Jan 06, 2025
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- One specific section of downtown Bakersfield is likely to feel the impact of California High Speed Rail in an especially meaningful way. The high speed rail station, scheduled to go online sometime in the next decade, is a beacon of hope among business owners in the F Street area. They’re hoping that the station will transform downtown Bakersfield in a positive way.  “I’m praying that it would be for the best,” said Angie Rimer, co-owner of the Village Grill. “I would love to have more people coming through, more people from out of town coming through.” The F Street corridor qualifies as downtown but is by no means centrally located, and some businesses there have been hit with burglary and vandalism. Those are issues that affect all businesses to varying extents, but In Your Wildest Dreams, an antique and second hand vendor mall has been hit especially hard. Gabe Ulloa and his wife Tina bought Wildest Dreams last June. They hope the train station will, as forecast, transform their corner of the city. “I hope that it’s really going to revitalize it, really just bring a lot more to this -- I don't want to say the forgotten pocket of downtown -- but this part is not the main core of downtown,”  Gabe Ulloa said.  “The F Street corridor has got a lot of great flagship stores. We’ve got Rosemary’s, we’ve got us, In Your Wildest Dreams, we have a lot of great things over here, we’ve got Mossman’s down the way, but anything we can do to just continue to boost up this part of downtown, I’m excited for, and just the idea of more travelers being purposeful coming this part of downtown to this area, I think, is exciting for all the businesses, restaurants or retail.” A handful of businesses along the frontage road on the north side of Golden State Avenue stand to be impacted even more. The somewhat secluded Golden Empire Transit District Office is tentatively scheduled to move, as is Pensinger’s, an RV dealer that has been around for a half-century, and presumably, the Deja Vu strip club. The old Rancho Bakersfield Motel and its landmark Let’s Eat sign, is long gone.  The only thing left -- the fenced-off property, which for now has been claimed by the unhoused -- that is, until the high speed rail authority is ready to reclaim it.
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