City of the Festivals: Who would win the crown?
On Saturday, Riverside hosted its annual air show at its municipal airport. Over 93,000 people attended the event, the city's second most attended after the annual celebration of the City of the Lights.
Airplanes flew in from all over and some of them did more than fly in a straight line from Point A to Point B. Some flew sideways, backwards and one pilot even flew way up, turned off his plane's engine and glided in silently for a landing amongst a hushed crowd. There were wing-walkers dressed in bright colors, sky divers, police helicopters and plenty of buffalo wings to be found. A lot of people were having a good time on a nice warm day, with good flying weather. Why does that sometimes feel like a bad thing in Riverside?
For some reason, I thought of the late Orange Blossom Festival which used to attract crowds but is now gone. The promises by the city council to replace it with something more in tune with honoring what's left of city's citrus heritage, unfulfilled. That's too bad. The festival had its problems and needed a closer look but what it didn't need was to disappear from the city's vernacular to fade off into the sunset with the city's citrus heritage. Perhaps some day it will return when the city's under more experienced management and with a different crowd on the dais. To start with? Schedule it not in May, but earlier so that the University of California, Riverside can return with the most popular feature, its citrus fruit taste testing booth.
It's ironic that the City of the Orange's honorary festival implodes while that desert town, Indio, City of the Dates, can keep its own celebration event running strong. Indio's also the seat for the county fair, and it has monster trucks.
The smaller city of Gilroy, City of the Garlic, can keep its own celebration festival running strong year in and year out.
There's Temecula, City of the Grape, which hosts its annual wine festival which attracts huge crowds each year.
It's funny that Riverside's city council has designated itself City of the Arts when it's actually both Temecula Valley and Palm Springs host highly successful international film festivals. Riverside needs to get in line behind these two cultural power houses just to keep up in the Inland Empire's cultural game.
Riverside started its own film festival several years back that's pretty cool. It's coming next month and will be announced at this week's city council mini-meeting. But except for this time of year, you don't hear much about it.
Riverside's not the City of Baseball either because the minor league season starts without us. Riverside's not seen a Single A baseball team since the Riverside Pilots, an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, picked up stakes in 1995 breaking its contract with the city in the process.
That's the problem when you have a city, Riverside, that keeps piling up titles whereas many other cities actually don't put the cart before the horse and work on areas of living and then let their records in these areas speak for themselves and then wait while they attract these titles through their records not through governmental resolution.
Hopefully, since we're busy creating more ad hoc committees and task forces, perhaps one can be created to study the issue of why this city government keeps doing so and if not, then perhaps create one to study the future of the Orange Blossom Festival like our city government promised when they axed the old one several years ago. It would take some real leaders with real vision to bring a festival back, which honored the citrus heritage, but is there any to take it on?
Of course, maybe now the city can't afford it, even as it continues to borrow more against the futures of the next generation to finance its renaissance because after all, these folks won't be in management or on the dais when these bills all come due.
But if the same course is followed that's been used in the past, there will be a city council resolution declaring Riverside, City of the Festivals and then maybe we'll think some up.
Not that there's not good ones. Several music festivals. Dickons Festival, Harvest festival. Black History month festival and parade. The Multicultural Festival, which was a good one. Actually, you'll have to scrap the last one because it's been canceled until at least 2009. But we need a really, really festival celebrating what's left of what once was, City of the Oranges.
Perhaps it will return some day. But it would be nice to see its return before the last citrus tree is pulled out from the ground.
In the Eastside, more families are receiving computers through a program set up by the city.
"Old Friend" hasn't been back since firing an email off calling me a "bitter cunt" apparently showing me through example what it's like not being a "bitter cunt" through succulent, well thought out, vivid and very succinct prose. The visitor on my site at the time this email was sent had tried to leave a comment on the same posting that was sent by email, about three minutes before the email was sent. It was an ISP that was based in Germany, different from the one this visitor used on March 24 which was also German based. Harassment at the global level from all the way around the world?
Perhaps, but the computer used had as its local time, Pacific Standard Time which isn't the same as the local time in Germany which kind of threw up a red flag. At any rate, it's just another rock-dwelling coward to add to the list of them if it's indeed even a new one.
It's difficult for Colton to go for very long without adding another chapter to the exciting book which defines the political climate at City Hall. Ousted police chiefs, city manager's sending racist emails, indicted councilmen and recalled mayors are only appetizers for what is turning into quite a cauldron of political intrigue.
Now at the center of controversy is the city's practice of deleting work-related emails after 30 days, an action that some say violates the state's public record act. The city's emails have become a subject of great interest ever since several city employees including the city manager were caught calling people "chamber monkeys" and "urban idiots".
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Gary Grossich, a restaurant owner and one of the leaders of the Colton watchdog group Citizens For Colton First, filed a complaint with the San Bernardino County district attorney's public integrity unit, saying that Colton is withholding public information.
Also, attorney Cynthia Puertas filed a writ of mandate on March 11 for her client, Henry Aguila, owner of El Sombrero nightclub in south Colton. Puertas is seeking a court order to force the city to release the e-mails.
Both parties are in litigation with the city. Both parties made their public records requests in February, looking for correspondence that might help their cases.
A hearing is scheduled for May 22 in a Needles courtroom -- the only San Bernardino County court that hears administrative writs, Puertas said.
Colton City Manager Daryl Parrish said Colton's e-mail policy does include retention of documents in hard copy, but it is up to the individual employee to decide what is work product and what is not.
"Looks like we're changing policy on the fly," Grossich said. "I've made requests and never had a problem. Now all of a sudden, they're closing ranks. I think due to the embarrassing e-mails that got out, they're withholding e-mails."
Stay tuned for more out of Colton because after all, there's always something.
In Riverside Superior Court, a sitting judge clashed with a supervising prosecutor after the dismissal of two criminal cases due to lack of available courtrooms. This time, it was Judge Helio Hernandez who had an exchange of words with Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Rushton.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Rushton told Riverside County Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez II that his office believed two courtrooms were available Thursday afternoon to take the cases, thereby avoiding dismissal.
Hernandez said he had determined those courts could not take the cases.
"You are making an assumption judges are doing nothing," said Hernandez, supervising judge for the criminal department in western Riverside County, located in the downtown Hall of Justice. "That is not reality."
Rushton said his office was not suggesting judges had nothing to do, but "whatever they were doing was not as important as taking a case to avoid a dismissal."
Expect the crunch in the courtrooms to get even more severe after the District Attorney's office likely adds Hernandez to its boycott list where current judge (for now) Gary Tranbarger and former judge, Robert Spitzer have been placed. That's one way to deal with problems stemming in part from a shortage of judicial officers I suppose, to limit the pool of available judges to hear trials including those which might face being dismissed.
Taking the justice system a bit more seriously were the high school students participating in the state-wide mock trial finals which continue onward.
How do Riverside and San Bernardino's buildings stack up if there's a major earthquake? A seismologist's responds. San Bernardino has its separate problems with how its restaurants are rated by the health department. Is that restaurant that you just ate at there graded with an "A" or a "C"? In that city, they're not required to tell you their grades on health inspections.
More than 50 people have resumed the search for Stacey Peterson, the wife of a former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, who's been missing since last October. Her disappearance is being investigated by the police department and a grand jury, with her husband being the primary person of interest.
Also reopened for criminal investigation is the re-classified homicide of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found 2004 dead from drowning in her bathtub.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
"Right now we're looking for a body," said Cassandra Cales, Peterson's younger sister. "We're looking for grave sites ... anything."
An interesting article about Avalon, Catalina Island which is about 70% Latino but all of its elected officials and most of its power brokers are White.
Dith Pran (Sept. 27, 1942-March 30, 2008)
Airplanes flew in from all over and some of them did more than fly in a straight line from Point A to Point B. Some flew sideways, backwards and one pilot even flew way up, turned off his plane's engine and glided in silently for a landing amongst a hushed crowd. There were wing-walkers dressed in bright colors, sky divers, police helicopters and plenty of buffalo wings to be found. A lot of people were having a good time on a nice warm day, with good flying weather. Why does that sometimes feel like a bad thing in Riverside?
For some reason, I thought of the late Orange Blossom Festival which used to attract crowds but is now gone. The promises by the city council to replace it with something more in tune with honoring what's left of city's citrus heritage, unfulfilled. That's too bad. The festival had its problems and needed a closer look but what it didn't need was to disappear from the city's vernacular to fade off into the sunset with the city's citrus heritage. Perhaps some day it will return when the city's under more experienced management and with a different crowd on the dais. To start with? Schedule it not in May, but earlier so that the University of California, Riverside can return with the most popular feature, its citrus fruit taste testing booth.
It's ironic that the City of the Orange's honorary festival implodes while that desert town, Indio, City of the Dates, can keep its own celebration event running strong. Indio's also the seat for the county fair, and it has monster trucks.
The smaller city of Gilroy, City of the Garlic, can keep its own celebration festival running strong year in and year out.
There's Temecula, City of the Grape, which hosts its annual wine festival which attracts huge crowds each year.
It's funny that Riverside's city council has designated itself City of the Arts when it's actually both Temecula Valley and Palm Springs host highly successful international film festivals. Riverside needs to get in line behind these two cultural power houses just to keep up in the Inland Empire's cultural game.
Riverside started its own film festival several years back that's pretty cool. It's coming next month and will be announced at this week's city council mini-meeting. But except for this time of year, you don't hear much about it.
Riverside's not the City of Baseball either because the minor league season starts without us. Riverside's not seen a Single A baseball team since the Riverside Pilots, an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, picked up stakes in 1995 breaking its contract with the city in the process.
That's the problem when you have a city, Riverside, that keeps piling up titles whereas many other cities actually don't put the cart before the horse and work on areas of living and then let their records in these areas speak for themselves and then wait while they attract these titles through their records not through governmental resolution.
Hopefully, since we're busy creating more ad hoc committees and task forces, perhaps one can be created to study the issue of why this city government keeps doing so and if not, then perhaps create one to study the future of the Orange Blossom Festival like our city government promised when they axed the old one several years ago. It would take some real leaders with real vision to bring a festival back, which honored the citrus heritage, but is there any to take it on?
Of course, maybe now the city can't afford it, even as it continues to borrow more against the futures of the next generation to finance its renaissance because after all, these folks won't be in management or on the dais when these bills all come due.
But if the same course is followed that's been used in the past, there will be a city council resolution declaring Riverside, City of the Festivals and then maybe we'll think some up.
Not that there's not good ones. Several music festivals. Dickons Festival, Harvest festival. Black History month festival and parade. The Multicultural Festival, which was a good one. Actually, you'll have to scrap the last one because it's been canceled until at least 2009. But we need a really, really festival celebrating what's left of what once was, City of the Oranges.
Perhaps it will return some day. But it would be nice to see its return before the last citrus tree is pulled out from the ground.
In the Eastside, more families are receiving computers through a program set up by the city.
"Old Friend" hasn't been back since firing an email off calling me a "bitter cunt" apparently showing me through example what it's like not being a "bitter cunt" through succulent, well thought out, vivid and very succinct prose. The visitor on my site at the time this email was sent had tried to leave a comment on the same posting that was sent by email, about three minutes before the email was sent. It was an ISP that was based in Germany, different from the one this visitor used on March 24 which was also German based. Harassment at the global level from all the way around the world?
Perhaps, but the computer used had as its local time, Pacific Standard Time which isn't the same as the local time in Germany which kind of threw up a red flag. At any rate, it's just another rock-dwelling coward to add to the list of them if it's indeed even a new one.
It's difficult for Colton to go for very long without adding another chapter to the exciting book which defines the political climate at City Hall. Ousted police chiefs, city manager's sending racist emails, indicted councilmen and recalled mayors are only appetizers for what is turning into quite a cauldron of political intrigue.
Now at the center of controversy is the city's practice of deleting work-related emails after 30 days, an action that some say violates the state's public record act. The city's emails have become a subject of great interest ever since several city employees including the city manager were caught calling people "chamber monkeys" and "urban idiots".
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Gary Grossich, a restaurant owner and one of the leaders of the Colton watchdog group Citizens For Colton First, filed a complaint with the San Bernardino County district attorney's public integrity unit, saying that Colton is withholding public information.
Also, attorney Cynthia Puertas filed a writ of mandate on March 11 for her client, Henry Aguila, owner of El Sombrero nightclub in south Colton. Puertas is seeking a court order to force the city to release the e-mails.
Both parties are in litigation with the city. Both parties made their public records requests in February, looking for correspondence that might help their cases.
A hearing is scheduled for May 22 in a Needles courtroom -- the only San Bernardino County court that hears administrative writs, Puertas said.
Colton City Manager Daryl Parrish said Colton's e-mail policy does include retention of documents in hard copy, but it is up to the individual employee to decide what is work product and what is not.
"Looks like we're changing policy on the fly," Grossich said. "I've made requests and never had a problem. Now all of a sudden, they're closing ranks. I think due to the embarrassing e-mails that got out, they're withholding e-mails."
Stay tuned for more out of Colton because after all, there's always something.
In Riverside Superior Court, a sitting judge clashed with a supervising prosecutor after the dismissal of two criminal cases due to lack of available courtrooms. This time, it was Judge Helio Hernandez who had an exchange of words with Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Rushton.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Rushton told Riverside County Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez II that his office believed two courtrooms were available Thursday afternoon to take the cases, thereby avoiding dismissal.
Hernandez said he had determined those courts could not take the cases.
"You are making an assumption judges are doing nothing," said Hernandez, supervising judge for the criminal department in western Riverside County, located in the downtown Hall of Justice. "That is not reality."
Rushton said his office was not suggesting judges had nothing to do, but "whatever they were doing was not as important as taking a case to avoid a dismissal."
Expect the crunch in the courtrooms to get even more severe after the District Attorney's office likely adds Hernandez to its boycott list where current judge (for now) Gary Tranbarger and former judge, Robert Spitzer have been placed. That's one way to deal with problems stemming in part from a shortage of judicial officers I suppose, to limit the pool of available judges to hear trials including those which might face being dismissed.
Taking the justice system a bit more seriously were the high school students participating in the state-wide mock trial finals which continue onward.
How do Riverside and San Bernardino's buildings stack up if there's a major earthquake? A seismologist's responds. San Bernardino has its separate problems with how its restaurants are rated by the health department. Is that restaurant that you just ate at there graded with an "A" or a "C"? In that city, they're not required to tell you their grades on health inspections.
More than 50 people have resumed the search for Stacey Peterson, the wife of a former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, who's been missing since last October. Her disappearance is being investigated by the police department and a grand jury, with her husband being the primary person of interest.
Also reopened for criminal investigation is the re-classified homicide of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found 2004 dead from drowning in her bathtub.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
"Right now we're looking for a body," said Cassandra Cales, Peterson's younger sister. "We're looking for grave sites ... anything."
An interesting article about Avalon, Catalina Island which is about 70% Latino but all of its elected officials and most of its power brokers are White.
Dith Pran (Sept. 27, 1942-March 30, 2008)
Labels: business as usual, City Hall 101, judicial watch, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 8:42 AM
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