Bakersfield Commuters Driven to Find Good Life

Lee and Julie Cook paid two different prices for their American Dream.

One was moderate, in market terms--only $117,000 for a new, spacious single-story house in a safe, middle-class neighborhood.

The other was severe, in mileage terms--slightly more than 100 miles one way to their jobs in the San Fernando Valley.

The Cooks commute from Bakersfield.

“I ask her every week,” Lee Cook said, “if it’s worth it. And yes, it is. To be able to own a home is something I never thought we’d be able to do.”

The Cooks have plenty of company. As the Valley’s housing market, even with its recent slump, remains the American Impossible Dream for many young couples, the Bakersfield option has gone from seeming ludicrous to logical. Many people reasoned that with 50-mile commutes from the congested freeways of Antelope Valley already approaching 90 minutes each way, why not choose a smoother trip for the same driving time?

Last year was the best since 1979 for real estate sales in Bakersfield--3,303 houses sold--and agents estimate that one-quarter to one-half of the new homeowners arrive from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

Many of these new homeowners try to find jobs in the area, but because wages in Kern County don’t normally match those in Los Angeles, they choose to commute. Cindy Christensen, manager of the Kern Rideshare program, which arranges car pools and van pools for commuters, said requests for information have accelerated in the last six months. “A lot of people are calling to check the area out and see if they could get rides down south. They want to know what Bakersfield is like,” Christensen said.

Valley transplants view Bakersfield as small-town U.S.A., a chance to retreat from suffocating big-city crime and congestion. They say there is still enough to do--23 parks, nine movie theaters, seven libraries, five bowling alleys, four tennis clubs and the Kern Philharmonic Orchestra.

“I like the community; it seems more like home,” said Sue Johnson, 37, an Iowa native, whose husband, Scott, commutes each day to his job as a forklift parts salesman in Chatsworth. “When we were living in the Valley, it felt like we were staying in someone’s motel. You didn’t know anyone. And I wanted my kids to go to good schools, and (now) they do.”

But, much as they like the environment, the standard of living is the main appeal. The Johnsons bought a single-story ranch house, about 1,300 square feet, last year for $82,000. A similar structure in the San Fernando Valley would have cost at least twice as much. (Beverly Davis, a member of the Bakersfield Board of Realtors, said the average price today for a 1,500-square-foot house with three bedrooms and 1 3/4 baths is about $100,000. A spokeswoman for the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors put the same house in the Valley at about $210,000.)

The Johnsons moved to California from Iowa in 1986, when business got rough for farm implement dealers. They left behind a home they had purchased for $22,000 in 1975.

The family settled into a rented Newbury Park condominium but often yearned for the simplicity of the Midwest. “We thought that maybe California wasn’t all it was cracked up to be,” Scott Johnson, 42, said. “We made a lot more money, but it cost a lot more to live. We even considered going back. I didn’t feel we could ever afford a home.”

Indeed, the Johnsons had almost abandoned the idea of owning a house in California when they decided to check out Bakersfield. They liked what they saw.

For two years, Johnson commuted from Bakersfield with two co-workers. They rotated the driving responsibilities and split the gas expenses. When the others drove, Johnson slept. The commute was no big deal.

Last year, the others found new jobs or moved closer to the Valley, and Johnson found himself alone. The trip became more tedious, even with the often spectacular views of mountain ranges on both sides of the freeway. He searched for ways to alleviate the boredom, such as listening to self-improvement tapes, developing ideas for budget cutbacks at home, or counting deer.

“I usually count the deer in those fields over there,” said Johnson, pointing to an area about 40 miles south of Bakersfield. “Sometimes, in the fall, you can count 100 deer.”

Often, when Johnson approaches the Grapevine--the stretch of Interstate 5 between Ft. Tejon and Wheeler--fog suddenly rolls in. Driving becomes treacherous. “That’s one of the features of this drive,” he said, “although it’s usually worse in the morning.”

The fog occasionally becomes more than a nuisance. In late December, snow forced the closing of the Grapevine for several hours one day. But Johnson, who leaves home at 5:30 a.m., missed it.

The Cooks leave Bakersfield about 5 a.m., arriving in the Valley almost two hours later. They always carry extra clothes in their truck in case they have to spend a night in the Valley. In December, when it snowed in their hometown, they spent a night at a motel in Calabasas. “We drove all around looking for the best deal,” Lee Cook said.

Lee Cook, 32, manages a dental supply company in Canoga Park, while his wife, 29, works as a dental assistant in Woodland Hills. They fill up their tank every day, spending about $250 a month on gas and getting oil changes every three weeks.

But the drive does have its benefits.

“Before we’d come home for dinner,” Lee Cook said, “and not be that much in touch with what each other’s day was like. We have four hours of quality time together every day.”

His wife added, “If I’m in a bad mood, it’s great to have your best friend sitting next to you to talk about it.”

The Cooks didn’t plan to move to Bakersfield. They shopped around for months in the Valley, drawing an imaginary circle to stay within an hour’s drive of the Valley. But everything in all directions proved too costly, and they feared renting would be a permanent fact of life. When the Bakersfield idea was first mentioned to them by an Antelope Valley land developer, they gave it little credence. “It was nowhere near the circle,” Julie Cook said. “We thought it was just like driving to Sacramento.”

Still, they drove up one weekend to look around. The transformation from ridiculous to reasonable had begun.

“We couldn’t believe how cheap the homes were,” Lee Cook said. “Instead of buying the first house we could afford, it was more a question of which house do we like the features of? We could pick the kind of kitchen we like, the tiles, the carpet, the lot, everything.”

As much as they accept their new surroundings, the Cooks know that the idea of living so far away from work seems absurd to most people.

“I don’t even tell people anymore that we live in Bakersfield,” Lee Cook said. “They think we’re crazy and stupid. But the drive isn’t that bad. I used to commute for 45 minutes and that seemed like a long time. Suddenly, 45 minutes isn’t that long. And the traffic isn’t too bad.”

They acknowledge other sacrifices though. During the week, as Julie Cook put it, “We have no life.” They usually arrive in Bakersfield at about 8 p.m., either eating meals they have packed or stopping at fast-food joints on the way because there’s no time to make dinner at home. They go to bed before 11. Television doesn’t fit into the schedule. “A friend will ask if I saw this movie on television, and I’ll say, ‘No, I was in bed,’ ” Lee Cook said. “We tape it on the VCR and watch on weekends.”

For DR Rawson, weekends mean everything. For three years, Rawson, who owns a medical supply business in Woodland Hills, has left his Bakersfield house on Sunday nights or Monday mornings to spend the week in the Valley. For $200 a month, he rents a small room in a Lake View Terrace house. He misses his six children, ages 10 to 22, but says he has no choice. He finishes work between 7 and 8 p.m--too late to make a commute worthwhile. “In Bakersfield, there just isn’t work for what I do,” Rawson said. “I talk to them all the time. They know they can call me whenever they want.”

Rawson moved to Bakersfield in 1979 from La Verne to run a small, independent oil field company. In 1985, he left the business and looked for other work. His search took him to the Valley, but he didn’t want to move from Bakersfield.

“I don’t know if my kids would be street-wise enough to handle the schools down here. I know people in Bakersfield who leave their homes unlocked. You meet people on the street there, and you can be anywhere in 20 minutes.”

Yet Rawson, like the Cooks and Johnsons, despite their love affairs with their adopted home up north, hopes commuting is only a temporary hardship. Perhaps they will find work in Bakersfield or someday be able to afford a home closer to the Valley.

By then, perhaps the Bakersfield commute may be almost as common as the drives from Antelope Valley.

“We always used to get jokes on Johnny Carson,” said David Gay of Dean Gay Associates, a real estate agency. “But I think people are surprised by the fact that we’re not just a ‘one gas station on the freeway’ type of town.”