For the first time, advertising companies can request to move or modernize existing billboards under a framework giving the City Council sole discretion over each deal.
UCR artist John Divola turned century-old archival negatives into a meditation on control and stillness. The Brandstater Gallery brought it home to Riverside.
Oranges ripen on the branch as a Hawarden Hills sunset paints the sky — a scene that's defined Riverside since the days when citrus groves stretched across the hillsides. (Rosalyn Anderson) Have a photo that captures the spirit of Riverside? Share it with us and help celebrate the beauty of our community!
Sunday Gazette: March 22, 2026
Hello Riverside, and Happy Sunday! We have a winner to celebrate. Congratulations to Rosalyn Anderson, whose photo entry won two tickets to see Hadestown at the Fox Performing Arts Center on April 13. Rosalyn is a familiar presence in our community and a longtime supporter of the Gazette, and her photos have a way of capturing what makes this city beautiful: golden sunsets, sweeping views, and some of the most perfectly ripe oranges you'll ever see.
Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo. Your images are the first thing readers see each morning, and we're grateful for it. Keep them coming!
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Thank you to the Subscribers who became paid supporters this week: Marco McGuire. Your ongoing financial support is vital to our success in serving Riverside with the news it deserves!
Mikey G's Finally Has a Home, and It Was Worth the Wait
Geoff Gouveia, Jake Driscoll and Steven Burgos finally open the doors on their long-awaited Midtown coffee and bagel shop.
The front door at 3780 Elizabeth St. in Midtown, next to the "See You Soon — Mikey G" mural that greeted Riverside residents during the long wait for opening day. Photo courtesy Mikey G's. (Courtesy of Mikey G's)
After two years of permits, pivots and pop-ups, Mikey G's specialty coffee and bagel shop opens its first permanent home in Midtown this weekend.
Why it matters: The Elizabeth Street corridor has been drawing new energy, and Mikey G's is among the first permanent businesses to plant a flag — bringing specialty coffee, matcha and house-made NYC-style bagels to a neighborhood the city has its own revitalization plans for.
Driving the news: The shop soft-opens Monday, March 23, at 3780 Elizabeth St., with tentative hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The official grand opening follows April 18.
The backstory: Co-owners Geoff Gouveia, Jake Driscoll, Steven Burgos and their team built a following through pop-ups and a residency at Harvest Church on Arlington Avenue before signing their lease in January 2024.
The two-year road to opening ran through permitting snags Gouveia attributes entirely to himself: "The fault was my own — I learned so many ways how not to do something."
What's on the menu: Specialty espresso drinks, matcha, and bagels from Parzel's — a bagel business the team acquired and folded into their operation. Every bagel is hand-rolled, boiled and baked daily after a 48-hour fermentation.
What's next: Soft open begins March 23. Follow Mikey G's on Instagram for daily hours updates. Grand opening is April 18.
Neighbor of the Week is a series profiling the hidden heroes of Riverside, doing incredible works of service throughout our different neighborhoods.
Erik Chen outside Martin Luther King High School, where he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the King Courier. (Brenda Flowers)
Erik Chen has called Riverside home since 2016, and at just high school age, he is already giving back to it in ways that would impress most adults. A student at Martin Luther King High School, Erik serves as Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, the King Courier, President of the Speech and Debate team, and a member of the Science Olympiad Varsity team. Outside school, he sits on the Riverside Youth Council — and he recently launched an initiative where he and a small group of friends, a vocalist, a violinist, and a pianist, perform classical and pop music at local nursing homes. Follow their performances on Instagram at @bachinmyday_.
Readers of the Raincross Gazette may already know Erik's byline. As one of our high school writers, he has covered Riverside with a range and maturity that would impress journalists twice his age — from City Hall civic tours and the city's new AI assistant, to his own school's take on the statewide cell phone ban, neighborhood wishlist for the vacant Woodcrest Rite Aid, a profile of MLK grad Joseph Or's journey to Yale, and a look at the future of driverless transportation. In every story, he finds the human thread that makes Riverside feel like a community worth paying attention to.
This week’s creative nudge is a little less visible, a little more surprising, and just a bit shocking: static electricity.
You already know where to find it. It’s waiting in your dryer, making your socks extra friendly. It’s lurking in the moment just before your fingertip meets a doorknob. Static electricity is one of those everyday phenomena that lives just below our awareness…until it does not. Until it jumps into existence and reminds us that something unseen has been there all along.
There’s something delightful about that moment of surprise. It’s harmless but it still makes us jump. That tiny jolt reveals a deeper truth: we are wired for reaction. Our bodies don’t wait for a full explanation before responding. We flinch first, ask questions later. Static electricity exposes a hidden layer of both the world and ourselves—reminders that not everything we experience is predictable or entirely under our control.
See something? Say something. Your tips and ideas are what fuel The Raincross Gazette. If you know of something newsworthy happening in our city, please share it with us.
