Is this inland California city the next Sacramento?

Bakersfield, Calif., is a great place to live, according to SFGATE readers. Bakersfield, Calif., is a great place to live, according to SFGATE readers. Photo: LPETTET/Getty Images Photo: LPETTET/Getty Images Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Is this inland California city the next Sacramento? 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

"Maybe you should leave your bubble sometime and venture out to visit someplace that doesn't require a tetanus shot just to leave your home," reads an email sent to me on April 30. It was sent a few days after I wrote up a study that described Bakersfield as one of the most popular markets for millennials.

The tone of the article was one of surprise and gentle skepticism; Bakersfield simply hadn't been on my radar as a trendy spot where people of my generation are flocking. Yet, within hours of publishing, Bakersfieldians wrote me explaining (in much kinder phrasing than the above email) why my attitude about their fair city was coastal elitism at its finest.

Miranda Whitworth was one such correspondent. The Bakersfield resident, who hails from Salt Lake City, offered me a laundry list of why her city should not be looked down upon by Bay Area reporters.

Over a series of emails, she told me about the historic home she purchased on a quarter-acre near downtown, how her commute to work was just four minutes, and she waxed effusive about the manifold cultural and culinary offerings the place had to offer.

"We can't all live like millionaires on the coast," she concluded, "but most of us can live like royalty in Bakersfield."

After emailing back and forth, I realized that Whitworth — and the 380,000 other people currently residing in Bakersfield — must be onto something.

But some skepticism remained. What would a former Bay Area resident think of the city? Would Bakersfield feel like a sweaty town draped with oil fields? Would she long for the rolling hills and ocean vistas of San Francisco? What about the food scene? The wacky, liberal culture?

That's when I found Cybil Alexander. She, too, read the aforementioned article.

Alexander lived in the Bay Area for 25 years. She graduated from San Jose State, fell into the tech industry and settled down in the South Bay with her husband and two children. Earlier this year, her family moved to Bakersfield.

The move was a few years in the making. Alexander was fed up with the Bay Area's traffic — picking up kids after work could take more than an hour — exhausted by the long lines at Whole Foods, and drained by monthly rent payments combined with childcare costs.

"We were like, why are we killing ourselves to pay for an area where we're outpaced?" she said. Even with a tech salary, Alexander found it hard to keep up.

"There's got to be somewhere else," she told herself.

That somewhere turned out to be Bakersfield, having decided Texas was too hot, Boise too far, and staying in California a priority. Plus, Alexander was born in Bakersfield, and her parents had recently moved back.

"If people are leaving the Bay but want to stay in California, they always talk about places like Sacramento," Alexander said. She thinks they should start talking about Bakersfield, too.

But Bakersfield, she confided during a phone call, had exceeded her expectations. It felt like something was happening there, she said. She noticed people were moving in, including many who had left expensive coastal cities, and were excited to plant roots in a city that was still growing, malleable.

In Bakersfield, Alexander can finally afford to own a home (and she's planning to build it from the ground up). She can save some money — an impossibility when paying upwards of $3,500 per month in Bay Area rent — and her kids' schools are a short, ten-minute drive away, without traffic.

But Bakersfield isn't a Bay Area consolation prize, according to the people who live there. There are farm-to-table restaurants and breweries, music festivals, hiking trails — exactly what you'd expect to find in a major, dare I say, up-and-coming city.

There are drawbacks, of course, like the notoriously hot temperatures and a suburban sprawl feel (by San Francisco standards, at least). But given the cost of living, these things are easily overlooked, Alexander said.

"Bakersfield has a negative connotation: oil country, bunch of hicks, nothing out here," she said. "Coming back and making the decision to move, [I've found] there's a ton of transplants, and the city is doing some beautiful work."

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at michelle.robertson@sfgate.com.

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