Out & About – 01/29/2011
Lunar Festival
Visitors stroll Mission Inn Avenue in downtown Riverside during Saturday’s celebration marking the Chinese New Year.

After several months of public meetings, the 22-member Library/Museum task force held its final session this past week, producing what it calls “guiding principles” for the planned expansions of downtown’s Central Library and Riverside Metropolitan Museum. The key recommendation calls for separate expansions of both facilities, with enough space for each to meet their needs….

A roundup of local items making the news… With the announcement of a location at the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside, The Cheesecake Factory joins a growing list of upscale chains coming to Inland Southern California: “We probably received about 2,000 offers, and we will open 20 stores this year,” said Cheesecake Factory spokesman Howard…
In a region without a major, locally-based over-the-air television station, getting worthwhile news reports on TV is often a lost cause. The Los Angeles-based stations are simply too busy trying to cover their own immediate environs to warrant divvying up already limited resources for Inland Southern California. And, quite frankly, when they do venture outside…

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…
With housing demand — and prices — shooting through the roof, it’s no surprise that a recent wave of high-end housing is taking root within the arroyos and valleys of Inland Southern California. The 580-acre Vellano project in Chino Hills will offer semi-custom homes priced between $900,000 and $1.5 million as well as 50 lots…

A City Council-appointed task force assigned with revising Riverside’s library-museum expansion plans issued its draft recommendation this week calling for separate expansions for both institutions. The recommendation, which would reverse the city’s earlier combined expansion proposal, comes after several recent public meetings on the issue. Most critics of the original $25 million proposal — part…