Riverside McDonald’s Sustainability Efforts Receive National Attention

by

Demonstrating yet another example of Riverside as a location of choice for sustainability efforts and innovative business best-practices, the Wall Street Journal recently published the announcement that the McDonald’s restaurant located at 2242 University Avenue in Riverside had become the county’s first and only electric vehicle (EV) fast charge station with the installation of its Blink Direct Current (DC) Fast Charger.

McDonald's Riverside-Blink® Direct Current (DC) Fast ChargerThis restaurant is owned and operated by Tom and Candace Spiel and stood as a McDonald’s for 44 years. In 2010, it was completely rebuilt to operate in a more environmentally friendly way. As part of its continued path to greening, the restaurant partnered with ECOtality Inc., a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, to provide the latest EV charge technology to customers. The restaurant will also have a standard Blink pedestal charging station available.

“It’s thrilling to be Riverside’s source for the latest in fast charge technology,” said Candace Spiel, McDonald’s owner/operator. “For us, it all comes down to being able to offer the Riverside community a better customer service experience and further demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship.”

In addition to the new Blink charging stations, current green features of this McDonald’s location include low flow plumbing fixtures saving approximately 250,000 gallons of water; native drought tolerant plants to reduce water consumption; permeable pavers to help divert about 283,000 gallons of rainfall from storm water systems; and solar panels that save approximately 8,950 kWH per month of utility usage, which is equal to the power usage of 13 average Riverside homes for one month. The restaurant also includes an interactive touch screen display for visitors to learn about the building’s features, environmental sustainability and how individuals can reduce their own carbon footprint.

To read the full article as published on the Wall Street Journal website, click here.

Eleven Riverside Students Receive Dell Scholarship Awards

by

Riverside’s commitment to being a center for lifelong learning seems to be paying off. Recently eleven local seniors were notified that they had received a highly sought-after scholarship award from the Dell Scholarship Foundation.

Seven of the eleven Riverside students to receive the award were from Riverside’s Ramona High School – the second highest number of students from any one school in the nation. Each student will receive a $20,000 scholarship for college as well as a new Dell laptop and printer.

Riverside’s Ramona High School had seven Dell Scholars for 2013, the second most for one school in the country. Recipients are (top, from left) Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong, Fernando Banales-Mejia, (bottom, left) Maria Hernandez, Karen Figueroa, Kathy Chu and Karla Venegas, pictured in their AVID classroom. (Contributed photo published on PE.com)

“Our school should be proud of the fact that we had the most winners in California and had the second most in the nation,” said Ramona counselor Mark Lim, who wrote recommendations for many of the 20 Ramona seniors who applied for the scholarship. “We were close to being No. 1, which speaks volumes about the caliber of our school and students.”

According to Oscar Sweeten-Lopez, the Dell Scholarship Foundation program director, there were 7,561 applicants and only 303 (4 percent) were awarded the Dell Scholarship. Alief Early College High School in Houston — with its first graduating class — had the highest Dell Scholars with eight.

“We are very impressed with Ramona,” said Sweeten-Lopez, who noted that Ramona has had 17 Dell Scholars since the scholarship program started in 2004. “The majority of our Ramona High Dell Scholars are attending top tier in-state and out-of-state private colleges or top UCs. I would venture that over 95 percent of our California Dell Scholars stay in state to attend a UC or CSU.”

“I’ve always felt our AVID program is one of the top ones in the nation, and this is validation of what we know is true,” said Ramona AVID coordinator Scott Lockman. The seven Dell Scholars are all in Ramona’s AVID program, which recently celebrated its 25th year.

A total of eleven recipients are from high schools in the city of Riverside. The seven Ramona seniors to receive the award were Fernando Banales-Mejia, Kathy Chu, Karen Figueroa, Maria Hernandez, Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong and Karla Venegas. Mercedes Cornelius (La Sierra), Kathy Gutierrez (Norte Vista), Alicia Hernandez (J.W. North), and Vanessa Meteors (Arlington) were also awarded a Dell Scholarship.

To read more on the Riverside award recipients, click here.

For more information on the Dell Scholarship program, visit the official website at www.dellscholars.org.

Riverside Loses a Community Hero

by

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.

Riverside Named One of Nation’s Happiest Cities for Young Professionals

by

On April 24, 2013 Forbes published ‘The 10 Happiest Cities for Young Professionals” based on research conducted by online career site, CareerBliss.com. Proving once again that Riverside is indeed a ‘Location of Choice‘, the city earned an impressive 6th* place ranking, putting it in the company of San Jose, San Diego, Chicago and Washington D.C.

“The new generation of young professionals not only finds happiness at work important–they demand it,” says CareerBliss chief executive Heidi Golledge. “If a company wants to find and retain the best talent, they need to work on building a culture of happiness within their organization.”

(photo credit: Forbes.com)

To Riversiders, the ranking is probably not much of a surprise. Organizations such as The Pick Group have been working diligently over the past several years to grow and engage young professionals as leaders in the community. Through Seizing Our Destiny, an Education Roundtable was formed that brings leaders of Riverside’s primary and secondary schools and its four colleges and universities together specifically to create new approaches to ensuring that Riverside has extensive opportunities for lifelong learning. Riverside area chambers of commerce, nonprofits, youth organizations, businesses, government, faith-based and neighborhood groups have all made nurturing and supporting our young talent, and making Riverside a place they want to live, a top priority.

Read more here.

(*Note: The Forbes’ article content states Riverside’s rank as No. 7; however, the pictoral slide show of the Top 10 has Riverside tied for No. 6 with Philadelphia at a score of 3.84.)

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

by

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

by

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.

Riverside Public Utilities Programs Receive Statewide Honors

by

The California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA) honored Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) with two of its annual statewide Resource Efficiency & Community Service Awards at a ceremony held last week during their annual conference.

The CMUA, which helps to advance the interests of its member agencies before the legislature, hosts the awards annually to recognize innovative energy and water efficiency and consumer benefit programs among California’s consumer-owned water and energy utilities.

In the Energy Programs category, which recognizes innovative and effective approaches in implementing renewable energy resources, energy efficiency, demand reduction, research and development, low income assistance, or greenhouse gas reduction strategies, the agency recognized RPU’s Whole House Program.

Whole House logoWith the Whole House Program, RPU customers are able to apply for a number of water and energy efficiency measures at the same time and can receive added rebate incentives when grouping them together, as well as receiving increased energy and water conservation benefits that can help to lower utility bills.

Meanwhile, the utility’s Green Power Report radio show received its second CMUA award in its six-year run in the Community Services Category. On the air since 2007, and hosted and produced by RPU staff, the Green Power Report is a 30-minute radio program that reaches some 250,000 listeners throughout the Inland Empire of Southern California providing news and information about environmental stewardship, sustainable living practices, renewable energy and more. Shows are broadcast locally on AM 590 The Answer at 6:30 p.m., and are available to download through iTunes and via the show’s radio player at http://www.GreenRiverside.com.

Both of these awards recognize Riverside for being a Catalyst for Innovation, wherein leaders are using inventive and multi-disciplinary approaches to address issues. For more information on either the Whole House Program or the Green Power Report, visit GreenRiverside.com. To read the original press release, click here.