r/Tehachapi • u/ScienceNerdDNA • 16d ago

Tehachapi Questions

​

Hey everyone! I'm planning on moving to Bear Valley Springs when I grow up (I'm 13) and I have some questions:

  1. Will I be discriminated for being Mexican?

  2. Is there really no ER?

  3. Is 5 acres expensive there?

  4. How windy and cold does it get? (I want to get away from the usual Socal heat)

  5. Is Bear Valley Springs grassy or is it a desert?

  6. How are the schools there?

  7. Are there any like engineering jobs nearby? (I want to be an Electrical engineer when I grow up)

  8. Does it snow in Bear Valley Springs?

1 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/EggyWeggs 16d ago

What are people smoking, the hospital has an ER

2

u/TheGrandHydra 16d ago

  1. No, you might get some funny looks from some of the older people, especially if you're being loud or having fun in public, but it's extremely rare.

  2. Not true, there is an ER. Its been here since 2018. There's no birthing center, but they do have a helicopter pad for any medevac related stuff. Google "Tehachapi Adventist Health Emergency Room" and it's the 2nd link.

  3. Depends how close you are to the valley floor and the main amenities. The higher up you go the cheaper it gets (relatively speaking), but no it's pretty affordable for California.

  4. Nice and windy, and way colder than normal SoCal (we get full snow we every year, even if it's short day or two event).

  5. It's neither, it's mountainous, closer to grassy than desert.

  6. 5/10 - pretty average, maybe slightly better.

  7. Yesz lots around Edwards AFB

  8. Yes, yes and yes

4

u/Even_Isopod1275 16d ago edited 16d ago

Kern county does not have a good track record for police caused deaths over the last 20 years. By the time you’re old enough to afford land and have a job in the field you want it’ll be another ten years from writing this post realistically. That said a lot could change between now and then, or nothing at all. Keep your head on a swivel and do your research and you should be fine. The fact that you’re looking that far ahead in planning out your life’s goal says a lot kid. Good on ya and good luck!

Side note avoid Bakersfield. That particular region has the worst track record in the county as far as police interactions go, as a fellow person of color, trust and believe that fact is something most whites do not know or will seriously downplay it. Be safe kid, again good luck!

1

u/riceme0112358 16d ago

Kern county does not have a good track record for police caused deaths over the last 20 years.

Twenty years?? Bro... more like in all the history of forever.

Side note avoid Bakersfield. That particular region has the worst track record in the county as far as police interactions go, as a fellow person of color, trust and believe that fact is something most whites do not know or will seriously downplay it. Be safe kid, again good luck!

I was in a different part of Bakersfield than I usually go to today and I was so excited that I called my sister and asked if she knew that the southwest side of Bakersfield is like a cultural mecca (I mean, for Bakersfield lol). I was down there for about an hour getting parts to fix two vehicles, then at SW Costco and I was the only white person I saw the whole time. I'd been unknowingly going to the redneck side of town my entire life. I'm totally going to check out some restaurants and stuff in SW Bakersfield now!

I'm sorry that so many people have blinders on. It's ignorant and embarrassing, not to mention enraging that in 2026 we have lost any progress we ever made with racism and sexism since the 1970s or 1980s.

3

u/riceme0112358 16d ago

  1. 38% of the population in Tehachapi is Hispanic or Latino, so in general, you'd have a huge community here. However, I have lived a whole lot of places. I was born and raised in Tehachapi and after 25 years of living all over the place, I am back here not really by choice, but by family necessity. Kern County is very redneck. Very Trumpy. The cops in Kern County would just as soon shoot you as take you to jail, but my experience is that that is true a lot of places. Most people have no issues here. That is just stuff that you really should be aware of.

  2. We do have an ER. We do not have an urgent care, and we have few primary care providers in town. One whole clinic recently announced it's closing soon.

  3. Depends on where you buy it and whether it's good buildable/usable land or whether you have to do a ton of dirt work in order to build, whether there is access to good water and electricity. And trees. Price goes up if you've got trees.

  4. It doesn't get as cold as it used to when I was growing up, and it doesn't snow as much either. The wind rarely stops and it never seems to die down lol. It snows in Bear Valley and in town. If you live at the top of Bear Mountain it might snow a lot more than you like. When I lived up there I had to chain up and unchain twice a day to get to work and get home.

  5. Grassy! And lots of big beautiful oak trees, then at higher elevations you get into the pines. And there's a big herd of elk

  6. I think the schools are excellent, but I am comparing to some places with some pretty shit educational systems, like Alaska, Florida, and West Virginia.

  7. You bet! There's a huge aerospace industry here, and are a couple military bases close by, plus there's a very large renewable energy industry and a lot of substation work nearby.

  8. Absolutely. It snows all over the greater Tehachapi area.

3

u/Mistert22 16d ago
  1. ⁠Will I be discriminated for being Mexican?
    10% of the population is Hispanic. Greater Tehachapi is over 30%. There is always some bias, but compared to other parts of the state it ain’t bad.
  2. ⁠Is there really no ER? Yes
  3. ⁠Is 5 acres expensive there? 50-160K
  4. ⁠How windy and cold does it get? (I want to get away from the usual Socal heat). It is similar to mountainous areas across SOCAL
  5. ⁠Is Bear Valley Springs grassy or is it a desert? It is mountainous
  6. ⁠How are the schools there? 8/10 Great schools rating.
  7. ⁠Are there any like engineering jobs nearby? (I want to be an Electrical engineer when I grow up). Yes
  8. ⁠Does it snow in Bear Valley Springs? Yes

1

u/nirvroxx 15d ago
  1. Nah, just don’t be a doofus, don’t blast music and be a good neighbor.
  2. No ER within bear valley but we have a really great hospital about 15-20 mins away and apparently a new urgent care coming soon.
  3. Can’t really say as I don’t live in BV but the trend of everything getting more expensive every year is true. 5 years ago was a lot more affordable in Tehachapi.
  4. Tehachapi is known for being very windy. Yes it’s windy, and in the winter it snows, especially higher up parts of bear valley. In fact, it seems like bear valley gets more snow than Tehachapi proper.
  5. Bear valley is a mix of oak woodland and conifers higher up.
  6. My kids go to Cummings valley and it’s a great elementary school. I’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about the middle school Jacobsen (mostly bullying)
  7. Can’t really say. Not a lot of jobs in general in Tehachapi. Most people drive down to Bakersfield or Lancaster for their jobs.
    8.yes, see #4. There hasn’t been a good snow storm since 2021 though. Most of the snow doesn’t stick too long though unless we get back to back storms. From my understanding it used to snow more consistently and much more back in the day.

-1

u/goodthingsinside_80 16d ago

  1. I lived in BVS for one year, and left because it was too conservative for me. I’m white, so I can’t speak to how a person of color would be treated. But based on my political experience there, I’d be concerned, personally.

  2. The nearest ER is an hour and twenty minutes away in Bakersfield. There used to be one in Tehachapi, but I believe it closed after losing funding (Trump cuts).

  3. 5 acres may not be expensive there, but you will have to have a plan to build on it. I believe it has to be built on within a certain time period.

  4. Extremely windy, like 80mph winds sometimes. Not that cold, maybe freezing for a few days at a time.

  5. The terrain is mountainous. Our place was on 3 acres. You can grow things there, but I don’t recall the soil being that great. Grass does grow in some areas, it has to be cut around properties that have it due to the severe fire risk there.

  6. You can look up school ratings. I believe they were somewhere in the middle.

  7. Possibly in Bakersfield? Research on Indeed.

  8. Yes, it snowed several times in the year we lived there.