Andrae Gonzales | KERN LIVING - video Dailymotion

23ABC News

Join Kern Living host Ryan Nelson as he has a chat with the Vice Mayor of Bakersfield, Andrae Gonzales.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 - All right, welcome back.

00:04 Today we are sitting down with Bakersfield's Vice Mayor,

00:07 Andre Gonzalez.

00:08 Andre, how are you?

00:09 - I'm great, thank you so much for having me.

00:11 - Oh yeah, I'm happy that you're here

00:12 because I have so many questions

00:14 because being Vice Mayor,

00:16 you may know a little bit about Bakersfield

00:17 that I don't know.

00:18 So what are some of your favorite things to do,

00:20 especially in downtown?

00:21 - Oh man, I love Bakersfield.

00:23 It's a wonderful place to live

00:24 and it's a wonderful place to hang out.

00:26 And downtown Bakersfield's a great venue.

00:28 I actually live downtown Bakersfield.

00:30 So many nights, one of my favorite things to do

00:33 is just to walk my dog in downtown Bakersfield

00:36 and walk through the different streets

00:38 and see all the different stores,

00:40 window shop, that type of thing.

00:42 But there's so many things.

00:44 The coffee culture is really improving in downtown.

00:48 You have Adventure Awaits, you have 502 Coffee,

00:51 Blue Whale Coffee, of course you have Dagne's

00:54 and Cafe Smitten.

00:55 But all of these cafes are right in the heart of our city.

00:59 And it's a wonderful venue to meet new people,

01:03 to meet up with old friends,

01:05 but it's certainly a place that really enhances

01:07 our community right here in downtown.

01:10 - Absolutely, I agree with that.

01:11 And all those coffee places that were named,

01:13 could you name them one more time?

01:14 'Cause I know there's people at home

01:15 that are like, "Wait a minute, 502, what?"

01:17 - Yeah, you have 502 Coffee in the Haberfeld building.

01:20 - Okay.

01:20 - Adventure Awaits, that's on 19th Street in Eastchester.

01:25 You have Dagne's, which is on 19th and I streets.

01:28 And then Cafe Smitten, which is on 18th Street,

01:31 900 block of 18th Street.

01:33 Those are just four.

01:34 Then you have Blue Whale Coffee,

01:36 which is right off of G Street.

01:40 So there's so many different little coffee venues.

01:43 I encourage everybody to go and visit.

01:45 - And speaking of downtown,

01:47 is there anything coming up

01:48 that we should know about as a community?

01:49 - Yeah, so every second Saturday,

01:52 there's an event that the Hub of Bakersfield

01:54 puts together called Second Saturday.

01:56 And there, if you visit it,

01:57 bakersfieldsecondsaturday.org,

02:00 you can see actually all the different things

02:02 that are happening in downtown Bakersfield.

02:03 And it's a way for us to encourage people

02:05 to come and check out all the stores,

02:07 all the restaurants, all the cafes,

02:10 and all the different things

02:11 that downtown Bakersfield has to offer.

02:12 We have to, in order for us to see revitalization

02:16 in our downtown core, we have to support it.

02:18 Us as individuals, right?

02:19 We have to be able to contribute

02:21 and help small business owners succeed

02:24 with our pocketbooks, with our wallets.

02:26 And so we're just encouraging people

02:28 every second Saturday to take some time

02:30 to come downtown Bakersfield.

02:32 - Okay, what are the hours for that?

02:34 - It's actually all day long.

02:35 And so you have to take a look at the website

02:37 and you can get a listing

02:38 of all the different things that are happening.

02:39 - Awesome, what was the name of the website?

02:41 - bakersfieldsecondsaturday.org.

02:43 - That sounds like a lot of fun.

02:44 I have yet to be there.

02:45 I've seen it on social media, so the Hub.

02:48 And my last question being,

02:49 and we were talking about this before the show,

02:51 a lot of families are moving to Kern County

02:53 from other places in California, some out of state.

02:56 What would you say is the best reason

02:57 why Bakersfield is the place to move to?

02:59 - Well, it's a very family-oriented community.

03:01 Even still when we're growing,

03:03 we still are a family-oriented community.

03:06 The cost of living is relatively more affordable.

03:09 People who want to own a home can do so here

03:14 versus other parts of the state.

03:16 But the other thing too is there's so much opportunity,

03:18 the opportunity to advance your education,

03:21 your career, to start a new business.

03:23 There's so many opportunities here in this community

03:26 that are accessible.

03:27 - Okay, well thank you so much for coming

03:29 and giving us all this wonderful information.

03:31 In addition to what he said, our reporter, Ava Kirshner,

03:34 she does so many things downtown,

03:36 so make sure you head to turnto23.com

03:38 to watch her content about things that go on,

03:40 specifically downtown.

03:42 And I want to thank you again for coming.

03:43 - Thank you.

03:44 - I want to thank everybody for watching.

03:45 Make sure you follow us on all social media platforms.

03:47 That's @kernliving, and you can follow myself

03:50 at RyanNelson23, and I will see you all tomorrow,

03:53 same time, same place.

03:54 But in addition to that, if you want your business here

03:56 on Current Living, make sure you send an email

03:58 to ryan.nelson@kero.com.

04:02 I'll see you all tomorrow, same time, same place

04:04 for Current Living.

04:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Andrae Gonzales | KERN LIVING

Category

Transcript

Recommended