MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 - MARCH 1, 2015
riversideindependent.com
Riverside Promises $4.4 Million for Major Street Repairs This Year By Estefania Zavala
Riverside’s city council voted on Feb. 10 to spend the next three years repairing heavy traffic streets including Main Street, Jurupa and Lincoln Avenues as well as the roads in smaller neighborhoods. The budget for this street rehabilitation project has been set at $4.4 million but the project’s three year run has cost $38 million since it began in 2012. The company elected to perform the street updating process is R.J Noble Co., who underbid the other four proposals and even proposed a cheaper plan than the city had anticipated at $4.4 million, reports the Press Enterprise. According to Public Works director Tom Boyd, the construction should begin on Canyon Crest Drive between Alessandro Boulevard and Via Vista drive. Additionally, several neighborhoods can expect
Future of Inland Cities Conference Feb. 26 UCR, WRCOG event will address strategies and challenges for sustainability
Dillon Road, Riverside County
to see their streets updated, including a building development on the west end of the city, re off Arlington Avenue west of La Sierra Avenue; the neighborhood surrounding Myra Linn Park; a tract southwest of Victoria and Arlington
answers to the riddle,” he says. “The best response will receive a cash prize of $500 – divided equally in case of multiple equally convincing suggestions.” The project is live on the internet on http://ringmaster. cs.ucr.edu/Rings.html under “Sourcing the Ring Master: cash prize for the best natural expla-
Civic leaders and city officials will discuss common challenges and new strategies to help cities secure a sustainable future in a conference on Thursday, Feb. 26, that is jointly sponsored by the UC Riverside Center for Sustainable Suburban Development (CSSD) and Western Riverside Council of Governments. “Future of Cities in Inland Southern California: A Quest for Sustainability” will be held at Riverside Convention Center, 3637 5th St., from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration is $35 and may be made online. The deadline is Monday, Feb. 23. The conference frames the region’s future and will examine how cities can become sustainable, said Ronald O. Loveridge, CSSD director and associate professor of political science at UCR. Conference sessions will be results-oriented rather than aspirational, according to the former longtime mayor of Riverside. How can cities go green? What tools, funding and otherwise, are available? What are the measures of success? “Sustainability is defined by the three E’s – economy,
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- Photo by Randy Heinitz, courtesy Flickr
avenues near Victoria Elementary School; and an area of the Eastside south of 14th Street and east of the 91. “We (have) a whole lot of streets that need to be rePlease see page 2
Scientists Seek Public’s Help in Solving Ancient Riddle in Paleontology The origin of curious ringlike structures that formed half a billion years ago on a seabed in Wisconsin is an ancient unsolved riddle. “These fascinating structures are almost perfectly circular rings, were first discovered some 30 years ago by amateur paleontologists from Madison, and have been perplexing spe-
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cialists ever since. Are they the result of a physical process, or do they represent the activity of an ancient organism?” says Nigel Hughes, a professor of paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Hughes now invites the public to help solve the riddle. “We are soliciting the best
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Paleontology Riddle Rock Continued from page 1
nation for curious rings on an ancient seabed.” Explanations for the origin of the rings can be posted at this site. The project, which launched at 5 a.m., Monday,
Riverside Streets Continued from page 1
Feb. 16, will end at 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 11. For more information, please visit: http://ucrtoday.ucr. edu/27249
The mysterious sea bed rock
– Courtesy photo
Change lives. Make wishes come true.
paved,” admitted Councilman Jim Perry to the Press Enterprise. Perry listed safe streets as one of his top concerns in his campaign platform. He has contributed to projects such as street improvements on Van Buren Avenue and La Sierra Avenue. He added that “I think we’re getting to the point where we’re starting to make a dent. This (project) rejuvenates neighborhoods. It brings pride to the neighborhood.” Since the program began in 2012, the city has repaved 22.8 miles of arterial streets and 44.8 miles of local streets, and 44.5 miles of streets have been resealed or topped with a new asphalt-rubber surface. The city of Riverside is reaching out to its citizens for feedback. Currently, the Riverside Transportation Department is accepting road repair requests, according to their website. Riverside citizens can submit a request by sending an email to the city with the name of the road in need of repairs, along with a description of the repairs needed. Additionally, Riverside Interstate 10 through Riverside
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residents will now have maintenance control over the trees on their sidewalks and will be able to choose to have them cut down by the city if they desire it. “We cannot keep up with it,” Boyd said about the tree-related sidewalk repairs. According to Boyd, this new policy would reduce the average of 4,400 of service calls that Riverside receives per year about tree accidents. Riverside spends about $1.5 million a year on trimming and maintenance done by three full-time city workers and hired professional tree crews. Council members stressed the point that all the repairs are important, but fixing residential streets is especially crucial. Since 2012, when the city borrowed the $38 million for the road repair projects, more than 112 miles of roads have been repaved or resurfaced. The city’s share of a countywide transportation sales tax is repaying the borrowed funds. Information from the Press Enterprise, Councilman Jim Perry’s website and the Riverside Transportation Department website were used in this article. - Photo by Kevin Dooley, courtesy Flickr
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Future of Inland Cities Conference Continued from page 1
environment, and equity,” Loveridge explained. “The reasons for sustainability are both varied yet critically important: Be a good steward, shape quality of life, and improve the economic vitality.” Delivering the keynote address is Edward McMahon, senior fellow for sustainable development at the Urban Land Institute. His topic is “What Is a sustainable city?” Before joining the institute in 2004, McMahon spent 14 years as the vice president and director of land use planning for the Conservation Fund in Arlington County, Virginia, where he helped protect more than 5 million acres of land of historic or natural significance. He is also the cofounder and former president of Scenic America, a national nonprofit organization devoted to protecting America’s scenic landscapes. Before that, he taught law and public policy at Georgetown University Law Center and served in the U.S. Army. He is the author or coauthor of 15 books and is at work on a new report, “Active Transportation and Real Estate: New Frontiers in Development,” which will be released in May. Also presenting are Hilari Varnadore, executive director of STAR Communities, a nonprofit that works to evaluate, improve and certify sustainable communities; and Julia Parzen, principal at JP Consulting and co-founder of Urban Sustainability Directors Network, a peer-to-peer network of local government professionals from cities across the United States and Canada dedicated to creating a healthier environment, economic prosperity, and increased social equity. The Center for Sustainable Suburban Development is a research center in the UCR School of Public Policy.
Ed McMahon, Hilari Varnadore and Julia Parzen are featured speakers at a Feb. 26 conference focused on the future of cities in the Inland Empire – Courtesy UCR
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UCR to Hold Workshops on Future of Campus Do you have a favorite building, or a pathway on campus? Do you cringe when you see a building with its loading dock in the place where the front door should be? If so, you are the perfect person to help UCR create a vision for how the campus will meet the needs of the future. On Tuesday, Feb. 24, UCR will host two workshops about future campus physical planning. The events, “UCR Future Campus Visioning Workshops,” are being held both on- and off-campus, and are open to students, faculty, staff and members of the local community. “These workshops give everyone a chance to make your voice heard on a wide variety of issues – including architecture, design, open spaces, sustainability, traffic, transportation, parking, signage, amenities, landscaping, safety, wayfinding, walkability, and much more,” said Maria Anguiano, vice chancellor for planning and budget. “Each member of the campus community has a unique experience of the buildings and spaces that we use and through which we move every day, said Rob Gayle, campus architect. “Sharing that experience — what works and what
doesn’t — will help create the places and spaces that will shape UCR’s future.” The workshops are part of an ongoing Physical Master Plan Study to guide responsible and sustainable campus development to the year 2025 and beyond. The study will be used to assist campus leadership in meeting the key goals of the university’s strategic plan, UCR 2020: The Path to Preeminence. While the study is underway over the course of 2015, UCR will continue to advance priority projects, in accordance with the UCR long-range development plan of 2005, with amendments, as necessary, and subject to any required public review. UCR is committed to soliciting input from the public as well as local and state government entities and private concerns during the process. For more information, please visit:http://planning.ucr.edu. Community Workshop #1 Tuesday, Feb. 24, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. University Extension, Rooms A & B, 1200 University Ave., Riverside. Dinner and free three-hour parking in Lot 50 included for those who register at www. planning.ucr.edu.
Crafton Hills Withdraws Its Approved B.A. Program Crafton Hills College is withdrawing its participation in the baccalaureate degree pilot program recently authorized by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. “In light of our recent warning status with ACCJC, we are compelled to withdraw our Emergency Services & Allied Health Systems degree,” said Dr. Cheryl Marshall, president. The College was in good standing with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) when it submitted its application last fall. “I wholly support the baccalaureate degree pilot program and do not want to bring any controversy to the other institutions that were chosen,” said Marshall. “Unfortunately, because of our warning status, we are no longer eligible to participate in the pilot program.” CHC’s proposal for the Emergency Services and Allied Health Systems bachelor’s degree had wide support, including letters from UCR, CSUSB, Congressman Paul Cook, Inland Counties Emer-
gency Medical Agency, American Medical Response (AMR), and more. “This degree would fulfill a need in a high-demand field, in an area that especially needs an educated workforce,” said Marshall. “We plan to pursue it again at our soonest opportunity.” CHC’s accreditation recommendations involve issues related to the completion of student learning outcomes; an update to its Distance Education plan; that a policy be adopted to address when programs are eliminated or significantly changed so that students are not negatively impacted by such changes; that regularly scheduled performance evaluations across all employee groups be adhered to and that the College catalog publication and mission statement processes be reviewed. The College must report its progress on the accreditation recommendations by Mar. 15, 2016 and a team visit will follow. The commission can then reaffirm the college’s accreditation status.
Riverside Central Incident Structure Fire The City of Riverside Fire Department responded a first alarm assignment to a report of a structure fire in the 5500 block of Central Ave. Upon arrival, firefighters found a single story residential structure with light smoke coming from inside the house. Once firefighters made entry into the structure they checked for extension in the wall and found some of the wood smoldering from electrical wiring. As firefighters searched the structure
they found possible marijuana grow house. One resident was found inside the home in the attic space. Riverside Public Utilities were called out for possible illegal wiring at the main electrical panel. The Riverside Police Department (RPD) was notified and the scene was turned over to RPD. The dollar loss was approximately $7,000 and the save on the structure was approximately $180,000. For any further questions you can contact RPD.