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Big dig, local tunnel

After 15 years and $15B, Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ is nearing completion. Officially known as the Central Artery Tunnel Project, the Big Dig is an ambitious technological and engineering feat. Without a doubt, the project is the largest and most complex highway project undertaken in American history. The Big Dig’s main purpose is two-fold: As can…

San Bernardino’s ‘Lakes and Streams’

An ambitious project has been making the rounds the past few years in San Bernardino. Called the “Lakes and Streams” project, the plan envisions the redevelopment of a large swath of an older, somewhat tired neighborhood just north of downtown San Bernardino. The downtown area sits atop what is known as the “bunker basin” which…

Got ESRI?

When it comes to Geographical Information Systems (GIS), a local Redlands company — Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) — is the industry leader. Their software is the backbone behind many mapping programs including those that are Internet-based. Even so, many local residents barely know the company even exists: ESRI, the biggest local company you probably…

Boomburbs and Megaburbs

So, what happens to a “boomburb” or “edge city” as it ages? What becomes of a suburb when it matures? The first- and second-generation of booming suburbs — boomburbs — all across the U.S. are beginning to find out. In the suburbs dotting Dallas-Ft. Worth, places such as Plano, Texas are wrestling with the very…

Museum digs

The Riverside City Council is set to take up a proposal on relocating and rebuilding the city’s long-cramped Municipal Museum, currently located in the historic, former post office (1912) building on Mission Inn Avenue at Orange Street in downtown. A museum panel recently selected three sites as the front runners (in order of ranking): Of…

Rebuilding Riverside Plaza
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Rebuilding Riverside Plaza

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…

2003 – Freeway signage for Moreno Valley Mall (RXSQ)

Sales tax wars

Interesting article recently in The Press-Enterprise regarding what is commonly referred to as “the fiscalization of land” by city and/or county jurisdictions. Since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, California cities and counties have scrambled to fill revenue holes created by the proposition’s “property tax cap.” As a result, one revenue source that has…

‘Festival of Lights’

A bit late on posting this, but over 20,000 turned out last Friday to the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside for the 11th annual ‘Festival of Lights’ lighting ceremony. The Inland area offered a bright welcome to the holiday season Friday evening as the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside shot off fireworks from its roof, then was lit…