckers delivering from San Francisco to San Diego.

The demand for industrial and office space has left Kern County with little inventory.

"Everything is moving," said David Wagner, contractor Wallace & Smith's superintendent on a 28,000-square-foot business complex that's now a skeleton of I-beams. "The developer already has tenants for this and it won't open until April."

The contractor just finished a 160,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Delano, a NASCAR-style racetrack and a regional blood bank. It has four apartment complexes under construction and will break ground in February on a minor league baseball stadium.

Electrician Bryce McCall wondered during the downturn whether he had chosen the right profession. Not anymore.

"My wife and I would discuss whether I would be better off going to the oil fields," he said as he drilled wiring conduits in a new garage at a new development. "Now the jobs are happening and we're starting to pick up."

There's such an active business climate that this fall the Kern County Economic Development Corporation and Bakersfield Californian newspaper bucked industry trends by launching a print paper, the Kern Business Journal, now on its second edition. A new east-west freeway through the middle of town is paved and close to opening.

Long reliant on agriculture and oil, there's diversity of industries emerging, with renewable energy and aerospace gaining a foothold.

At the Mojave Air and Space Port in southeast Kern County, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo preps for the day it will carry passengers into suborbital space, and Paul Allen's Stratolaunch Systems is building the world's largest aircraft ? one that will carry rockets with commercial cargo and, eventually, passengers to the edge of space.

The wider, extended runway the company needs already was built. The space port complex has 400 acres pre-approved for construction.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=e83a411e8c3f46d64b1d49a4051bde9c

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