Out & About – 12/29/2010

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


A handful of plans currently in the works will reshape downtown Riverside and, for the first time in a long time, include serious mixed-use development with an emphasis toward residential uses. The projects, which include a mix of condos, townhomes, lofts, commercial, and arts uses are expected to begin taking shape throughout 2006. Each will…

We’re not certain of the exact year, but this postcard appears to be sometime during the 1950s. Based upon “Int’l Airport” being used for notating Ontario Airport, it’s likely post-1946 — the year Ontario Municipal Airport was re-named Ontario International Airport. Likewise, the lack of Lake Perris means it’s pre-1974. Note also the current-day routes…

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…

Last summer, the early stages of demolition began at the Riverside Plaza. This past week, the last remaining buildings — outside of the spared Harris-Gottschalks department store — were finally brought down. A noteworthy change to Riverside’s oldest mall, which originally opened as an outdoor mall in three stages between June 1956 and September 1957…

A planned medical school for UC Riverside cleared an important hurdle last week as the Regents for the University of California approved initial plans for what would become the state’s sixth UC medical school and first new one in over 40 years. The unanimous endorsement by the Regents means UCR can continue finalizing its plan…