The City of Riverside invites the community to celebrate Independence Day with 4th of July fireworks extravaganzas at two local parks.

The City of Riverside Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department will present the shows promptly at 9 p.m. at La Sierra Park (5215 La Sierra Ave.) and Mt. Rubidoux (4706 Mt. Rubidoux St.).

Spectators are encouraged to bring their own blankets and refreshments. No access will be available at Carlson Dog Park or Mt. Rubidoux after 7 a.m. on July 4. The City of Riverside encourages residents to enjoy the fireworks at these parks and not engage in personal fireworks usage.

All fireworks are illegal within city limits, and anyone found using illegal fireworks is subject to a $1,000 fine. Fireworks cause injuries in adults and children, spark fires that can endanger firefighters and the public, create stress for veterans with PTSD, and terrify many animals.

The City has sent warning letters to people who have been cited in the past and to addresses identified as fireworks sites.

Report illegal fireworks by calling 311 (951-826-5311) during regular business hours. For the best response after regular business hours, use the 311 mobile app or the website.

Calls made after regular working hours will be directed to a non-emergency dispatcher to document information for follow-up.

For issues regarding imminent threats to life or property, call 911. For non-emergency calls to the Riverside Police Department, call 951-354-2007. Additional information: RiversideCA.gov/fire

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In an effort to reduce carbon emissions and the effects of climate change, the City of Riverside is requiring most new buildings that are three stories or less to be all electric starting Jan. 6, 2023.

The requirement will extend to all new buildings, regardless of height, after Jan. 1, 2026. The 4-3 decision from the City Council on Tuesday (12/6) includes exceptions for commercial kitchens, process loads for manufacturing facilities, and water heating if net metering is unavailable for affordable housing.

There is an appeal process for buildings for which all electric may not be feasible. Council members voting yes included Ronaldo Fierro, who sponsored the measure, Erin Edwards, Clarissa Cervantes and Steve Hemenway.

Voting no were Chuck Conder, Gaby Plascencia and Jim Perry. “By passing this ordinance, we are showing everyone that Riverside is a trailblazer leading the way towards a breathable and sustainable future,” Fierro said.

“Our goal from the outset was to craft an emission reduction strategy that makes sense for Riversiders — and a policy that the State can emulate because of its careful and effective considerations.”

The vote culminates about 18 months of work, including multiple community meetings. Additional input came from a Decarbonization Advisory Group (DAG) made up of representatives from the development community, organized labor, environmental justice and community groups, and other industry experts.

The vote also aligns with the Envision Riverside 2025 Strategic Plan, which calls for Riverside to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Building electrification, sometimes referred to as building decarbonization, involves phasing out natural gas infrastructure powered by fossil fuels for cooking and heating in buildings in favor of electricity, often powered by solar, wind, and other sources of zero-carbon power.

Riverside joins more than 60 other California cities and counties that have implemented all-electric building codes, including Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Glendale, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, and South San Francisco. The code will apply to all construction – residential, commercial and industrial – with the noted exceptions.

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Riversideca.org | Contributed

The City of Riverside is now accepting applications for the Arts & Culture Grant Program for eligible arts and cultural non-profit organizations within the community.

Allocations include $291,369 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year and $294,283 for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Eligible non-profits may apply for funding from 10 percent to 20 percent of their annual income levels according to the guidelines for the 2022-2024 funding cycle.

“By providing two funding cycles, the City of Riverside is proving its commitment to maintaining an environment where non-profits have access to funding,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said. “The Arts and Culture Grant supports non-profits to continue their important work. Non-profits that specialize in arts and culture are the lifeblood of our city through the community events they host and the educational programming they administer.”

The Arts & Culture Grant Program offers general operating support to established City of Riverside artistic and cultural non-profit organizations that have developed a broad range of programming. To be eligible. non-profits should contribute substantially to the cultural life of the community.

Guidelines and Applications are available at https://riversideca.gov/arts/

For more information, please email specialevents@riversideca.gov

For the latest information and resources regarding COVID-19 — www.RiversideCA.gov/COVID-19

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People who live and work in Riverside will have convenient access to the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as Saturday, when the City of Riverside opens its first vaccination site in a large parking lot just north of the Riverside Convention Center.

As many as 500 vaccinations will be available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day starting Saturday, then continuing Monday-Friday starting the following week, provided the City can continue to receive consistent shipments of the vaccine from the state. The number of daily vaccinations will grow if more vaccine becomes available.

Interested parties can learn more about the vaccine and learn how to sign up for an appointment at the Riverside vaccination site by visiting https://vaccine.riversideca.gov. The website includes a link to make an appointment. Appointment slots are expected to be available by the end of Thursday.

“Vaccinations, combined with the continued wearing of a mask and adherence to physical distancing – these are the steps we need to take together as a community to reduce the impact of COVID-19,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said. “I encourage Riversiders to get vaccinated in accordance with the state’s guidelines so we can stop the spread of the virus and speed our recovery.”

The vaccination site is being created with the same company the City has partnered with to greatly increase the number of COVID-19 tests being conducted in western Riverside County. Curative Inc. operates multiple testing sites around Riverside and will continue to offer testing at existing locations while focusing exclusively on vaccinations at the Convention Center site. To schedule a test, visit RiversideCA.gov/testing.

The vaccine is currently available to people who are 65 or older or work in Phase 1A (all tiers) or Phase 1B. Anyone interested in getting vaccinated should determine whether they are part of the groups, which are shown in this chart.

The vaccine will be the Moderna product, which requires a second shot 28 days later. That second shot can be scheduled through the same website as appointments open up closer to each person’s respective 28th day. The second shot can be taken after 28 days, but never before.

Nobody will be vaccinated without an appointment. No walk-up vaccinations or on-site registrations will be permitted.

People who get appointments and are eligible because of their age should bring a photo identification card showing their birth date. People who get appointments and are eligible because of their work should plan to bring an identification badge and/or letter from work proving eligibility. No-cost parking is available.

Person who receive appointments should arrive at the vaccination site near the time of their appointment, not earlier and definitely not later. Each person will be checked in by computer, then moved under a large tent, where they will receive the shot, then be observed for 15 minutes to check for potential adverse reactions.

“Riverside has had great success on the testing front, working with Curative to dramatically increase residents’ ability to make informed decisions about their health and the health of their families,” Mayor Pro Tem Jim Perry said. “I look forward to seeing us replicate that success with vaccinations.”

Everyone who gets an appointment should plan to wear a mask or face covering while at the vaccination site. Vaccine supply and appointments are limited. All appointments are subject to change due to vaccine availability. More appointment dates will be scheduled as future vaccine availability is confirmed. Check the website regularly.

The vaccination is highly recommended, even if a person has previously recovered from COVID-19 and believes they have antibodies.

For the latest information and resources regarding COVID-19 — www.RiversideCA.gov/COVID-19

Updated 02/02/2021: The first allocation of the vaccine was Moderna, which requires a second shot 28 days later. That second shot can be scheduled through the same website as appointments open up closer to each person’s respective 28th day. The second shot can be taken after 28 days, but never before. Based on availability, future allocations may be Pfizer which will then require a second shot 21 days later. Upon securing a timeslot, a confirmation email will be sent notifying each person whether their shot will be Moderna or Pfizer.

Vaccine.riversideca.gov • Contributed

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Revisions to the 2008 Good Neighbor Guidelines and city zoning codes were five years in the making, but now the city has the strictest requirements for new warehouse developments in the region.

Critics have said both the original city guidelines and a county version passed last year lacked the teeth needed to give communities the power to hold warehouses accountable on air pollution, truck noise, and changes to neighborhood character.

“I think this is a big stepping stone in seeing that local elected and local officials are more responsive to the needs of the community and are understanding that [the] logistics industry does come with some drawbacks,” said Faraz Rizvi, spokesperson for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice.

The industry is one of the largest employers in the Inland Empire, and Rizvi says with the pandemic online shopping boom and grassroots efforts to gain the attention of elected officials, those drawbacks have become impossible to ignore. 

The revised rules include a limit on warehouse square footage, computer modeling of air quality impacts, and a health risk assessment for proposals that would put sites within 1000 feet of areas like neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals.

Warehouse projects that are currently in the approval process are exempt from the new rules.

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The Riverside City Council on Tuesday (10/20) approved a Riverside Anti-Racist Vision formulated by the Mayor’s Multicultural Forum, and Mayor Rusty Bailey encouraged members of the community to sign on to the Mayor Bailey and Dr. Carlos Cortés, a UC Riverside professor emeritus of history, presented the item at the City Council meeting and outlined how the vision was formed and what it is intended to represent. They pointed out that anti-racism is more than just acknowledging racism is wrong; it is the active effort to combat it in the community.

“By adopting and following these principles, and by annually reassessing progress in their implementation, including measurable accountability, the City of Riverside can become a true national leader in creating and sustaining an anti-racist community,” Mayor Bailey said.

The City Council vote was the culmination of several months of work. Members of the Mayor’s Multicultural Forum began meeting in June following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, sparking a conversation for what an anti-racist Riverside effort should entail.

On June 30, the City Council adopted a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis in the City of Riverside. In August, the Mayor’s Multicultural Forum began to formulate the Riverside Anti-Racist Vision and approved a final draft at its September meeting.

A copy of the Anti-Racist Vision can be found here: https://riversideca.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8839823&GUID=EFA063AD-A76B-4209-BB4D-89206C3DFE13

Dr. Cortés is an internationally known scholar of race and ethnicity and has taught for decades on such topics as inclusivity and diversity. Locally, he is regarded as the chief architect of the City of Riverside’s Inclusivity Statement and as the namesake for the Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Award for Championing Diversity and Inclusivity, presented each year during the State of the City Address.

Dr. Cortés explained that the Inclusive Community Statement is a broad presentation of diversity and inclusivity principles, while the anti-racism vision focuses strictly on racism and ways to challenge it. In that regard, the Riverside Anti-Racist Vision elaborates on one dimension – racism — of the Inclusive Community Statement.

“Through the adoption of this anti-racist lens, the City of Riverside can contribute to greater racial equity throughout our city,” Dr. Cortés said. “We can not only challenge policies and systems that support racism, even if unintentionally. We can also encourage the community to address the effects of racism in our city.”

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A total of 63 people were helped, including 49 individuals who were placed into temporary housing and another 14 who accepted spots at a shelter or other program, including one person who was reunited with family. The temporary bridge housing placements include 24-hour case management services and security.

“Getting more than five dozen people off the streets in a relatively short time is a remarkable achievement,” Mayor Rusty Bailey said. “We know that this work is just beginning, and to claim success, we will need to move these residents from temporary shelter to long-term housing. I look forward to our efforts to further assist people on the path to self-sufficiency while also keeping Massachusetts Avenue clear and safe.”

About 100 people had been living along Massachusetts Avenue between Chicago and Kansas avenues in recent weeks. Individuals who refused the offer of shelter late last week were apprised of other services available to individuals experiencing homelessness.

The effort is part of A MAP Home, a four-month plan to provide housing and needed services — job counseling, substance abuse counseling, mental health services and more — to individuals experiencing homelessness on that section of Massachusetts Avenue to keep the encampments from reoccurring. The block is near where homeless services are offered in a campus environment on Hulen Place.

The City has been proactive since the start of the pandemic in keeping COVID-19 from spreading among individuals experiencing homelessness. Because of these proactive safety measures and testing, Riverside has seen no confirmed cases among its homeless population.

A MAP Home balances the provision of services to individuals experiencing homelessness while simultaneously addressing the impacts of homelessness in the community, including bulky items and blight, and the effect that has on nearby businesses. The clean-up was held after several weeks of outreach through the best practice called progressive engagement to individuals living there and through previous efforts to mitigate unsanitary conditions.

The individuals who accepted temporary bridge housing will be offered more permanent places to live in apartments through the City’s Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program. The city’s Public Safety Engagement Team (PSET), outreach workers and other homeless service providers will continue to reach out to people on Massachusetts Avenue to keep the encampments from reoccurring.

“Helping someone who has been living on the street find a path towards a better life requires a comprehensive approach,” Mayor Pro Tem Steve Hemenway said. “I’m pleased to see that such an approach was utilized in this instance to ensure the best outcome and hopefully avoid reoccurrences here on Massachusetts Avenue.”

A MAP Home is funded with money the City of Riverside received as part of the CARES Act through advocacy of the Big City Mayors, a group that includes Mayor Bailey. The effort also connects individuals experiencing homelessness with programs at the county level designed to help veterans, persons living with HIV/AIDs, women and families, and people on probation.

A MAP Home involved personnel from the city’s Office of Homeless Solutions, City of Riverside Housing Authority, the non-profit group CityNet, Public Safety Engagement Team (PSET), Riverside Police Department, Code Enforcement, Path of Life Shelter, Operation SafeHouse, Riverside County Behavioral Health, Riverside County Housing Authority, Riverside County Probation and the Union Pacific Railroad Police.

Workers from the various groups have been to the site multiple times during the past month to talk with individuals experiencing homelessness to let them know about plans for the area and offer them help. Multiple agencies were on-site during the clean-ups to again make services available.

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