"A Year in Riverside" Top 5 Page for this destination Riverside by lmkluque

Welcome to my Riverside page,

The photo, a view of Riverside City, where the smog of Los Angeles travels to obscure the panoramic sight, was taken from the top of Mount Rubidoux.

It has been difficult to decide what to include in this introduction to the city of Riverside. (The county is also Riverside, so it can create some confusion when choosing a place to go.) Riverside is not much of a tourist town, rather it is a city almost half way between Los Angeles and Palm Springs which developed during the Victorian Era, about 1870. Two Navel orange trees were brought in from Brazil--the weather conditions were just right--and Riverside became a center for the citrus industry.

Sometime in the 1950's, Riverside and San Bernadino Counties decided to combine their resources and call themselves the Inland Empire in an effort to get out of a secondary role, another legacy of Los Angeles. I don't think it really worked and that was the prevailing atmosphere I walked into.

I lived in Riverside for a year, managed a restaurant, belonged to the Chamber of Commerce, volunteered to work for the First Annual Jazz Festival held in Riverside, watched about a thousand videos--the quickest way to relax between the lunch and dinner shifts--and on occasion gave family and friends a tour.

I Hope You Enjoy Your Visit,
Linda

Downtown Riverside

This is a comment made to me by a resident of Riverside. I was stunned.

Have you ever met a perfectly fine person with a few great qualities who tried so hard to present themselves as a blue blood that they seemed ridiculous? That, in a nutshell, is what I noticed about Riverside. I didn’t know it at first. It took me about three months to realize that Riverside city had an inferiority complex and tired hard to convince itself that it didn’t. Another important discovery I made in that first three months was the subtle discrimination that seemed to prevail. Keeping things in perspective, the circle I moved in was limited, I worked an average of 70 hours a week, so most of my contacts were, employees, customers, shop keepers and civil servants, all mostly white. Later, I found areas of the city that seemed to be more integrated and less pompous. What a relief that was!

In all fairness, you should know that the decision to leave my beloved San Diego was fraught with emotional dark clouds. Perennially optimistic, I did see silver linings awaiting me in the adventure of carving out a new life in Riverside. Yet, this might explain the critical eye through which I saw the town, but hope you can see also, it's very bright spots.

• Pros:A City that Tries...
• Cons:Too Isolated...
• In a nutshell:A Great Place To Meditate!!