BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The revitalization of Saunders Park, announced in March, is now complete, featuring several infrastructure upgrades and a new mural. The park’s enhancements include 15 additional trees, eight benches, improved lighting, fresh paint, and a new pathway leading to a vibrant mural celebrating a journey across California.<\/p>\n
The mural, created by artist Wendy Johnson, highlights local, state, and national parks, including the state capitol, Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park, and Red Rock Canyon State Park. Johnson shared, “This one feels like home. My family spent countless weekends there under the stars in Joshua Tree.”<\/p>\n
The mural project was funded by a $250,000 grant from the Arts in California Parks Program, resulting in a 118-foot mural on the park’s block wall. Johnson collaborated with the California Arts Council, the Arts Council of Kern, and the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. Parker Robinson of the Arts Council expressed gratitude for the collaboration, saying, “It was just, like, a total pleasure. I’m so glad that we were able to work together.”<\/p>\n
Councilmember Andrae Gonzalez participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, noting the long-awaited improvements. “It’s just been a major improvement for this park,” Gonzalez said. “Our residents, in this area, deserve a high-quality park, a safe place for children, families to come, and to play, and to hang out. And so, we’re gonna continue to work on it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The revitalization of Saunders Park, announced in March, is now complete, featuring several infrastructure upgrades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[792,151,153,152,790,793,788,791,787,789],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-arts-council-of-kern","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-community-event","tag-enhancements","tag-mural","tag-recreation-parks","tag-saunders-park","tag-wendy-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}