Hidden Gems

The Riversider | December 2021

WORDS: ALONDRA FIGUEROA PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER

This spectacularly new hidden gem has a superior feel all its own, so it’s no surprise that it has all of the best quality meat your heart desires. It certainly isn’t every day that you can experience the sheer joy of entering such a well staffed and gorgeously clean carniceria (Mexican style butcher shop). At The Riversider, we immediately knew it was something special! This meat market really stands out among the rest—it’s perfectly styled with minimalist black and white colors, unique wall-to-wall marble flooring that really elevate it to another level. You simply revel in choosing among their classically displayed, fantastic cuts of beef ranging from their USDA Prime Ranchera preparada, a tender carne asada-style marinated beef to massive Tomahawk Steaks, and even bringing all the game with Japanese Wagyu beef and their specialty, Kobe beef. I could not believe how wildly fabulous La Carniceria was, and how helpful all of the staff was. I simply can’t wait to go again! We know that you’ll love coming to La Carniceria for all of your butchering needs, so we sat down with owner Jose Luis Ruiz to find out why a wellknown LA based market chose to expand all the way to our side of the 91. Jose Luis shared that he came to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico around ten years ago, and began working in La Carniceria’s first location. Ruiz learned all he could during those early years doing everything from cutting meats to cooking and cleaning. He rose to management over the years, and soon was able to purchase the company— and now they have five locations! “Providing the community with the absolute best quality meat is our top priority,” Jose Luis proudly stated. It was the Bellflower location that helped get things started for us as folks from Riverside were continuously going there for their great cuts of high quality meat and complaining that there was nothing like La Carniceria in Riverside. This is when Jose Luis had the genius idea to open up another location right here off of the 91 Freeway at Arlington Avenue where the old Tava Lanes used to be—nestled inbetween the Dollar Tree and the LA Fitness. We were amazed to learn that in order to sell Kobe beef you must be verified and approved by the Japanese Kobe Beef Association. Even more remarkable is that La Carniceria is the only meat market in all of Los Angeles and Riverside Counties certified to sell Kobe beef, so look for the certified plaque that’s proudly displayed in their shop as the physical proof that they’re in a league of their own! This is such a special designation that we wanted everyone to know that they can now simply walk into La Carniceria and walk out with the absolute best cuts of meat and even that coveted Kobe beef that we’ve all heard about. Don’t forget to check out their delicious fresh salsas, and peruse their wall of hot sauces. If you want to take your usual carne asada to the next level, or treat yourself to some world famous Kobe beef—be sure to stop by La Carniceria and you won’t be disappointed! If you have any questions, their staff is happy to help, and will often give you great suggestions that you didn’t even know you loved! From the looks of my La Carniceria haul, it’s going to be a Happy Holiday season for sure!

Certified Kobe beef

La Carniceria Meat Market 3457 Arlington Avenue Suite 105 (951) 742-5510 lacarniceriameatmarket.com @lacarniceriameatmarket

WORDS: MANO MIRANDÉ PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER

Driving north on Riverside’s historic palm tree-lined Victoria Avenue, towards the Victoria Country Club and Golf Course, you’ll find an affluent neighborhood lined with large, upscale houses and well-manicured lawns. But, crossing over the almost century-old Victoria Bridge into the Eastside neighborhood, you’re met with a stark contrast—a working-class community of families in modest homes, many built prior to the 1950s, some with chipping paint and dried up lawns, chain-link fences, barking dogs, and children playing. Street vendors can be found on corners, along with the occasional shrine of burntout candles and wilted flowers commemorating the lives of local youth that have fallen victim to gang violence. Founded in 1880, during the height of Riverside’s thriving citrus industry, The Eastside—located east of the 91 Freeway to Iowa Avenue and from 3rd Street, south to the Victoria Bridge—is one of the city’s oldest and largest residential communities. Largely populated by Latino and African-American families, many of its residents are descendants of the laborers who worked in the citrus groves and packinghouses that helped found Riverside and this neighborhood. The Eastside is a strong community that has fought to maintain a sense of identity, pride, tradition, and integrity in the face of poverty, social injustice, and institutional racism. It’s a struggle that continues through decades-long traditions of maintaining self-ownership of businesses, development of public services in health, the arts, education, and other community-based organizations.

Eastside Arthouse founder Juan Navarro.

Like many predominantly Latino communities throughout Southern California, there’s an abundance of vibrant public murals in the Eastside, on local businesses, in alleyways, and at public parks. These murals help beautify the neighborhood, and give its residents a sense of ownership, pride, and history. A local artist at the forefront of a recent increase in public art in the Eastside is 27-year-old Juan Navarro. Juan’s not only the Artist-In-Residence for the Riverside Art Museum, but also recently founded the Eastside Arthouse in September of 2021, located on Park Avenue and 12th Street in the heart of the Eastside. Juan was born in Riverside and raised in a small apartment where he shared a bedroom with his two brothers. His mother, a Spanish-speaking immigrant, was a devout member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church near Patterson Park, where he volunteered in community programs with her at a young age. Because he was raised in a strict religious family with a verbally abusive stepfather, he was restricted from pursuing creative outlets such as art. This inevitably led him to an interest in graffiti and street art, influenced by the colorful artwork sprayed on freight trains that passed on the train

Artists can use the studio's VR system to create digital art.

tracks behind his house. After high school, Juan worked in a print shop in Los Angeles, commuting daily on the Metrolink, and saved enough money to buy a car. This allowed him the freedom to travel throughout California to paint public art under his new artistic identity, Luvmonsterz. Back home, Navarro began painting public murals in the Eastside, with resources and financial assistance from such programs as the Riverside Community Health Foundation, Heal Zone, R.E.A.L., and eventually, the Riverside Art Museum. Juan not only beautified the community, but also made locations such as alleys and public parks safer spaces—areas previously considered dangerous due to crime, drug use, and gang activity. In 2019, at the young age of 25, Juan became an Artist-In-Residence for the Riverside Art Museum,

having gained recognition for his dedication and passion for organizing art projects in the Eastside. The museum also offered him housing in “The Branch”—a recently built residence located on Park Avenue. The Branch provided housing and financial assistance, allowing him Juan working with Arthouse members Jailyn Patrick and Rosana Cortez. to move out of his mother’s apartment, while providing a space for him to work and organize other public projects for the community. The residency included additional responsibilities, such as curating the Taylor Gallery at the Riverside Art Museum, and becoming an ambassador between the museum and the Eastside community. In the last four years, Juan has overseen over eight public art projects in the Eastside, including “Grandma’s Quilt” on University Avenue and Ottowa; murals on Olympic Market on Cottage, Patterson Park; and Arcy’s on University Avenue. Like many of his projects, these included community involvement and participation from conceptualization to execution. Juan’s ambition and drive to give back to the Eastside did not end with his residency with the Riverside Art Museum. Instead, he realized his dream of building a physical space for local artists to create and interact into a reality through his opening of the Eastside Arthouse. With a personal business loan in 2021, Juan leased a commercial property a block away from The Branch, converting a recently closed appliance store into an art space. Equipped with state-of-the-art resources, including a 3D printer, easels, a computer, printer, outdoor mural practice walls, a projector, and meeting and work spaces. With the help of a few close friends, Juan built this space from the ground-up. The Arthouse is a membership-based facility for artists and community members to work, attend public workshops, and receive guided art instruction. Juan does not plan to stop his commitment to beautifying the local neighborhood with The Park Avenue Mural Project in the works for 2022, which will provide free murals to local businesses. As a young artist and community organizer, Juan Navarro’s work has not only made a significant impact on the Eastside, but also contributes to Riverside’s identity as a City of Arts and Innovation.

Eastside Arthouse 4177 Park Avenue (951) 206-6832 eastsidearthouse.studio @eastsidearthouse

The Riversider | December 2021

WORDS: H. VINCENT MOSES, PHD

Fairmount Lake looking south toward North Hill, with original boathouse and stick-style foot bridge in foreground, 1921. Courtesy, Riverside Public Library Local History Room

The Riversider | December 2021

The paper and Riverside leaders considered the services of John Charles Olmsted and his brother, sons of the legendary Frederick Law Olmsted, a major coup. The Olmsted brothers were then engaged in the design of Balboa Park, San Diego for the Panama-California Exposition. Their plate was overflowing, and yet Riverside proved a plum they could not resist. Riverside had a national reputation as the prosperous home of the Washington navel orange, and the fabled Glenwood Mission Inn Hotel. Now it would get a park to match thanks to the Olmsted brothers. Today, through hard effort by citizens and the City of Riverside, Olmsted’s legacy lives on in Riverside.

Located at 2601 Fairmount Boulevard, Fairmount Park is the most used park in Riverside—drawing thousands annually for recreation and camaraderie. The Park lies Southeast of the Santa Ana River and south of Route 60, The Riverside Freeway. Based on its Olmsted connections and its history, Riverside Cultural Heritage Board designated Fairmount Park Landmark No. 69 of the City of Riverside. Its famous band shell, designed by Mission-style architect Arthur Burnett Benton in 1920, was previously designated Landmark No. 10.

Fairmount Park racetrack and bleachers looking south toward North (Quarry) Hill, c1925. Courtesy, Museum of Riverside, accession #A473-373 Below: Riverside Daily Press, May 5, 1911, from Genealogy Bank.com

Originally founded in 1898 on 32 acres of river bottom meadowlands, Fairmount Park took its name from the famous Fairmount Park of Philadelphia—then considered the best park in America. The ambitious 1911 Olmsted Plan laid out an expansion of the park and proposed improvements that reflected the beautiful and picturesque landscape philosophy the Olmsted brothers, and health-based innovations of the Progressive Era, including a “plunge” or swimming pool, a new lake with boathouse, playground for children, and a bandshell for concerts. Moreover, the plan called for extensive tree planting and trails for promenades around the lakes and park proper. By the completion of the Olmsted improvements, Fairmount Park was a marvel of its day and the pride of Riverside.

Behind the Park’s idyllic image, however, lurked a darker reality. The Park opened during the era of Jim Crow, and although in California and while the picnic areas and trails were open to all residents, the Fairmount Park Plunge (pool) remained segregated by race and ethnicity. It operated that way until after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, whereupon the city removed it as a park amenity. From its beginning to its removal as a segregated plunge (pool), Mondays only were available for people of color, after which the Parks Department drained the plunge and wading pool and refilled them for white persons’ use only. The segregated pool had been a bone-ofcontention within the communities of color since

Below: Riverside Daily Press, March 1, 1921, from Genealogy Bank.com. Fairmount Park Plunge and Wadding Pool, c1915, segregated by race and ethnicity from its opening June 1, 1912, until its closing after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with its Public Accommodations Clause that would have required the city to integrate the Plunge. Courtesy, Museum of Riverside

Stokes and Williams family picnic, Fairmount Park, c1915. Courtesy, Museum of Riverside

The Riversider | December 2021

Boating on Lake Evans, c1925. Courtesy, Museum of Riverside

Restored bandshell, original design by Mission Revival architect Arthur Benton of Mission Inn fame.

its opening, June 1,1912. By 1921, Rev Frank H. Johnson, Pastor of Allen Chapel A.M.E., and a leader in the regional NAACP had seen enough. With the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP, Johnson sued the City of Riverside and the Parks Board, on behalf of his daughter Alice under the new California Civil Code barring discrimination based on race. It proved a courageous move given that the revitalized Ku Klux Klan had been developing a stronghold in Riverside—the progressive “City Beautiful.” Frank Miller, Master of the Mission Inn, and S. C. Evans, Jr., Mayor of Riverside both knew they needed to tamp down the firestorm surrounding Johnson’s suit. They helped settle the case in 1922 by promoting the creation of a park on Riverside’s Eastside with its own “Separate but Equal” plunge. Lincoln Park opened in the mid-1920s at Howard, Commerce, and 14th Streets, and quickly became

JULIAN JOLLIFFE

Mexican Monterey Cypress Trees lining the shore of Lake Evans.

Japanese gate and foot bridges, c1920, destroyed by the 1938 Flood, which devastated the Park requiring major reconstruction. Courtesy, Riverside Public Library Local History Room The Water Buffalo. Amphibious Landing Vehicle built by Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation 14th and Commerce Streets, Riverside

a popular meeting place for the peoples of color that lived in the Eastside until the city removed the plunge in the early 1970s. Fairmount Park Plunge remained segregated by ethnicity and color until removed by the city in the late 1960s.

According to City Parks contribution to Wikipedia, “Fairmount Park provides a public golf course, two tennis courts, public barbecues, boat rentals (including pedal boats that are handicap accessible), sailing and fishing on Lake Evans, running, jogging, and walking on the Santa Ana River Trail, a number of exercise classes held in the park, and the playground. It also has a well-maintained lawn bowling court which first opened in the 1920s, and a Rose Garden with a gazebo which is a popular location for photographs of significant community events.” Engine No. 6051 at the park’s formal entrance on Market Street commemorates the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the railroad in Riverside. In 1949, the American Legion installed a Water Buffalo amphibious landing vehicle (tank) on a ramp going down into Lake Evans, to commemorate Riverside’s role in the manufacture of the vehicle during World War II.” Food Machinery & Chemical Corporation built the Water Buffalo in its expanded facility at 15th and Commerce in Riverside, employing more than 1,000 workers there during the duration of the war.

By the 1970s, Fairmount Park was plagued by deferred maintenance, and declining public use and needed revitalization. Local park aficionados and community leaders, Bob and Pat Stewart formed the Fairmount Park Citizens Committee in 1979 to address the venerable park’s rapid decline, and thwart consultants’ proposals for park rehabilitation that would’ve destroyed the original Olmsted layout and natural features. They succeeded. In 2006, an omnibus $1.8 billion citywide “2006 Riverside Renaissance” project conducted significant improvements in the park as part of the effort. In 2011, the nationwide City Parks Alliance declared that Fairmount Park “exemplified the catalytic power of parks to transform urban areas.” Today, individuals and families flock to Fairmount Park, walking its paths, fishing its lakes, picnicking with their children and friends, and attending concerts and community celebrations. Fairmount Park has reclaimed its Olmsted legacy and the City of Riverside, and its citizens are better for it.