Letters to the Editor RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail StoryMore thoughts on proposed city logo
| Monday, Jul 24 2006 5:45 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jul 24 2006 5:49 PM
Logo progressive
Our readers recommend:
Loading Stories
I read the editorial regarding Bakersfield's logo. I couldn't believe what Bakersfield Vision 2020 is proposing!
The existing logo is modern, farsighted and says Bakersfield is progressive community.
I say this as an artist -- I love it.
If the City Council tries to change it to what is proposed, it will be like "Fun Sun Play Stay," the old logo that I was so glad to see changed. As a resident of Bakersfield, it was an embarrassment.
I have never sent a letter to the editor, but I think this proposal enrages me and is worthy of my comment.
-- JACQUELINE PARISH, Bakersfield
Logo a mockery
Leave the current logo alone. I think it does represent where we are in this valley and is certainly better than "Life as it should be." What a mockery.
"Life as it should be" goes to real places like Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey or Cambria.
Or maybe compared to Fresno, Chowchilla, Pixley, Selma and other valley towns, we do shine just a little better than them.
-- ADIN R. (TIM) BOSS, Bakersfield
Slogan arrogant
"Life as it Should Be" is probably the most arrogant slogan I have ever heard. I live in the sprawl that is the northwest and find that the new signs going up are an insult on Bakersfield's integrity.
Bakersfield is my hometown and I love it unconditionally, for reasons outsiders do not understand.
If planners are under the impression that valley fever, pollution, violence and urban sprawl is the way life should be, then I'm not so sure this is the place I want to call home.
When I explain Bakersfield to people at my college, I say "it's a suburb of Los Angeles (of sorts), separated by mountains. It's hot, vast and (until I experienced life in the Bible belt) conservative. There is stuff to do if you put your mind to it, and our king is Buck Owens. It's probably like any other city you've seen, except we have Dewar's chews and it's a great launch pad for "travel."
I would never dream to have the audacity to describe my Bakersfield community as something as pompous as "Life as it Should Be."
We are a quickly growing, tract-home loving, dog walking, air polluting/SUV driving, local news watching, QVC ordering, Buck Owens-idolizing, Costco-shopping, brunching, jury duty-going swimming pool land.
We should embrace our simplicity and our long lines and say: "Bakersfield: The way it is."
-- CRYSTLE SANCHEZ, Bakersfield
Fix potholes
If Vision 2020 wants a new Bakersfield sign, it needs to raise the funds for it themselves. I don't want my tax dollars going to new signs when we have thousands of pot holes in this city that need repair.
In my opinion, the sign we have now is fine. The proposed sign looks like they got the idea for it from Lendingtree.com. I don't like it.
-- KAREN JACKSON, Bakersfield
Motto needs humor
I have always liked the squiggle. It's different.
As for the other logo, "Bakersfield: Life as it Should Be," that's rather confusing.
I saw some T-shirts at a gift shop. One said, "Bakersfield: A river bed runs through it." Another said "But it's a dry heat," with a picture of a dying dog. And another had "Talk crude to me (as in oil) -- Bakersfield."
That's more like it. It shows we can laugh at ourselves. But "Life as it Should be?" Come on.
-- ANGIE BISPO, Bakersfield
Big thermometers
The subject of the Bakersfield signs on Highway 99 has surfaced recently, with most of the objections to them being the squiggly line which, I believe, is intended to represent the valley.
I offer an alternative to the mysterious "waves." I propose large round, or maybe octagonal, thermometers, easily readable day and night, with "B-A-K-E-R-S-F-I-E-L-D" decorating the outer perimeter. The size of the signs would be determined by its readability at the common traffic speed.
Drivers, particularly those who rarely pass through, would be offered an accurate assessment of our temperatures. Midsummer, strangers would be able to brag about their experiences of traveling in 108 degrees, while winter visitors might relate the mildness of a January experience.
Baker has a large vertical thermometer, but it stands out like the old signs on Route 66, which asked the driver to stop and see the two-headed buffalo or the longest caterpillar in the world.
Our signs/thermometer would be practical, decorative and remembered by the passing public. They could even be digital.
-- HENRY G. ROSEN, Bakersfield
Laugh or cry?
A Vision 2020 committee believes a coordinated marketing strategy and a new city logo will help Bakersfield's image?
Spending $261,000 plus for monuments is going to help?
Do I laugh or cry? Just read The Californian:
* Sunday, July 16, letter to the editor: "Shopping mayhem."
* Sunday, July 16, Local Section: "Night crimes worry downtown workers."
* Sunday, July 16, Local Section: "Rosedale Highway is driving these guys crazy."
* Saturday, July 15, Local Section: "Carson: Gang violence needs emergency plan."
* Sunday, July 16, Viewpoint: "Clean up valley's air."
Have you ever called for a police officer and they never respond?
I could go on. Here is a novel idea: Why doesn't the City Council try being proactive for a change and see that the people who pay the taxes are being served?
You just might find this is the best way to change the city's image.
-- DONALD HASLETT, Bakersfield
As it could be?
Apparently, Californian columnist Robert Price has no problem with "...either the squiggle or the leaf." I do. Notwithstanding the fact that the leaf fails to pass what I call the three "C" test (it is not cute, clever or creative), it does not symbolize anything at all that is unique to Bakersfield. What I would suggest is a red hot sun surrounded by a black cloud of smog with a silver lining around it. Why the silver lining:
* The Valley Plaza has become known, not as a place where people shop 'till they drop, but a place where people shoot 'till they drop.
* There is a meth head to our madness: While Bakersfield residents cook in the midsummer sun, "chemistry lab" operators throughout the city and the surrounding communities are cooking enough meth to supply a whole nation of crack heads.
* The Rockin' Rodeo had to close its doors because it turned into the Wild West.
* When city planners finally opted to introduce a water-enhanced park to cool down our temperature and our tempers in the summer, it became surrounded by West-Nile-Virus-infested mosquitoes and it soon contained the watery grave of a young girl who didn't see the signs.
* We just lost some of our greatest pioneers: Buck, Bonnie and Burke.
What was the question again? Oh yeah. And the answer?
Bakersfield: Life as it Should Be? If we're going to dream, why not follow the dreams of our biggest dreamers? Why not first face reality, and then dream of a Bakersfield as it could be?
-- BRUCE L. THIESSEN, Bakersfield
We are what we are
I don't understand why after such a short time with our "squiggle" there is already a move to change it. It depicts what we have -- mountains, hills, valley, sun. The leaf is nice, but is in reality a very generic logo.
"Bakersfield, Life as it Should Be" is a nice welcome and along with the "squiggle" says a lot! However for those seeking a "true" depiction, why not "Bakersfield, We are what we are?" That says it all, nothing to be misinterpreted.
-- PAM HENDERSON, Bakersfield
Motto begs mocking
My objections to the proposed Bakersfield logo and motto:
* The motto is not original. The state of Maine has had the unofficial motto: "Maine: the way life should be" for three decades.
* The motto is not accurate and only serves to mock our deficiencies. A motto like that begs to be ridiculed.
* In Maine, a vacation refuge for many people from hot cities to the south, that motto feels like it fits. Here, it calls for a cynical retort.
* The logo does not reflect the city. A green privet leaf might represent a town in Ohio, but not a city where, if it's green, it means that someone watered it. The current "swash" logo may have its problems, but it does reflect honestly the geography and climate of the city --mountains and sun. Think how appropriate and attractive the Zuni sun symbol on New Mexico's license plates is. It doesn't have to be ugly to represent Bakersfield, but it has to be honest.
* The logo also is not original. Go look at www.lendingtree.com.
* The organization went outside the city and paid $55,000 to have an agency come up with it. Any organization that purports to be a booster for Bakersfield unwittingly denigrates the very town it is trying to promote by ignoring its own talent. Pretty insulting. (And for that amount of money neither the motto nor the logo was original. They got took!)
-- DINAH CAMPBELL, Bakersfield
Too much money
Much too much money has already been spent on the current logo -- i.e. letterheads, cars, etc. Which, I like by the way.
The paint color on the entrance to Bakersfield sign which could not be read or whatever nonsense the City Council person said, spent more on that fiasco to correct it.
-- MARY K. STEWART, Bakersfield