Category Archives: Unified City

Riverside’s Fallen Heroes Remembered

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In the spirit of a ‘Unified City’, the sixty law officers who have died in the line of duty throughout Riverside County since 1895 were remembered and honored on Monday, May 20, 2013 at an annual ceremony by their families, friends and hundreds of active duty officers and retirees.

Police officers representing officers killed in the line of duty salute the family members of fallen officers attending the Riverside County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony on Monday, May 20, 2013. Photo by David Bauman; source: PE.com

“We take a day (each year) to say … each and every one of their names. And we do our best to show the surviving family members that we’re thinking about them,” explained 72-year-old Riverside Police Department retiree Ivan Henery in the May 21, 2013 Press-Enterprise.

According to the PE, the remembrance project began 30 years ago after the Riverside Police Department lost two officers – Dennis Doty and Phillip Trust – in one day.

‘“We can’t promise them they will be safe,” Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz told the crowd Monday, May 20. But the solemn pledge to every officer, he emphasized, is that if they die in the line of duty, their colleagues will bring their killer to justice, give the fallen officer a good send-off, take care of their families – and always, always, always honor their memory.’

To watch the video of the Riverside County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony, click here. To read the full article as published on PE.com, click here.

Inaugural ‘Riverside Startup Weekend’ Hailed as a Great Success

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Riverside’s first ‘Startup Weekend’ proved that the community is indeed a ‘Catalyst for Innovation‘, bringing together nearly 100 participants, advisors and judges to develop 10 new businesses in less than three days.

The winning Fetchit team poses with the judges at Startup Weekend. From left, UCR students Daniel Langridge and Chris Manghane, incoming UCR students Darrell and Daniel Peeden, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, Inland Empire Tech Coast Angels President Molly Schmid, and Rajan Kasetty, CEO of Terrafore, Inc. (photo by Conley Read; source: UCR Today)

Startup Weekend is a global program that brings 54-hour events to select cities where “developers, coders, designers marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and create startups.”  Typically half of the event attendees have technical backgrounds while the other half have business backgrounds.

Riverside Startup Weekend organizers Benjamin Mueller, Conley Read and Mike Kennedy put the 54-hour event together with the help of several sponsors and supporters, including the City of Riverside, Cal Baptist University and local startup companies Signature.io and StopTheHacker, as well as many volunteers who donated their time to support the participants. The event was held at the Culver Center at the University of California in Riverside’s ARTSblock, further inspiring creativity amongst the participants.

“The whole weekend is spent on defining a problem, creating a set of solutions (assumptions), validating those assumptions with people through online surveys, or face-to-face discussions, pivoting and iterating on the idea, developing a business model that has a monetary return on investment, as well as discussions on how to properly scale and attract/build your user base,” explained Alan Roy, a user interface designer at C&C who served as an adviser during the weekend. “In the end, these individuals from backgrounds in development, design, marketing, business, and law come together to create an ‘minimum viable product’ to present to the judges on Sunday.” (source: UCR Today)

To read the full recap as published by UCR Today, including highlights of the winning teams and projects, click here.

University Neighborhood Recognized for Its Love of ‘Place’

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On April 23, 2013, Riverside Neighborhood Partnership (RNP) member, Gurumantra Khalsa, recognized the University Neighborhood Association (UNA) before the Riverside City Council for “Its deep love of ‘place‘”.

As one of Riverside’s twenty six defined neighborhoods, the University Neighborhood is the University of California, Riverside’s eastern connection with Riverside.  The University Neighborhood witnessed the birth of the UCR and was the neighborhood of choice for many of the pioneering faculty and staff.

The “after” photo of UNA’s Median Makeover (2012; source: UNA Facebook page).

Today, the University Neighborhood is home to a diverse collection of neighbors with a long history of coming together to connect, contribute and collaborate on issues or projects that make their neighborhood and Riverside a better community for all. Recent initiatives that have been led by the UNA include median makeovers, National Night Out events, literacy programs and advocating for neighborhood and sustainability policies.

Khalsa prided the UNA for being proactive leaders and collaborators when they identify ways – simple or complex – that can have a positive impact on the area.

For more information, visit the University Neighborhood Association’s Facebook page. To watch the April 23, 2013 City Council presentation, click here (Item #16).

Students Explain “Why College Completion Counts” in Scholarship Contest

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Completion Counts video scholarships are being awarded to 13 creative high school seniors from Alvord and Riverside high schools for producing imaginative videos to promote “why college completion counts.”

Completion Counts is Riverside’s collaborative endeavor to increase Riverside’s ability to be a Center for ‘Lifelong Learning for All‘ and to raise college graduation rates in the community. The partners are the City of Riverside, Riverside City College, the Alvord and Riverside unified school districts, Riverside County Office of Education, the University of California, Riverside, and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. The work of Completion Counts began in 2010 with a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree,” given against a background promoting the Completion Counts www.College311.org website.

Other individual videomakers who are receiving $500 scholarships for promoting messages including the economic benefits of completing college, some using sports, arts, and career analogies to make their points, are Jedon Carter of North High School, Tanya Reyes of La Sierra High School, Katy Gutierrez of Norte Vista High School and Daisy Garcia of Norte Vista High School.

In the Group Video category, in which a cast and crew of up to three students could also compete for scholarships, the Grand Prize of $1,500 will go to Sara Emami and Emilie Abraham of La Sierra High School (who will each receive $750), with their video, “We Got This!”

Runners up in the Group Video category were a Ramona High School team of Fernando Banales-Mejia, Maria Rivera and Karen Figueroa; and a Poly High School team of Luis Torres, Rodrigo Lucatero and Matthew Beasley. Each of the group runners-up will receive a $250 scholarship award.

“We had some terrific qualifying submissions,” said Al Cardoza, Completion Counts’ Video Scholarship project manager. “Congratulations to the creative winners for finding fun new ways to promote the ‘college completion counts’ message!”

Winning videos will be uploaded the Completion Counts website and made available to the City of Riverside GTV  Channel 3.

“This scholarship is designed to start getting students thinking and talking about college. There are no essays, or a ‘straight-A’ average required – we’re simply looking for the best and most creative video perspective,” said Completion Counts Director Cindy Taylor at the contest launch in March.

The contest also invited participation in the www.careercruising.com free career assessment resource, which students can access with their student ID number, to get a better idea of courses of study for careers.

Career Cruising is one of many free education resources and links available to students and families through the www.college311.org website.

Riverside Loses a Community Hero

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Ameal Moore, longtime community leader and advocate for Riverside to be a truly ‘Unified City’ passed away early on Monday, April 29, at home after a long battle with cancer.

Ameal Moore, 1934-2013

In a statement issued yesterday by Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, he described the three-term City Councilman as having “exhibited a quiet strength – a leadership style dependent upon sound decision making, thoughtful reason and building relationships – friendships,” and added, “Riverside is a better place because of his leadership.”

“He was a very dignified, quiet man who did a lot of good things in the background, especially when he was on the City Council, to help the community to be the community that it could be and should be,” said Rose Mayes, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County in an article written by Alicia Robinson and published on PE.com.

According to the Mayor’s statement, Moore’s contributions to Riverside range from leadership in Riverside’s sustainability efforts, working tirelessly to improve Riverside’s quality of life, and bringing community services for the underserved. Just less than two weeks ago, Ameal was recognized by a unanimous vote of the City Council authorizing the naming of Sycamore Canyon Nature Center at Sycamore Canyon Park in his name.

Moore had been “president of Riverside’s NAACP chapter, helped form a Toastmasters International club, taught Sunday school at his church, and served on the city’s parking and traffic and planning commissions. He was elected in 1994 to represent Ward 2, including the Eastside, parts of the University area, Sycamore Canyon and Canyon Crest.

Friends and former council colleagues credit Mr. Moore with getting amenities added at the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park and starting the push to improve University Avenue, which was a source of complaints and frequent police visits,” notes Robinson in the PE.com article.

To Riverside, Moore personified the community vision that everyone should enjoy a high quality of life and be unified in pursuing the common good.

“I wanted to be a decision maker rather than someone always complaining about things.”

To read the full article published on April 29, 2013 on PE.com, click here.

To read the statement issued by Mayor Rusty Bailey, click here.

Child Leader Project Cultivates Youth-Led Community in Riverside’s Eastside

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In the spirit of creating a more Unified City, Child Leader Project (CLP) is proud to announce the start of its new ecological and social justice leadership program, CLP@Lincoln. The program begins this May 2013 with youth leaders from the Advancement Via Individual Determination Program (AVID) at Lincoln Continuation High School in the Riverside Unified School District.

In collaboration with AVID, CLP mentors will provide seven sessions of experiential learning on social, ecological and food justice in the Eastside community.

This USDA map of the Food Deserts in Riverside. Green represents census tracts who are Low Income (LI) and have Low Access (LA) to healthy food within 1-mile. Orange are LI and LA within .5 miles. The red dot marks the location of Lincoln High School in Eastside. (Image from childleaderproject.org)

Riverside’s historic Eastside community has been the focus of extensive efforts by health leaders in the HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) Zone Initiative. Eastside’s 17,541 residents are in one of Riverside’s food deserts, a USDA-classification for low-income communities with little or no access to healthy, affordable food.

“This program will engage young people as allies and leaders in community change by exploring how data and research can help us understand and communicate what injustices we already experience about the communities we live in,” says Samantha Wilson, Executive Learner and Founder of CLP and co-facilitator on the program.  “Youth know what’s up in their communities—the role of adults as partners is to provide support, access and language to share their knowledge in ways that make change.”

To find out more about the program and the work of CLP, read the full blog post here.

Community Survey Outreach Promotes Inclusivity

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In a city that prides itself on being diverse and unique, the feedback that will help create the most dynamic, forward-thinking, creative solutions to propel Riverside towards a prosperous future must come from anyone and everyone that considers themselves “Riversiders”.

Since April 1st those who live, work and/or go to school in Riverside have been answering the call to take an on-line survey that asks their opinions about quality of life in this community. As the survey enters its final two weeks, everyone is urged to encourage friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, congregations, classmates and even mere acquaintances to give their feedback.

SOD Survey YOUTH AdAccording to the 2010 Census, 42.3% of Riverside’s population is under 25 years old. While this age group is significant, youth are typically underrepresented in community planning efforts across the nation. In Riverside, extra efforts are being made to gather the opinions of residents, employees and/or students who will be the community’s next generation of decision makers.

“As an inclusive city, we want to be sure this segment has a voice in planning our community’s future,” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey. “We intend to make sure Riverside is the place students want to come for college and to live after.”

For those under 18 years, a special version of the survey has been provided online at RiversideSurvey.com. Please note that a parent or guardian must give approval for a minor to participate.

For all adults 18 and over, English and Spanish versions are available online (RiversideSurvey.com). Paper copies of all versions of the survey are also available in all Riverside public libraries, community centers and at City Hall.

The survey period ends April 30, 2013, and the results will be made available to Riversiders this summer.

Fox Theater Foundation Helps Connect Community with Performing Arts

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(Includes excerpts from the April 5, 2013 story written by Jennifer Dean and Jose Marquezthe as published on PE.com)

The Fox Riverside Theater Foundation was established in late 2008 to support the work of the Fox Performing Arts Center, the landmark theater that was reopened in January 2010. The Fox Cultural Arts Fund was then established with The Community Foundation to provide financial backing to the theater foundation.

“The mission of the foundation is to support the Fox Performing Arts Center and enrich the community by inspiring participation in the life of the Fox through community-focused performances, community outreach and fundraising,” said Cynthia Wright, Fox Riverside Theater Foundation executive director.

The foundation’s mission is important to the region because it helps the entire community — even those with limited resources — have access to the theater.

“The Fox produces some shows that are very affordable, such as the Humphrey Bogart film series last summer and the holiday showing of ‘A Christmas Story,’ ” Wright said. “On the foundation side, we increase access through such programs as Students on Broadway, through which we provide tickets to high school students (primarily) to Broadway shows.”

Riverside high school students pose after watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof in late March (photo source: Fox Foundation’s Students on Broadway Blog)

The theater foundation also partners with the downtown arts organization, First Sundays, through its Family Fun Days, in which free arts activities for families are available.

“My favorite recent example … was the March 14 presentation of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ an American Theater Arts for Youth production for elementary schools,” Wright said. “Schools from around the region sent 1,200 elementary school students to the Fox that day and the foundation covered the cost of 500 of those tickets.

“It was a crazy, wonderful day and the teachers couldn’t say enough about what the experience meant for their students.”

By providing connections and exposure to the performing arts as well as to the Fox Theater, a repurposed historic structure, the Foundation enables the community to experience all that Riverside has to offer as a ‘Location of Choice‘ that provides an abundance of opportunities to be amazed, inspired and entertained.

Click here to read the full article as published on PE.com.

For more information on the Fox Foundation, click here.

Arlanza Garden Proves to Be Fertile Ground for Riverside

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In an effort to build a Unified City  from the roots up, Riverside-based Child Leader Project (CLP) hosted their second annual MLK Day at the Arlanza Community Garden this past January. The ‘Grow Arlanza’ event invited community members to participate in contributing design plans and planting seeds to raise awareness for the garden. With the support of student organizations from UCR, Growcology, and the community, the event was a powerful way to commemorate MLK and bring together excited individuals from all of Riverside.

Arlanza Community Garden

(photo source: http://www.ChildLeaderProject.org)

The successful event included 80 plus leaders in the garden assisting with irrigation, gate design, weeding and clean-up. Other activities included Norte Vista High School’s Padres Unidos (United Parents) organization selling pupusas, CLP youth raising funds for the 2013 Confronteras trip and Operation SafeHouse representatives sharing information about their work.

The Arlanza Garden project is facilitated by young adult mentors and youth that have committed themselves towards creating a space where the entire community can both nourish and flourish.

Check out all the photos at: Second Annual MLK Day of Service.

If you missed out on the event, make sure to Save the Date for Earth Day 2013 (Saturday, April 20th) when CLP will be hosting a work party in celebration of Earth Day. More details can be found on the Arlanza Garden Facebook page.

Building a Legacy: Henry W. Coil Jr. is Recognized as a Riverside Treasure

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(The following includes excerpts from the April-May 2013 issue of Riverside Magazine written by Carla Sanders.)

There is an adage that recommends, “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” For more than half a century, Henry W. Coil Jr. has taken that to heart.

“I have always enjoyed what I do,” said Coil, past president of Tilden-Coil Constructors Inc. of Riverside. “I still do.”

Photo credit: Riverside Magazine by Gabriel Luis Acosta

Photo credit: Riverside Magazine by Gabriel Luis Acosta

This last phrase helps explain Coil’s continuing affection for the company he has helped guide since the early 1970s. Even though he turned over most of Tilden-Coil’s day-to-day operations to others in 1998, Coil, now 80, still comes to the office seven days a week year-round, and stays 10 to 12 hours.

Among the highlights have been freeway improvements, seismic retrofitting of the Riverside County Courthouse – “We took the whole thing apart, even the statues, and came in $2.5 million under budget,” he says, beaming – and a massive printing plant project in Seattle for $411 million, at 1988 prices.

Despite his long hours, the years haven’t been all work for Coil. He has spent thousands of hours in public service. He was a Riverside councilman in the 1960s and has served on a large cross-section of boards and committees for institutions including Riverside Community College District Foundation, La Sierra University, University of Redlands, Riverside Arts Foundation, the American Red Cross, Mission Inn Foundation, and UCR Foundation. In 2011, he was honored with the Roy Hord Volunteer of the Year Award by the Riverside Downtown Partnership.

Coil said his civic-mindedness was modeled by his parents, both of whom were prominent professionals and active in the community. His father served on the planning commission for more than two decades, as well as being involved with the Bar Association and the library board.

It is that legacy, in part, that prompted Coil to honor them in the form of a $5 million gift to the Riverside Community College District. The money, donated in 2010, will be used to fund programs at the eventual Henry W. Coil Sr. and Alice Edna Coil School for the Arts in downtown.

“Henry is like a father figure to many of us, and especially me,” said Brian Jaramillo, Tilden-Coil president – the fourth in the company’s 75-year history. “He has been a great example of the enduring values of our organization. He is the ultimate leader who wants the very best for us and our community, and yet he does not have to be in charge to add influence and value to our lives. Riverside is a better place because he continues to channel his energy and efforts through Tilden-Coil for the greater good of the community.”

Click here to read the full article as published in Riverside Magazine.