City Council will hold a public hearing for the 347-unit Mission Grove Apartments project on the site of the vacant K-Mart site in the Mission Grove Plaza and look for options to participate in the 2028 Olympics.
Thank you for letting our team take this last week off for the Thanksgiving break. I spent some time in the mountains with my family, made the most audacious charcuterie spread and turkey sandwiches, and played a lot of backyard croquet (a side-effect of watching Bridgerton).
We're back to our regular programming this week, and the team will be back in the office (aka. coffee shops across town) tomorrow morning to resume regular reporting and returning phone calls and emails.
PS. I've got some exciting news and a big ask I can't wait to share with you at the end of the week!
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Thank you to the Subscribers who became paid Supporters this week: Gary Bello, Rebecca Davis, Chuck Hall, Norma Jean Larson, and Francisca Reyes. Your ongoing financial support is vital to our success in serving Riverside with the news it deserves!
Charles Loring: From Minneapolis to Mount Rubidoux
A winter visitor who left a lasting mark on Riverside’s landscape and history.
Loring Memorial (Courtesy of the Mission Inn Foundation/Museum), Photo of Charles Loring (Public Domain).
Anyone who has spent much time in Minnesota during winter realizes why Charles M. Loring began to spend his winters in the climate of Riverside in Southern California. One of my daughters told me that fact on a hike up Mt. Rubidoux when we came to the Loring Tablet and talked about Loring being from Minneapolis. She had spent four years of college in Minnesota and later moved to Minneapolis. While she lived in Minneapolis, we talked by phone one winter day. On that day, she was shivering in minus twenty degrees cold while I was enjoying a day in Riverside when we had a balmy eighty degrees. Loring first visited Riverside in the winter of 1885 to visit his friend and former pastor, the Reverend George Deere of the First Universalist Society. After fifty-two years of living in cold climates, Loring was ready for a change during the winter season.
Each week, we will introduce a new neighbor. This is not a who's who list. These are regular Riversiders doing exceptional things.
Lori prepares supplies to support pets and their owners experiencing homelessness. (Brenda Flowers)
In 1976, Lori moved to Riverside, where she raised her two children and immersed herself in the community. A dedicated volunteer, Lori worked in local schools and with animal welfare organizations. In 2012, she and her daughter began distributing snacks, water, and pet treats to homeless individuals, which soon grew into something larger. Within a year, they founded Taking It to the Streets with Lori and Shira, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Since its founding, the organization has provided spay and neuter services for over 2,100 pets and distributed food and supplies to many more, helping to make a lasting impact on the Riverside community.
A prompt to encourage your practice of creativity this week from Riversider and local author Larry Burns.
Hey there, shadow dancers! Last week, we took a brave turn into the shadowy realm. What did you find after a closer look at the interplay of light and objects? Did you raise a shadow puppet theater that brought fantastical tales to life or maybe captured the ephemeral beauty of shadows through photography? Perhaps you even embarked on a shadow meditation, finding stillness amidst the shifting patterns of light and shade. Whatever you did, remember that there is probably a shadow dogging your steps at this very moment, waiting to play. To quote Winnie the Pooh, "A [shadow] is one of the nicest things you can have."
This week, we're turning our attention to a sound that's as familiar as it is satisfying: Velcro, a feast of sound and texture for creative ideas. With its hook-and-loop fastening system, this ingenious invention has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. From late-night talk show host David Letterman's Velcro Suit Jumps to the less famous but equally indispensable part of shoes, personal accessories, and medical devices, Velcro's versatility and convenience have made it a ubiquitous presence in our modern world.
