River City: Hey dude, where's my park?

At Inland Empire's Craigslist, there was an interesting item about the creation of a task force to evaluate the uses for Tequesquite Park.

Historically, Riverside's city government loves task forces or ad hoc committees although it seldom decides to fully implement or even partially implement the recommendations that come out of those bodies. Usually, the task force meets regularly, the public might have some chance for input if it abides by the Brown Act and its members then appear en masse before the city council to release their list of usually carefully thought out recommendations before a beaming mayor and city council.

The elected officials usually then receive input from the public, favoring those who agree with the task force's recommendations and giving pained expressions to those who don't. If it's a particularly important task force representing the city's interests, the city council will pack the chambers with supporters of it. What might come next are "applause" cards to be held before those who gather in the chambers.

But what so often happens is that the recommendations are approved and then placed on a shelf to gather dust while the city council moves on to the next issue of interest. Of course, often one city council member will fervently aver that this particular task force's recommendations shouldn't be shelved and forgotten like all the others. But soon enough, it's forgotten and placed on the proverbial island of lost recommendations.

It's an ongoing pattern which few task force committees have avoided. The Mayor's Use of Force Panel in 1999 which addressed problems in the police department was probably the most well-known exception to this tenet.

If you remember Tequesquite Park, that was the one that almost ended up in the hands of developers, thanks to Councilman Dom Betro before he saw the light that comes when a political candidate recognizes a campaign issue and went retro on his stance. Another candidate, Mike Gardner pushed for the acreage to remain a park and not be swapped with swamp land from Fairmount Park.

Currently, both Tequesquite Park and the swamp in Fairmount Park will remain as park land. A huge strip of Fairmount Park facing Market Street will be sold off to developers for the construction of commercial businesses which will be an ill fit to the city's most famous historic park. Picture mixing plaids with polka dots and you will have this unholy marriage between a city park and commercial development. But then again, it's Riverside.

On the agenda's consent calendar for the city council meeting on Tuesday, July 11, is plans to create yet another task force chaired by Betro to decide what to do with Tequesquite Park, which is interesting considering Betro didn't want that area to remain a park. The rest of the positions on the committee have been allocated for representatives from little leagues. Six slots will be allocated for people who most likely have political connections to Betro or other elected officials. There's a joke among some of the residents of the city that the same 20 or so people end up on every task force.

How many members will be representing the grass-roots campaign effort to save Tequesquite Park that took place earlier this year? This effort took place long before Betro decided to support maintaining it as a park, in fact supporters of Tesquesquite Park appeared as a large group to rain on the parade of the Riverside Renaissance party thrown at the Municipal Auditorium months ago. That wasn't their intention, but unlike the Riverside Greater Chambers of Commerce, these grass-roots campaigners hadn't received their scripts to recite at the special meeting.

So how many of those people will be appointed to this task force which may ultimately decide the fate of this park?

Probably none. Especially given that the city is currently in the middle of an election cycle.

After all, the city's boards and commissions including the Community Police Review Commission are beginning to look more and more like a who's who of City Hall's insiders.


Many of the supporters of Tesquesquite Park wanted it to remain open space. But the current city council never met any acreage of open space it hasn't wanted to bulldoze and seal in concrete. The city's parks are really no different. And this is in a city which is underrepresented in terms of the average number of acreage allotted for city parks.




Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor denied a motion filed to recuse himself off of a medical fraud case that is being heard in his courtroom, according to the Press Enterprise. The defendants in that case are also trying to recuse the Riverside County District Attorney's office as well.





No new high school planned just an overcrowded school district in Riverside, states an article in the Press Enterprise. Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in Orangecrest is the most populated high school in the Riverside Unified School District. This high school as you know was the center of a nationwide controversy when White parents in Orangecrest balked at the newest high school being named after the civil rights leader. They and supporters of the name congregated at Palm Adult School in January 1998 to appeal to the school board on whether or not to name the school after King. Some White people who spoke even said that their kids wouldn't get into good schools including Ivy League universities if they were viewed as having gone to a "Black" school. Which is ironic, because King High School is about two-thirds White.

Problems with that school have been White Supremacist gangs otherwise known because they're White, as "groups" as if you were talking about an after-school club and not a gang of students who have committed violent crimes.

What's a very popular tattoo seen at the Mission Grove Plaza for example?

One on both arms that states, "White Pride".

When there were racial tensions in Orangecrest, the Human Relations Commission sponsored a successful forum on the issue in that area of town. But it stopped there soon after as did any productive dialogue. Why? Because Mayor Ron Loveridge balked.




On the other side of town, William Bartee, a well known barber downtown has hung up his tools and has retired at the age of 89, according to this article in the Press Enterprise. It's just as well the local legend who owned and ran one of the oldest businesses by African-Americans retired because eminent domain and the new vision for downtown Riverside most likely would have come knocking. Business owners of color haven't fared well in this new Riverside Renaissance. Just ask the Latino business owners downtown and the Asian-American business owners downtown and even in the Wood Streets.

There used to be more beauty shops downtown including on University Avenue which are just memories now, not part of the blueprints for the soon-to-be gentrified downtown which favors mixed use by placing condos and lofts that are high-priced on top of commercial enterprises including restaurants. The prices of this housing suggests that the city government is interested in migration to Riverside of the "White flight" crowd departing cities in Orange County which is becoming increasingly Latino both in its demographics and political representation.

If you look closely at the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue nestled next to City Hall, is that condensation or tears coming out of its eyes?

Riverside has seen "White flight" of its own as has Moreno Valley as those cities become more diversified including in previous White neighborhoods including Orangecrest and Mission Grove in Rivereside. Most of these individuals are moving to south-western Riverside County to cities like Temecula, Wildomar, Menifee and Murrieta. Cities where African-Americans usually report experiences of the very unpleasant kind whether it's trying to start a new business, enrol children in schools which have informal Aryan clubs or simply drive down the highway without having a racist person in a car screaming at them as they drive through any of these cities.




In Hemet, police officers used less lethal beanbags and pepper balls on a mentally ill man who ordered officers to kill him at a local hotel,according to the Press Enterprise. They took him for a 72 hour evaluation at a mental facility. It's not clear if the department headed by former Riverside Police Department Commander Richard Dana trains its officers in mental health crisis intervention.

The Riverside Police Department initiated its 40-hour training program in late May and began by training offices including those who worked as hostage negotiators so they could provide feedback on the new program.





The Chicago Sun-Times published an article about a judge's decision that the department could not keep secret a list of 662 police officers who had been the subject of 10 or more complaints of misconduct.

Judge Joan Lefkow gave her decision while the city was scrambling of course, to appeal the release of the list. She remained firm in her position.


(excerpt)



But Lefkow said the documents were presumed to be public, writing "the public has a significant interest in monitoring the conduct of its police officers and a right to know how allegations of misconduct are being investigated and handled."



During the past few months, the Office of Professional Accountability director had said that Seattle Police Department Chief Gil Kerlikowske had improperly intervened in several internal investigations. So what was the solution? Replace the uppity director with a new one which the city did. Not surprisingly, the new one, Kathryn Olson, cleared the chief in her review, according to this article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.


(excerpt)


During a news conference Monday, Olson said she disagreed with the OPA Review Board's criticisms and found that the chief's actions were "appropriate" and "typical" of his role. In her 23-page report, she said his input helped provide a "thorough, fair and expedient" investigation, and that the city ordinance governing the OPA doesn't require a "firewall" between its investigators and the chief.

"Had a civilian director been placed at the time, there is reason to conclude the chief of police would have been similarly involved and in a position to provide input on evidence to gather in the investigation," Olson said in her report.




Still Olson did disagree with Kerlikowske's decision on a case involving two police officers suspected of criminal conduct.

Other cities with some form of civilian oversight have adopted similar strategies. If someone comes out with a decision that you don't like, replace them with someone until you find someone who will agree with you. That includes of course, the city of Riverside in which the civilian review board is under micromanagement by the city manager's office.

The past executive director of the Community Police Review Commission which released a sustained finding against a police officer involved in an incustody death, in 2005. That employee, Pedro Payne, soon "resigned" and was replaced by an analyst with no experience or training in this field for six months. No doubt, the next individual who fills Payne's big shoes will know exactly what side his bread is buttered on and will act accordingly.

If you're looking for a bet against that reality in the community, no one will take it.


But speaking of civilian review, the city of Coquille, Oregon is holding discussion on implementing it in their city.