This newsletter was written and scheduled before RG staff went on holiday break. We will return to regular work and publishing on Monday, January 6.
Monday Gazette: December 23, 2024
Hello Riverside, and Happy Monday! Our team is off on holiday break, but our year-end giving campaign continues. As a reminder, a generous couple has offered a $2,000 matching gift for all contributions made through Christmas!
In the last 24 hours we received 13 new contributions and 3 new paid memebers. Here's how you can help us stand tall and hire our next reporter to serve as your eyes and ears at City Hall:
Today I am honored to publish a note of endorsement for our campaign that is perhaps the most excited I have ever been to publsiunbg something in the Gazette these last four years. If you arrived in Riverside anytime after 2014 the name Dan Bernstein might not mean much to you, but to guys like Ken and I he is a living legend. Bernstein was a long-time reporter turned columnist for The Press-Enterprise who in many ways cultivated the most important voice in town.
I highly encourage you to pick up Dan's 2023 memoir He Kept His Day Job and Justice in Plain Sight which he penned in 2019 to tell the story of The Press-Enterprise's two victories before the U.S. Supreme Court which "established First Amendment rights that significantly broadened public access to the judicial system."
We are honored to publish Bernstein's 115-word contribution toward our efforts are committed to building a newsroom with a similar national impact that shows other communities how to build and grow their own sustainsable newsrooms in this post-newspaper era.
GAZETTE NEWS
Dan Bernstein: Critical Questions About Riverside Go Unanswered
Former Press-Enterprise columnist Dan Bernstein champions the Raincross Gazette's bid to put a full-time reporter back at City Hall.
A young Dan Bernstein reviews the Press-Enterprise in 1985, the same year he won the California Newspaper Publishers Association award for Best Local News Columnist. Bernstein would go on to serve as the paper's voice of Riverside for nearly three decades before retiring in 2014. (Press-Enterprise file photo/The Typo newsletter, March 1986)
Why did it take the city so long to realize it had an aging fleet of trash trucks? What lessons did the Riverside Fire Department learn from its response to the devastating Hawarden fire? Is confiscating and storing possessions an effective approach to the city’s homeless problem?
There was a time when you could have read all about it. Not anymore.
Into the void plunges the Raincross Gazette, now a toddling four years old, but aspiring to hire a full-time city hall reporter. Can the Gazette pull it off? No idea.
Is it worth trying? No question. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in contributing what you can to help make this happen.
The Raincross Gazette team wishes you a joyful holiday season! From left to right: Justin, our founder and publisher; Amy López, our content manager and copy editor; and Ken Crawford, our community reporter and editor.
Raincross Gazette Staff Holiday Questionnaire
Get to know your Raincross Gazette team with a lighthearted holiday questionnaire.
Holiday Dessert 🍰
Justin: Have you ever been lucky enough to have one of those people who make huge batches of those Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls and drop some off at your house on Christmas Eve? That's the best; my father-in-law makes a mean coffee cake every Christmas morning that pairs beautifully with a Cold Brew Old Fashioned.
Ken: My Mom always made a brownie with mint frosting and fudge icing during the holidays. I need to learn to make it for myself.
Amy: If See's Candy counts, then it's definitely my favorite!
Favorite Holiday Movie 🎥
Justin: White Christmas is magic, and the Family Man regrounds me every holiday season, but there's nothing better than piling on the couch with Lindy and our four kids watching Home Alone. We let them get "kid drunk" on Martinelli's sparkling cider so they're extra full of holiday cheer and laugh even harder at all of Kevin's antics.
Ken: Elf. Will Ferrell plays the fish out of the water so well! His steadfast joy in the face of so many people trying to take it from him is how I want to live.
Amy: Collateral Beauty is super special and pulls at my heartstrings every time, but every year I have to watch Home Alone and Elf with my family. Both are so much fun and really capture that Christmas feeling.
Favorite Traditional Holiday Song 🎼
Justin: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, the Kings Kaleidoscope arrangement in particular, has such classic lyrics I somehow still remember from sitting next to my grandmother in church as a little boy.
Ken: O’ Holy Night. Specifically, how the melody bouncingly builds to release “Fall on your Knees,” such an epic piece of music. Chill-inducing when done well.
Amy: O Come O Come Emmanuel.
Favorite Pop Holiday Song 🎤
Justin: All I Really Want For Christmas, by Lil Jon featuring Kool-Aid Man, don't judge me. Christmas in Hollis is a close second. DMX's take on Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is a close third.
Ken: Hippopotamus For Christmas. It captures the whimsy of the Holiday.
Amy: I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm- Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong.
Favorite Family Holiday Tradition 🎉
Justin: We have to drive down Chapman Place at least once with a car full of hot cocoa. I've also come to really love the short drive from our house in Victoria Woods to my in-laws in the Wood Streets because we always get to see at least one or two little kids out in front of their house on a new bike or scooter.
Ken: Hot chocolate and a car ride to look at lights. Pretty much the only time I intentionally play Christmas music.
Amy: Spending Christmas morning together in pajamas as a family is one of my favorite traditions. Even now, with our adult children and their significant others, everyone makes it a priority to come home, stay cozy, and share a delicious, festive brunch.
Do you have any plans for your Holiday Break? 🗓️
Justin: Ignoring my email is priority number one. Lindy and I are also heading to Santa Barbara over New Year's for the surprise 60th birthday party for one of my mentors, who currently lives in Accra, Ghana.
Ken: My family and I are going to see Yosemite in the snow (fingers crossed).
Amy: My plan is to have no plan, just to embrace the spontaneity that only a holiday break can offer.
