Drive through downtown Bakersfield this month and you will hit orange cones before you hit a green light. Sidewalks are torn up between L and O streets, a detour pushes foot traffic into the road, and city crews are still months from finished. Keep driving the same three blocks and you will also pass a taco shop that opened three weeks ago, a century-old building getting gutted for a deli and a climbing gym, and a Botanist co-owner telling a TV crew he is glad the mess is happening at all.
That is the part of the story that gets lost when people complain about the construction. The businesses moving into 19th Street are not waiting for the dust to settle. They are opening in the middle of it, on a bet that by the time the cones come down, they will already be the ones people are walking to.
What is actually torn up right now
City officials launched construction on the 18th and 19th Street Complete Streets Project, a multi-phase effort that will eventually stretch from F Street to Mill Creek, with the first phase focused between L and O streets. The project is scheduled to be completed by late October 2026. It is not a simple repaving job. The work includes resurfaced roads, improved sidewalks, new street lighting, bike-friendly striping and more than 180 trees and shrubs, plus bulb-outs at intersections to slow traffic and shorten pedestrian crossings.
The project is part of the Making Downtown Bakersfield Vision Plan, a 30-year framework meant to attract new business and residents while improving walkability. That is the long view. The short view, if you are the one stepping around a chain-link fence on your lunch break, is less generous. As of late July 2026, the revitalization program had reached its halfway point, with city officials saying the project remains on track for completion by late October. Pedestrians are being pushed into the road and parking has been cut off for local businesses, and one downtown regular who walks the corridor often says the construction has been dragging on since April. Halfway through, in other words, still means a few more months of navigating around equipment before the sidewalks and lighting are finished.
Not everyone downtown is treating that timeline as bad news.
"Anything that brings more people downtown and helps businesses thrive, we fully support," said Drew Kirk, co-owner of the Botanist, as city leaders broke ground on the project.
That is not a throwaway line from a business owner being polite to a reporter. It is the same logic showing up, independently, in two other places on the exact same three blocks.
The taco shop that didn't wait
A new taco spot opened in downtown Bakersfield on a Tuesday evening in July 2026, located at 1310 19th St. Tacos Mi Pa! celebrated its grand opening on Taco Tuesday, with the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce marking the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh attended to welcome the business and recognize its contribution to the community. The first 100 attendees received free tacos and drinks, and the restaurant leans into an authentic Mexican feel built around homemade tortillas, carne asada and churros.
That opening happened while the corridor was already mid-construction, past the groundbreaking and well into the phase where pedestrians are getting rerouted around equipment. Nobody at that ribbon-cutting was waiting for smooth sidewalks first. Local leaders framed the opening as evidence that supporting small businesses helps create jobs, spark economic growth and strengthen the community, which is the kind of line that sounds like filler until you notice it is being said in the middle of an active construction zone, not after one.
The building with a sign nobody knew was there
Two blocks up, a different kind of bet is playing out inside a building most people have driven past without a second look for years.
The 1200 block of 19th Street has been mostly vacant for decades, but it is undergoing a makeover that could revitalize not only that stretch of storefronts but also encourage more positive change throughout downtown. The building itself opened in about 1890 as a two-story hotel and will, sometime in 2026, be reborn as a 2,200 square foot deli or grocery, a small restaurant or sandwich shop, and an 8,000-square-foot rock climbing gym. The redesign comes from David Erb of Elevate Architecture, and the newly winged structure will also incorporate an existing sushi restaurant and sign company that face around the corner on L Street.
The best detail in the whole project is one nobody planned for. The corner spot slated for the deli was once home to Bakersfield Grocery Company, a 1920s-era market, and during the renovation crews found a ghost sign advertising its goods still intact underneath the old stucco. It reads "Fresh Every Morning, Prices Right." The building's co-owner did not know it was there until the stucco came off, and he has since talked publicly about treating it as a nod to the block's own history rather than covering it back up. That is a small thing, but it tells you something about the tone of this redevelopment. Nobody is trying to make 19th Street look new. They are trying to make it look like itself again, with better bones.
The bigger square footage in that building belongs to the climbing gym. Grit Valley Climbing will be Bakersfield's first bouldering-only gym, planting roots at 1221 19th St right in the heart of downtown. It is set to open late 2026 or early 2027. The space will have a roll-up door to bring in outside air when the weather is nice, and full buildout is expected to take all of 2026.
A corridor, not a coincidence
Line these up on a map and the pattern gets hard to miss. A taco shop opened at 1310 19th St in July, mid-construction. A historic building at 19th and L is being rebuilt into a deli and a climbing gym, with the buildout running through the same year the street work wraps. The road itself is scheduled to finish in late October, right as several of these spaces are either newly open or close to it.
| Address | What's changing | Expected timing |
|---|---|---|
| 1310 19th St | Tacos Mi Pa taco shop | Open now, opened July 2026 |
| 19th St & L St | 1890s building becoming a deli and small restaurant | Sometime in 2026 |
| 1221 19th St | Grit Valley Climbing, Bakersfield's first bouldering-only gym | Late 2026 to early 2027 |
| 18th & 19th St corridor, F St to Mill Creek | New sidewalks, lighting, trees and bike striping | Completion by late October 2026 |
None of these projects were built around each other's timelines on paper. But the effect is the same either way. By the time the last section of sidewalk is poured, downtown will not just look different. It will have new places to actually go.
What this means if you already walk this stretch
If your regular route downtown runs through 18th or 19th, the next few months are going to be genuinely annoying. Parking near your usual spot may be harder to find, and the detours are real, not theoretical. That friction is not going away until late October.
But the corridor is not emptying out while that happens. It is filling in. If you have not been down to the 1300 block for tacos yet, that is a five-minute stop worth making. If you are curious about the ghost sign at 19th and L, it is worth a walk-by before the storefronts around it are finished and the old stucco is a memory. And if you climb, or have been meaning to start, Grit Valley Climbing landing right in the heart of downtown is the kind of thing that changes what a Tuesday evening looks like.
The construction is the least interesting part of what is happening on 19th Street right now. It just happens to be the part everyone notices first.
If you have questions about what a changing corridor like this means for property values or timing nearby, Jerri Delfino has been tracking Bakersfield block by block for years. Let's Connect — Request Your Free Home Valuation.
