Council asks for an alternative train route from Bakersfield Express on Vimeo.

Anxious Bakersfield High School supporters wait in the lobby of the City Hall South building for a city council vote on the route of the High Speed Rail train. Photo by Jeff Nachtigal

By Jeff Nachtigal

The City Council ducked a vote at Wednesday’s meeting to recommend a specific High Speed Rail route through downtown Bakersfield.

Instead of endorsing one of two proposed routes for the train — the so-called “blue” or “red” routes — the council voted unanimously to “strongly recommend” the California High Speed Rail Authority comes up with an alternative route through town.

If there was any doubt about the reason for the city’s last-minute turnabout from endorsing the blue route, which would have sent the train on a path through a historic building on Bakersfield High School’s campus, the answer came via a sea of blue and white-clad, BHS supporters who numbered in the hundreds, crowded the council chambers, and spilled out into the lobby and the steps of the city administration building on Truxtun Avenue.

Over the past two weeks BHS supporters rallied to push back against the route that would require the demolition of the Industrial Technology buildings located on the north side of the campus — and apparently the powers-that-be in the city listened.

The City Planning Commission originally planned to recommend the council vote to support a route that would run along the south side of existing rail lines through downtown, but a memo dated June 8 from Planning Director Jim Eggert to the Mayor and City Council outlined the city’s change of heart, in no small part due to growing public concerns.

The city recommended that the council vote to ask for further study by the rail authority of alternative routes. Following several public speakers, the council did just that.

Kern High School District Superintendent Don Carter, the first speaker to address the council, first emphasized that the high school district is not against the high speed rail project. Carter said the district strongly supports the city’s revised position in asking for another route that doesn’t adversely affect Bakersfield High.

In addition to the fact the blue route would force the demolition of the school’s IT buildings, the district has concerns about the new train’s close proximity to the school and thousands of students, Carter said. He noted that necessary discussions between the rail authority and multiple state agencies that govern school locations and construction — including the Department of Education, State Board of Education, Office of Public School Instruction, and Division of State Architect — have not occurred.

Carter suggested the best way forward was a search for creative solutions that would further minimize the train’s impact on the community.

BHS Principal David Reese noted the disruption and safety issues inherent with having busy rail lines just outside the campus, and the concern that an additional set of rail lines would bring.

When news of the blue route came to light several weeks ago, BHS history teacher Ken Hooper and his students went to work digging in the school archives to prove the historical value of the buildings (built in 1923 and 1940), the school, and the school’s luminescent alumni.

In his remarks to the council, Hooper mentioned former Governor and Chief Justice Earl Warren, who passed through Bakersfield High’s classrooms and returned on several occasions to speak.

During World War II, future “Rosie the Riveters,” the women who would build the Navy’s ships and Air Force bombers, trained in the campus’ IT buildings, Hooper said.

The IT buildings have a bit of architectural pedigree: they were designed by architect Charles H. Bigger, who also designed downtown’s Haberfeld Building and the Fox Theater.

Councilmember Sue Benham provided a list of questions for the rail authority, asking for more specificity about rail alignment locations and the construction timeline, and how the rail authority would include more public input from Bakersfield citizens, especially given that the BHS community didn’t realize it may yet lose a building in the event the blue route is used.

One might have thought, given the number of “No on HSR” T-shirts, colorful signs and exuberant BHS alumni, students and supporters, that an invading force had been beaten back from the gates of the city.

In fact the final decision on the route through Bakersfield may not come for another year. And it will be made by the rail authority, not the City of Bakersfield.

Councilmember David Couch asked the audience to “stay engaged,” and then voiced the reality: “I know we’re not the deciding entity.”