A big thank you to Mary Carpenter for sharing this photo of the RCC Sigma Rho and Delta Chi homecoming float, captured by Constant Bilicke. The parade passes storefronts including W.T. Grant Co. and Leeds, with a classic Corvette among the cars lining the route. (Constant Bilicke)
Sunday Gazette: May 31, 2026
Hello Riverside, and Happy Sunday! Welcome to Snapshot Sundays, our weekly series featuring vintage photos of Riverside shared by the people who live here. This week we're stepping back in time to an RCC homecoming parade, back when W.T. Grant Co. and Leeds lined the route.
Do you have old photos of a Riverside spot from long ago? We'd love to see them. Send them our way.
See you tomorrow!
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Thank you to the Subscribers who became paid supporters this week: Lisa Brown and Jill Butler. Your ongoing financial support is vital to our success in serving Riverside with the news it deserves!
In this final installment, Anthony Solorzano explores Riverside through the eyes of a transplant, as the memory of a hometown slowly fades.
(Anthony Solorzano)
With every step we took on our first walk to the park as parents, I became more than just a transplant in the city. With each step, everything mattered: the school district, the park, the community events, the recreational leagues. With every push of the stroller, I suddenly felt like I was where I belonged.
Since moving to the Inland Empire, I treated my new home as a foreign place. Since the birth of my daughter, Riverside feels more like our forever home.
I've spent my time trying to replicate the life I had in Pomona. I looked for restaurants with menus similar to the ones I grew up eating, tried to set up routines similar to the days I had for 35 years, all in a new city.
Neighbor of the Week is a series profiling the hidden heroes of Riverside, doing incredible works of service throughout our different neighborhoods.
Greg Cuellar, Executive Director of the Riverside Community Arts Association, inside the RCAA Gallery in Downtown. (Brenda Flowers)
Greg Cuellar grew up in Riverside and has spent his adult life giving back to the community that raised him. Through a range of leadership and volunteer roles, he has worked to support and strengthen local arts, culture, and community organizations — connecting people and ideas and helping make Riverside feel more inclusive and vibrant. He serves as Executive Director of the Riverside Community Arts Association (RCAA) — where he previously served as President — and as Vice Chair of the Riverside Arts Council. He also collaborates with the Inland Empire Civil Rights Institute, serves on a committee with the Riverside Downtown Partnership, and co-owns Paint Party Professionals, which hosts a monthly paint party at Back to the Grind to bring creativity and connection to the community. A vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, Greg also lends his support to Riverside Pride and the Ramona High School Magnet Program.
This week, we’re moving from the marks left by our hands to the lines that hold things together. Our creative nudge is a thread.
Not a whole spool necessarily. No need to have access to an embroidery collection arranged by color, though we welcome overachievers in this column. You really just need one small thread. The kind that peeks from a shirt collar or cuff, a frayed hem, or the one left naked and alone when the button makes a break for it.
Pull the wrong one and something comes apart. Follow the right one and a pattern emerges.
We use threads to stitch, mend, attach, and decorate. They are metaphorically fertile and abundant: thread of conversation, narrative thread, common thread, loose thread, threadbare excuse. Online, we follow threads to see where a story goes or lose ourselves in one until suddenly it’s past our bedtime and we know too much about sandwich toppings.
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.
