Some people are leaving Bakersfield so their families can live in a healthier place. Despite the undeniable health issues, community leaders are still selling out our long-term health for short-term profits.

"Vision" is beyond the dirty brown horizons -- unless you listen to the Planning Commission pseudo logic that believes we should expand Bakersfield along the northeast bluffs because they "...are the only places where you don't have smog."

OK, I get it -- let's gridlock and overdevelop this side of town, too, just like Rosedale -- more two-lane roads with no immediate plans to accommodate increased traffic and congestion.

According to the Planning Commission, the environmental impacts of the newly approved northeast housing projects are "minimal" compared to the larger northeast projects being approved. They all add up to this: Bakersfield the toxic wasteland.

But at least we have industrial distribution centers that keep the trucks rolling -- maybe we should build some asthma centers with the same high-volume capacities!