Community galvanizes to help 85-year-old east Bakersfield man

Herbert Jackson's front yard was a whirlwind of strangers Monday morning.

Plumbers, electricians, county code enforcement bosses, volunteers, reporters and a politician swirled around the battered tan home on Monticello Avenue in east Bakersfield.

Jackson isn't one to ask for help, friends said.

But an avalanche of help descended on him last week after his home was boarded up by code enforcement officers.

A community effort aimed at making his home livable again, coordinated on social media and powered by political pressure and media coverage, blossomed.

On Monday, Jackson was just worried about keeping out of the way of "the traffic."

"I'm going to let them do it their way," he said.

VIOLATION

Jackson, 85, has owned the Monticello property since the 1950s.

He and his late wife had the modest home built when their twin daughters were born and they raised their family in it.

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Community galvanizes to help 85-year-old east Bakersfield man