Out & About – 12/29/2010

Main Street
A trolley strolls along Main Street near City Hall on a rainy Wednesday
in downtown Riverside.


Grading began this past week on the first phase of the mixed-use m sole’ project in downtown Riverside. When completed, m sole’ will include up to 154 residential units and 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail stretching along the west side of Market Street between Third and First streets. Phase one consists of 10 live/work…

Just over 40 years ago, in April 1973, the first of three modern, mid-rise office buildings opened along Riverside’s downtown pedestrian mall, ushering in a new era of mixed uses and densities along Main Street. Like many American downtowns of the era, downtown Riverside’s retail component continued declining during the 1960s, due in part to…

Recently, local historian Hal Durian’s weekly “Riverside Recollections” column spotlighted several local history books, including the very popular photo history books from Arcadia Publishing. The Arcadia series includes several topics, including Images of America, Postcard History Series, Then & Now, Black America Series, Images of Sports, and Campus History Series. Locally, several communities have been…

Since 1980, Inland Southern California’s population has more than doubled from 1.5 million residents to 3.6 million (Census – 2003 county estimates). If ranked separately, it would be country’s 13th most-populous region (sandwiched between Miami and Seattle metro areas). Along with such phenomenal growth has come large jumps in other demographic stats, such as job…

Just east of Temecula in southwestern Riverside County lies a cluster of vineyards and wineries collectively referred to as Temecula Valley Wine Country. Though not nearly as well-known as California’s famous Napa Valley nor even the Central Coast vineyards of Santa Barbara County (which garnered prominent recognition in “Sideways“), Temecula’s Wine Country nonetheless is an…
A short visit to UC Riverside on Friday afforded us some time to take a few photos. Initially established at the base* of Mount Rubidoux in downtown Riverside in 1907, the seeds for present-day UCR began when the Citrus Experiment Station — forerunner to UCR — relocated a few miles east to the base* of…