Sunday Gazette: May 3, 2026
Hello Riverside, and Happy Sunday! It's been a whiplash few weeks at City Hall, and my inbox and phone have reflected it. A lot of you reached out after my name appeared in a Facebook post connected to the city manager story earlier this week; I get why that was confusing. Others have accused the Gazette of taking sides — some say we're shielding the people involved, others say we're abandoning them by not airing every grievance. Both can't be true, and neither is.
So let me be clear: I'm not on any side in this dispute.
Sides are something you stand on. Neighbors are people you stand with.
That's the posture I'm trying to hold. I hope it's contagious.
I stand with and for Riverside.
I launched the Gazette in 2020 because I love this city and I believed Riverside deserved a newsroom that covered it with care, with curiosity, and in the spirit of neighborliness. That mission hasn't changed, and it isn't going to.
That's why our job is to publish what we can verify, fairly and on the record — and to leave the rest where it belongs.
There are good people all over this story, on every side of it, and I count all of them as my neighbors.
Thank you for reading, thank you for caring, and thank you for being neighbors.
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HISTORY
Palms, Presidents and Pepper Trees
The story behind Magnolia Avenue's grand design, its presidential cross streets and the settlers who made it Southern California's most celebrated boulevard.
With Samuel C. Evans, Sr.'s arrival in 1874, the landscape and size of Riverside changed. With other investors, including William T. Sayward, Evans purchased land south of what is now Arlington Avenue. Needing water, the new syndicate sought help from John W. North and the Southern California Colony Association. North was opposed, so Evans and company formed the Riverside Land and Irrigation Company. They purchased a controlling interest in the Southern California Colony Association and built the Upper Canal to bring water to their new development. They formed the Riverside Land Co. to market the properties to new settlers. This brief, simplified overview of the land associations in the 1870s lays the groundwork for the main topic, Magnolia Avenue.
William T. Sayward envisioned a long avenue, Bloomingdale Avenue, cutting through the property, extending from the base of the Temescal Mountains all the way to San Bernardino. His grandiose idea did not materialize due to the cost and difficulty of obtaining the land for the right-of-way. He had to settle for a grand avenue extending through the property of the Riverside Land and Irrigation Company.
With Samuel Evans back in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1875, the management of the Riverside Land and Irrigation Company fell to Evans' brother-in-law, Henry J. Rudisill. Rudisill was responsible for laying out the plans for Magnolia Avenue and the streets connected to it. His wife, Elizabeth Evans Rudisill, suggested the name "Magnolia." The original plan was to plant Magnolia trees along the avenue. However, their high cost and water requirements prevented this. Magnolias were planted at the intersections of the avenues with the Presidential streets, where irrigation ditches supplied the required water.
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NEIGHBOR OF THE WEEK
After 45 Years, the SPORT Clinic Is Closing, But Jim Clover's Legacy Isn't Going Anywhere
The free morning clinic that shaped a generation of Inland Empire athletes will shut its doors June 15, ending a nearly half-century run that transformed sports medicine across the region.
"I honestly don't know if there is a way to accurately express the tremendous impact Jim Clover has had on Riverside as a whole and especially his impact on the world of local youth and high school athletics," said John Corona, a retired track coach and teacher in Riverside Unified School District and Riverside Sports Hall of Fame board member. "In the last 45 years, he has changed just about everything in the realm of athletic training, preventive care and rehabilitation of athletes. His students and mentees populate just about every school in Riverside County."
Tony Masi, a retired athletic director in RUSD and Riverside Sports Hall of Fame honoree, put it more directly: "He is a unicorn and the GOAT all in one."
"Jim is our pioneer and is the reason so many schools within the IE have athletic trainers at all," said Cassie Vergara, an athletic trainer with Clover Enterprises Inc., the company that partnered with Riverside Medical Clinic to operate the SPORT Clinic. "I've met practitioners in the high desert who have fondly referred to our area as 'Cloverland,' knowing of Jim's precedence."
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SPONSORED
Season Tickets on Sale for A CBU Christmas and CBU's 2026-27 Theater Lineup
"Clue," "Oklahoma!" and the ninth annual A CBU Christmas anchor a five-show season. Packages start at $67.
Tickets are selling fast for California Baptist University's 2026-27 theater season. CBU has earned a reputation in the Riverside community for annual traditions like A CBU Christmas and fresh theater productions, and audiences are already snatching up spots for next year's performances.
Season ticket packages begin at $67, less than $14 per show.
The 2026-27 theater season includes two plays and two musicals along with A CBU Christmas, a fan favorite that has become an annual tradition for many Riverside families. Performance dates for each are:
- "Clue": Oct. 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18
- "James and the Giant Peach": Nov. 13, 14, 20, 21 and 22
- A CBU Christmas: Dec. 5 and 6
- "These Shining Lives": Feb. 19, 20, 26, 27 and 28
- "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!": April 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18
A CBU Christmas, a musical and theatrical presentation about the birth of Jesus, brings together the entire Collinsworth School of Performing Arts. Entering its ninth year, the production has become one of the most anticipated holiday performances in the Inland Empire. More than 15,000 people attended the 2025 performances, with sold-out shows over two days. CBU projects the 2026 shows will sell out, too.
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CREATIVE PROMPTS
Feeling Chipper
A prompt to encourage your practice of creativity this week from Riversider and local author Larry Burns.
This week, we’re moving from ways we filter things out of our food to ways that we get food into our mouths. Our creative nudge? An empty chip bag.
Yes, the crinkly, colorful, mostly air-filled vessel that once delivered your daily salt intake in a single serving. Not just any chip bag—all chip bags. Crinkled foil pouches, glossy plastic sleeves, family-size, fun-size, gas station impulse buys, and yes, even the cylindrical optimism of a Pringles can. If it once delivered chips into your life, it qualifies. I’ve finished a bowl of sea salt kettle chips and pretzel twists while finishing this column as a meta reflection on snack foods and creativity. Which means I now have two bags to play around with!
I picked this for our nudge because I can’t stop finding them. Side of the road, under bushes, tangled in fences, fluttering like accidental flags of the snack economy. I’ve used hundreds in my assemblage work—once weaving them into a kind of cornucopia using chicken wire. Bright reds, radioactive greens, electric blues, an endless wheel of eye-catching colors designed to stand out on a snack rack.
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This Week in Riverside
Sunday, May 3
- Prayers and Public Information Meeting at Riverside Baha'i Center
- Gardening for Butterflies at Botanic Gardens
- Origami with Michelle at Botanic Gardens
- Storytime in the Gardens at UCR Botanic Gardens
- Architectural Walking Tour of Downtown Riverside at Mission Inn Foundation & Visitor Center ($21.20)
- CALIFORNIA WOMEN'S CHORUS CONCERT at CAL BAPTIST-VAN DYNE GYM ($25- $30)
- Competitive Monopoly Fundraiser at Thompson Brewing Company ($44.52)
- Noteworthy Connections 20s and 30s: We’re Not Really Strangers at Back to the Grind
- "The Sound of Riverside" - The 2026 Riverside Arts Academy Gala at UCR University Theatre ($150- $325)
Monday, May 4
- Volunteer Interest Hour at Riverside Meals on Wheels
- Goeske Bingo at Janet Goeske Center ($20- $100)
- Monday Carillon Recitals at UCR Bell Tower
Tuesday, May 5
- Power Up Your Morning with May's Pick Power Hour! at The Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce (free- $10)
- ScotSurplus Public Sale at ScotSurplus, UCR Corporation Yard
- THE GAME : a Monthly Megagame experience at Nevermore Game Club ($7.18)
- Karaoke Tuesday Competition at the Hideaway at The Hideaway
Wednesday, May 6
- Senior Conference at Janet Goeske Center
- Riverside East Rotary Club at Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern
- Reading Assistance Program at My Learning Studio
- California Preservation Conference at Riverside Convention Center ($20- $505)
- Eastside Library at Lincoln Park | Mother's Day Craft at Eastside Library at Lincoln Park
- History on the Rocks - Round Two! Presented by The Mission Inn Foundation at Mission Inn Foundation ($71.21)
- Riverside Mission Belles at Victoria Presbyterian Church
Thursday, May 7
- Lincoln Park Community Group at Lincoln Park Community Center
- ARTSWALK First Thursday Concert Series at UCR ARTS at Culver Center of the Arts
- FREE ADMISSION - First Thursday of every month during Riverside ArtsWalk at Riverside Art Museum
- History on the Rocks! Presented by The Mission Inn Foundation at Mission Inn Foundation ($71.21)
- Meet & Greet: Ward 2 Candidate Mike Vahl at Jackson Home
- Pour Decisions a Comedy Wine Tasting at Canyon Crest Winery ($39.19)
- Riverdance 30 - The New Generation at Fox Performing Arts Center
Friday, May 8
- Riverside Sunrise Rotary Club Meeting at Zacatecas Café
- Certified Farmers Market at Farm House Collective
- Family Storytime at Ameal Moore Nature Center
- Courthouse, Murals and Heroes Walking Tour at Mission Inn Foundation ($23.18)
- R'Hours at the R'Garden at R'Garden
- Third Act at Culver Center of the Arts
- Mana vs Rock en Español classics, Live tributes! In at The Hideaway Cafe & Lounge ($17.85)
Saturday, May 9
- Permaculture Design Training and Certificate at Land Use Learning Center
- Around the Gardens- Bird Walk at Botanic Gardens
- Bridgerton Mother's Day Tea Party at Loft 84 Wedding and Event Venue ($28.52)
- Orange Terrace Library | Mother's Day Tote Bag Painting at Orange Terrace Library
- Death Cafe: A Community Conversation about Death with Kristin Stolte at Main Library
- Blink 182 Tribute at The Concert Lounge - Romano's Mission Grove ($20.23)
- MOMS GONE WILD, a Comedy Paint and Sip at Back To The Grind ($23.18)
Save the Date
- May 13: Level Up Your Network: The Pick Group 2026 Membership Summit at Killer Queens Social House
- May 16: Vintage Home Tour “Age is a Work of Art” at Peter J Weber House ($30)
- May 17: Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Social at Riverside's Heritage House
- June 1: REEF's 27th Annual Golf Tournament at Canyon Crest Country Club ($140- $175)
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