Election 2007: I want what's there and there.
The plans are to expand the perks being added to Tesquesquite Park, according to the latest Press Enterprise article. Over 50 individuals including lots of younger folks like teenagers gathered at the latest meeting held by the task force to provide further input. Many of the teen set wanted a new skateboard park and they might be getting one. After all, it's an election year and that's the time to get things you want. It's the time to correct missteps taken during nonelection years.
After the first Tuesday in November is done, you'll have to wait until the 2008 mayoral race officially kicks off to try again. Quite a few shopping days until that one.
Councilman Dom Betro, who chairs the task force for both Tesquesquite Park and Fairmout Park said he's cool with teenagers having things to do as long as they stay away from downtown with their skateboards. But alas, that's the only thing available for them to do downtown.
(excerpt)
If the city builds a skate park at Tequesquite Park, "You'll never see me downtown again," Wood Streets resident Jonathan Davis, 15, told the task force.
There's not much for young people to do downtown and it seems that they especially teenagers and their families are treated like personas non gratis, since the departure of the kids' museum, the Wednesday Night Street Fair and the Orange Blossom Festival. Most of the plans for the downtown included in Riverside Renaissance seemed geared towards making it a locale for the older, more urbane, more moneyed population given that the anchoring business is going to be live theater which costs a hefty price per ticket.
Live theater and other performing arts are good for everyone to enjoy watching or participating in but many families can't afford to buy tickets to see live performances. It would be helpful in the case of the Fox Theater that if it ever gets renovated, that there will be programs encouraging and facilitating more younger people and people with lower annual incomes to be able to enjoy performances at the theater.
The ACLU finished and released a study on surveillance cameras that states that they are ineffective at decreasing the crime rate and can be abused by those posting them, according to the Press Enterprise.
With other cities like Palm Springs using them and Riverside planning to place them throughout the city in the next several years, it appears this might put some crimp in their plans but the cities will continue onward undeterred. After all, the ACLU is a four-lettered word in this city and region in more ways than just one.
Still, the study questioned the effectiveness of cameras in cities ranging from Redlands to those in the United Kingdom and urged the public to become more involved in providing input on the issue of their implementation in their own cities.
(excerpt)
"We hope this is going to be a turning point where people will start examining the choice to multiply the presence of cameras," Peter Bibring, an ACLU staff attorney, said by phone.
Over 25 people in San Bernardino protested actions committed by police officers in that city against them while they were mourning the death of someone who had been killed, according to the Press Enterprise. They said officers struck them, pepper sprayed them and used profanities. The mourners were gathered at the Westside for a vigil for Charles Lawrence Marshall who on early Saturday morning became the city's 40th homicide victim this year when he was shot and killed. Soon after, about 20 police officers appeared and initially began grabbing people out of the crowd and arresting them.
At least one woman said she had spoken with an officer who punched her in the face like you would a man, one onlooker told a reporter.
(excerpt)
"We're not animals!" neighborhood resident Tommy Nelson Jr. told council members. "How would you guys feel if the police came when you were mourning a death? How would you feel?"
San Bernardino's mayor, Patrick Morris appeared distressed at what he heard from the city residents who came to the city council meeting to complain about it and said there would be a full investigation. Witnesses to Marshall's shooting who still remain quiet about it probably will remain quiet especially if they feel that those they should be relating their accounts to will show up at a memorial vigil and punch them in the face and pepper spray them.
Columnist Dan Bernstein, of the Press Enterprise wrote a potpourri of information about Riverside in this column.
He included commentary on the city's brilliant decision to close Sippy Woodhead Pool to local residents in the Eastside during the hot summer so it could ready the pool for the academic institutions who need it during their competitive swimming seasons.
(excerpt)
Hard, but not impossible. Riverside's crack City Hall has emptied the Sippy Woodhead Pool, situated in the less-than-affluent Eastside, for historically hot August and September. As they say in that beer commercial: "Brilliant!"
But not surprising. Last December, the whoozwhooz raised electricity rates without the slightest thought of Riverside's lovely summers. This time, they approved a pool-repair job in April and demanded that the contractor get it done in 120 days. You get the impression City Hall folks live day and night, night and day, in air-conditioned cocoons?
The timing of these not-so-urgent pool repairs was tailored to the convenience of swimming organizations, not neighborhood kids. This didn't sit well with Jenny Perez, who told the P-E her kids need that pool. "We can't afford air conditioning."
Not so fast. Last week, City Hall actually did feel some heat and canceled that electric-rate hike. The city's closing pools and rolling back rates in the dead of summer. The message: Got a/c? Let her rip.
It's about 100 degrees in Riverside and hopefully, people can stay cool as much as possible. Hopefully, the aging infrastructure of the electrical system in this city can keep up with the demand. But compared to putting up new housing and commercial development projects, improving or even maintaining the city's infrastructure of public services seems to be much further lower on the list of priorities.
There's been a lot of discussion about developing Riverside via the Renaissance plan to prepare and even preserve the city in the wake of unprecedented growth in this region in the next decade or so. However, not much of that fervent discussion seems to trickle down from lucrative housing and commercial projects to more basic needs like better streets, public transportation, public safety and public utilities.
Politicians don't get rich and their friends don't get rich from promoting the importance of a vibrant and updated infrastructure but doing this is much more important when facing increases in both surface area and population in this city through immigration and annexations.
The city of Riverside is not the only place where city officials prepare to jump ship to run for higher political offices. It also is happening in Los Angeles, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times.
Former Police Chief turned Councilman Bernard Parks wants to run for county supervisor against troubled incumbent Yvonne Burke.
(excerpt)
Parks is one of several politicians who have eyed a run for the 2nd Supervisorial District, which stretches from Culver City and Mar Vista on the northwest to Carson and Compton on the southeast.
So far, his likeliest opponent is seen as being state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who served the same council district as Parks.
Burke, who has announced plans to step down at the end of her term next year, said she won't endorse a replacement until much closer to the election.
But Parks has already picked up the backing of Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the board's most conservative member, who said the former chief would "bring peace and civility to the Board of Supervisors."
"He's a fiscal conservative, but he also recognizes that public safety is the first line of protection for our community," Antonovich said.
Here's some trivia. Ridley-Thomas used to be a theology instructor before turning to politics.
Here, you had Steve Adams, councilman of Ward Seven and state assembly hopeful, who didn't quiet make it past the Republican primary and is back in town trying to win another term as councilman. At yesterday's public safety committee meeting, Adams opted not to sit with fellow elected officials, Andrew Melendrez and Nancy Hart but sat next to several police management employees instead. Given that neither police labor union in the department opted to endorse him during the preliminary round of Election 2007, his behavior was very interesting.
It's not clear who in Ward Seven is being endorsed by either the Riverside Police Officers' Association or the Riverside Police Administrators Association but the leadership of the RPOA appeared to be very upset several months ago at a letter circulated by Adams to ward residents which was filled with lies and untruthful information. Still, given that the election is down to two candidates, Adams and former mayor, Terry Frizzel, will either union ultimately bite the bullet(not the best pun) and pick one or will they do what's probably the wisest thing and sit it out?
Adams' choice in seating at the meeting did raise several eyebrows. The intrigue of the election year continues onward.
Also tossing his hat into the ring for a higher elected office is current Ward Five Councilman Frank Schiavone. He plans to run for a county supervisor seat next year and has already received the endorsement of the Riverside Sheriffs' Assocation which holds the key to a campaign chest of at least $500,000.
Here's an announcement from Belo Blog about a local competition.
(excerpt)
Contest will fund community projects
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has created a contest for community projects that will give winners to receive financial help.
The Third District Civic Betterment Project asks residents within the district to submit proposals for onprojects that would change the lives of those less fortunate. The third district includes the cities of Murrieta, Temecula, Hemet and unincorporated areas of Menifee Valley, Anza and Winchester.
Entries are due Sept. 15. Ten projects will be chosen to receive $1,000 each.
Information and entry forms can be found online at www.civicbettermentproject.org
--Claudia Bustamante
cbustamante@PE.com
Posted by Mark Acosta at 10:27 AM
With the hiring of the new executive manager, the Community Police Review Commission will be reviewing a lot of old business in upcoming weeks in relation to the use of independent investigators in officer-involved deaths and the role of the executive manager in conducting outreach.
These should be interesting discussions given the actions taken by the city manager's office to first block the CPRC's efforts to conduct timely investigations of officer-involved deaths, until community leaders expressed their concern and outrage at this development. It's also interesting to hear that the discussion of the executive manager's role in outreach is back up for discussion after the city manager's office had barred former executive director, Pedro Payne from attending public meetings in 2005 not long before his resignation.
Will there be a discussion, or will the city manager's office lay down the law? Stay tuned for further developments as they take place.
Coming down the road:
"Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
----Lewis Carroll
A shell within a shell: Citizen complaints in the Eastside and the RPD.
Improvements for the CPRC: A former commissioner's recommendations
And of course, Election 2007: The competition continues.
After the first Tuesday in November is done, you'll have to wait until the 2008 mayoral race officially kicks off to try again. Quite a few shopping days until that one.
Councilman Dom Betro, who chairs the task force for both Tesquesquite Park and Fairmout Park said he's cool with teenagers having things to do as long as they stay away from downtown with their skateboards. But alas, that's the only thing available for them to do downtown.
(excerpt)
If the city builds a skate park at Tequesquite Park, "You'll never see me downtown again," Wood Streets resident Jonathan Davis, 15, told the task force.
There's not much for young people to do downtown and it seems that they especially teenagers and their families are treated like personas non gratis, since the departure of the kids' museum, the Wednesday Night Street Fair and the Orange Blossom Festival. Most of the plans for the downtown included in Riverside Renaissance seemed geared towards making it a locale for the older, more urbane, more moneyed population given that the anchoring business is going to be live theater which costs a hefty price per ticket.
Live theater and other performing arts are good for everyone to enjoy watching or participating in but many families can't afford to buy tickets to see live performances. It would be helpful in the case of the Fox Theater that if it ever gets renovated, that there will be programs encouraging and facilitating more younger people and people with lower annual incomes to be able to enjoy performances at the theater.
The ACLU finished and released a study on surveillance cameras that states that they are ineffective at decreasing the crime rate and can be abused by those posting them, according to the Press Enterprise.
With other cities like Palm Springs using them and Riverside planning to place them throughout the city in the next several years, it appears this might put some crimp in their plans but the cities will continue onward undeterred. After all, the ACLU is a four-lettered word in this city and region in more ways than just one.
Still, the study questioned the effectiveness of cameras in cities ranging from Redlands to those in the United Kingdom and urged the public to become more involved in providing input on the issue of their implementation in their own cities.
(excerpt)
"We hope this is going to be a turning point where people will start examining the choice to multiply the presence of cameras," Peter Bibring, an ACLU staff attorney, said by phone.
Over 25 people in San Bernardino protested actions committed by police officers in that city against them while they were mourning the death of someone who had been killed, according to the Press Enterprise. They said officers struck them, pepper sprayed them and used profanities. The mourners were gathered at the Westside for a vigil for Charles Lawrence Marshall who on early Saturday morning became the city's 40th homicide victim this year when he was shot and killed. Soon after, about 20 police officers appeared and initially began grabbing people out of the crowd and arresting them.
At least one woman said she had spoken with an officer who punched her in the face like you would a man, one onlooker told a reporter.
(excerpt)
"We're not animals!" neighborhood resident Tommy Nelson Jr. told council members. "How would you guys feel if the police came when you were mourning a death? How would you feel?"
San Bernardino's mayor, Patrick Morris appeared distressed at what he heard from the city residents who came to the city council meeting to complain about it and said there would be a full investigation. Witnesses to Marshall's shooting who still remain quiet about it probably will remain quiet especially if they feel that those they should be relating their accounts to will show up at a memorial vigil and punch them in the face and pepper spray them.
Columnist Dan Bernstein, of the Press Enterprise wrote a potpourri of information about Riverside in this column.
He included commentary on the city's brilliant decision to close Sippy Woodhead Pool to local residents in the Eastside during the hot summer so it could ready the pool for the academic institutions who need it during their competitive swimming seasons.
(excerpt)
Hard, but not impossible. Riverside's crack City Hall has emptied the Sippy Woodhead Pool, situated in the less-than-affluent Eastside, for historically hot August and September. As they say in that beer commercial: "Brilliant!"
But not surprising. Last December, the whoozwhooz raised electricity rates without the slightest thought of Riverside's lovely summers. This time, they approved a pool-repair job in April and demanded that the contractor get it done in 120 days. You get the impression City Hall folks live day and night, night and day, in air-conditioned cocoons?
The timing of these not-so-urgent pool repairs was tailored to the convenience of swimming organizations, not neighborhood kids. This didn't sit well with Jenny Perez, who told the P-E her kids need that pool. "We can't afford air conditioning."
Not so fast. Last week, City Hall actually did feel some heat and canceled that electric-rate hike. The city's closing pools and rolling back rates in the dead of summer. The message: Got a/c? Let her rip.
It's about 100 degrees in Riverside and hopefully, people can stay cool as much as possible. Hopefully, the aging infrastructure of the electrical system in this city can keep up with the demand. But compared to putting up new housing and commercial development projects, improving or even maintaining the city's infrastructure of public services seems to be much further lower on the list of priorities.
There's been a lot of discussion about developing Riverside via the Renaissance plan to prepare and even preserve the city in the wake of unprecedented growth in this region in the next decade or so. However, not much of that fervent discussion seems to trickle down from lucrative housing and commercial projects to more basic needs like better streets, public transportation, public safety and public utilities.
Politicians don't get rich and their friends don't get rich from promoting the importance of a vibrant and updated infrastructure but doing this is much more important when facing increases in both surface area and population in this city through immigration and annexations.
The city of Riverside is not the only place where city officials prepare to jump ship to run for higher political offices. It also is happening in Los Angeles, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times.
Former Police Chief turned Councilman Bernard Parks wants to run for county supervisor against troubled incumbent Yvonne Burke.
(excerpt)
Parks is one of several politicians who have eyed a run for the 2nd Supervisorial District, which stretches from Culver City and Mar Vista on the northwest to Carson and Compton on the southeast.
So far, his likeliest opponent is seen as being state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who served the same council district as Parks.
Burke, who has announced plans to step down at the end of her term next year, said she won't endorse a replacement until much closer to the election.
But Parks has already picked up the backing of Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the board's most conservative member, who said the former chief would "bring peace and civility to the Board of Supervisors."
"He's a fiscal conservative, but he also recognizes that public safety is the first line of protection for our community," Antonovich said.
Here's some trivia. Ridley-Thomas used to be a theology instructor before turning to politics.
Here, you had Steve Adams, councilman of Ward Seven and state assembly hopeful, who didn't quiet make it past the Republican primary and is back in town trying to win another term as councilman. At yesterday's public safety committee meeting, Adams opted not to sit with fellow elected officials, Andrew Melendrez and Nancy Hart but sat next to several police management employees instead. Given that neither police labor union in the department opted to endorse him during the preliminary round of Election 2007, his behavior was very interesting.
It's not clear who in Ward Seven is being endorsed by either the Riverside Police Officers' Association or the Riverside Police Administrators Association but the leadership of the RPOA appeared to be very upset several months ago at a letter circulated by Adams to ward residents which was filled with lies and untruthful information. Still, given that the election is down to two candidates, Adams and former mayor, Terry Frizzel, will either union ultimately bite the bullet(not the best pun) and pick one or will they do what's probably the wisest thing and sit it out?
Adams' choice in seating at the meeting did raise several eyebrows. The intrigue of the election year continues onward.
Also tossing his hat into the ring for a higher elected office is current Ward Five Councilman Frank Schiavone. He plans to run for a county supervisor seat next year and has already received the endorsement of the Riverside Sheriffs' Assocation which holds the key to a campaign chest of at least $500,000.
Here's an announcement from Belo Blog about a local competition.
(excerpt)
Contest will fund community projects
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has created a contest for community projects that will give winners to receive financial help.
The Third District Civic Betterment Project asks residents within the district to submit proposals for onprojects that would change the lives of those less fortunate. The third district includes the cities of Murrieta, Temecula, Hemet and unincorporated areas of Menifee Valley, Anza and Winchester.
Entries are due Sept. 15. Ten projects will be chosen to receive $1,000 each.
Information and entry forms can be found online at www.civicbettermentproject.org
--Claudia Bustamante
cbustamante@PE.com
Posted by Mark Acosta at 10:27 AM
With the hiring of the new executive manager, the Community Police Review Commission will be reviewing a lot of old business in upcoming weeks in relation to the use of independent investigators in officer-involved deaths and the role of the executive manager in conducting outreach.
These should be interesting discussions given the actions taken by the city manager's office to first block the CPRC's efforts to conduct timely investigations of officer-involved deaths, until community leaders expressed their concern and outrage at this development. It's also interesting to hear that the discussion of the executive manager's role in outreach is back up for discussion after the city manager's office had barred former executive director, Pedro Payne from attending public meetings in 2005 not long before his resignation.
Will there be a discussion, or will the city manager's office lay down the law? Stay tuned for further developments as they take place.
Coming down the road:
"Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
----Lewis Carroll
A shell within a shell: Citizen complaints in the Eastside and the RPD.
Improvements for the CPRC: A former commissioner's recommendations
And of course, Election 2007: The competition continues.
posted by Five Before Midnight | 7:43 AM
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