As we begin the new year, I am in full swing preparing for the 2023 State of the City Address – my second in-person address since my election in 2020. 2023 was a record year of achievements for the City of Riverside (see last month’s column for a more in-depth breakdown of our fantastic year), but we are just getting started!
Following last year’s theme, Riverside by Design, is Riverside In Motion.
We’ve all heard Riverside is on the verge of transforming into the city we all know it can be, but this notion could not be further from the truth! Riverside is here, and we are actively building our future today. We are fully in motion, directed by the beliefs of our common values, and we are poised to meet the unique challenges of a changing world. However, for this year’s State of the City, the word motion means more than just being on the move. Each letter represents a guiding principle for how we are building and telling our story.
Our Mission in Riverside is creating and maintaining a high quality of life centered around public safety, reliable infrastructure, and more. We have an incredible Opportunity to support a thriving economy in developing our clusters of industry, but we can’t do this without the Talent. We need great talent to support this effort, and our universities are leading the way in this regard. We must always be moving forward with Inclusion as a guiding principle, supporting the diversity and inclusion which makes Riverside unique and vibrant. We have a great reason to maintain our Optimism because of historic gains in repairing infrastructure and securing the critical funding to do so, quicker than anticipated. This all leads to the Now, celebrating our progress as we look toward the future and what tomorrow will bring. This is a sneak peek of what Riverside being in MOTION means to me. We ARE the city of arts and innovation, and we lead at every level. We must all take ownership of our efforts to reach the destination that we’ve designed for Riverside together.
Now that I’ve given some insight into Riverside In Motion, Come join me on January 25, 2024, for the State of the City address at the Riverside Convention Center!
