It will be a quiet week at City Hall, with no City Council meeting and two canceled commission meetings. The Cultural Heritage Board will review the City's plan to convert historic district streetlights to LED technology.
Friday's Sunset with Silhouette Palms. (Bob Sirotnik)
Sunday Gazette: October 13, 2024
Hello Riverside, and Happy Sunday!
Because of you, The Gazette celebrated two milestones this week! On Saturday morning, we crossed 6,5000 subscribers, and on Wednesday, Shelagh Boggio became our 350th paid supporter!
An incredibly small number now means the world to me: 0.01%. One-tenth of one percent of Riverside's population believes in what we're doing enough that they choose to pay for it!
Here's another way to look at it: our monthly support is now over 5% of what we need to have a newsroom of 10 reporters covering this city. Can you imagine that? Here's the newsroom of 10 I dream about:
Community Reporter – covering the people and happenings of Riverside.
City Hall Reporter – keeping a close eye on City Hall.
Education Reporter – helping us understand what's happening in our two school districts, community college, and universities.
Business Reporter – highlighting new businesses and celebrating the ones creating our economic future.
Sports Reporter – spotlighting the achievements of our local athletes and helping them feel supported by their hometown.
Investigative Reporter – taking their time uncovering and telling the truth about what's going on in Riverside.
Arts & Culture Reporter – curating the best of what's happening across our myriad of museums, galleries, and independent creative scene.
County Government Reporter – keeping an eye on what the Board of Supervisors are up to and how it impacts our city.
Investigative Reporter – even more deep dives into the happenings in our city.
Editor in Chief – because you all know we need a trained and skilled journalist guiding this effort.
Riverside deserves this kind of newsroom. The research clearly shows why this is so important. Communities with less local news have lower bond ratings, higher financing costs, and higher taxes—instead, they have more government corruption and waste. You all are contributing toward building this hyperlocal newsroom, which I believe can be a model for other cities in the region and across the country.
To each of the 6,500 subscribers, thank you for caring enough about Riverside to welcome us into your inboxes four times a week. And to the 350 paid supporters, thank you for investing in our community. If you ever see me out and about, please introduce yourself—I'd love to give you a hug!
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Thank you to the subscribers who became paid supporters this week: Shelagh Boggio, and Mikaila Kruse. Your ongoing financial support is vital to our success in serving Riverside with the news it deserves!
In today’s Eat This column, a conversation with a respected donut shop owner led Seth down a donut rabbit hole to investigate whether Riverside’s independent donut shops are all serving more or less the same donuts made with the same industrially packaged donut mix. Spoiler alert: they are!
Glazed frosted donuts in the case at Steve’s Donuts. (Seth Zurer)
I have a donut problem. Scratch that: I have several donut problems. One problem is that I love donuts. Not a problem, you say? Reader, I confess, I love donuts too much. My dog’s veterinarian is a block from one of my preferred donut shops, and I am incapable of taking Winnie in for a checkup without popping in for a quick snack on the way home. “Just one old-fashioned donut,” I say to myself, “Lunchtime is hours away!”
Then I look at the donut case and find myself ordering a fritter too, might as well get a boston creme for my son, and gee, that blueberry glazed looks good. I have the same problem when I pass by the donut shop near Kaiser Permanente after my own doctor’s appointments. And when I’m driving home from a hike from Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park - Donut Tyme is right there, I might as well stop in. I treat myself too often, perhaps, but it can be difficult to resist temptation when there are so many superb donuts available.
Eat This Field Trip: Seth is organizing our first ever reader field trip to Greedy Cat Meat Lover BBQ & Fried Chicken Kitchen on Wednesday October 23. Read through to the bottom of his story for details on joining.
A prompt to encourage your practice of creativity this week from Riversider and local author Larry Burns.
This week, we're building upon our creative foundation with an object of substance and heft. This week's creative nudge can be formed out of just about any material, but really, only one shape comes to mind: a brick. Solid and squared off, often associated with construction and structure, bricks will pave a path for us today to a multi-sensory exploration of creativity.
