Monday Gazette: October 19, 2026
Hello Riverside, and Happy Monday! The company is Bourns, Inc., founded in 1947 by Marlan and Rosemary Bourns in a 384-square-foot garage in Altadena. Per the company's own history, Marlan and a handful of engineers built aerospace transducers there while Rosemary handled sales — using her kitchen oven and freezer for hot-and-cold testing.
The move to Riverside is a great bit of local trivia, straight from the city's own account of the company's 75th anniversary: Bourns closed its doors in Pasadena on a Friday and reopened in Riverside the following Tuesday, over Labor Day weekend, 1950. Per the company's own timeline, the Riverside Chamber of Commerce helped finance the move, and their first Riverside home was on Magnolia Avenue. Today the company is Riverside-headquartered, family-led by Gordon Bourns, son of the founders — and yes, UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering is named for exactly the couple you'd guess, after a gift from the Bourns Foundation that was the children's idea.
The invention is the Trimpot — a miniature trimming potentiometer Marlan dreamed up in 1952 while home sick for a few days, with the patent filed in 1953. It's a tiny adjuster, set with a screwdriver rather than a knob, that became the industry standard for calibrating circuits in all kinds of electronic equipment. And for the space fans: in 1969, Gordon and his parents watched astronauts land on the moon using Bourns' landing controls and walk on the lunar surface using Bourns' suit oxygen regulators.
Not bad for a couple who started in a garage smaller than most living rooms.
Thanks to everyone who wrote in!
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GOVERNMENT
This Week in City Hall: October 19, 2026
Council takes up data centers, a special tax district for 152 new homes and a $1 million police technology grant, and a commission weighs renaming the Cesar Chavez Community Center.
Welcome to our weekly digest of public meetings and agenda items worth your attention for this coming week. This guide is part of our mission to provide everyday Riversiders like you with the information to speak up on the issues you care about.
City Council
City Council will meet in closed and open sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in afternoon sessions at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. (agenda). The agenda includes:
- Considering a 10-year lease of about 1.3 acres of City-owned land at 670 Iowa Ave. to SPT Energy Base Hub for a hydrogen production and fueling station with electric vehicle charging, with rent starting at about $136,000 a year once permitting is complete. (item 12)
- Considering a program that would let the City return part of its property tax revenue to manufacturers investing more than $25 million in local facilities for up to 15 years in exchange for hiring and community service commitments, with each deal subject to separate Council approval. (item 14)
- Considering accepting a $1 million federal grant that the Police Department plans to use for a central center combining live camera feeds and a program deploying drones during emergencies, with both programs returning for separate Council approval. (item 29)
- Considering whether to keep the HAWK pedestrian signal at Madison and Emerald streets in Casa Blanca or — at residents’ request — return the intersection to an all-way stop, which would require repaying up to $217,991 in grant funds to Caltrans. (item 36)
- Considering waiving the City’s public notice rules to approve a $355,423 no-bid, six-month rental of large pumps for the City’s sewage treatment plant, which staff says could otherwise be overwhelmed during heavy El Niño storms. (item 38b)
- Considering a special tax district for 152 new homes in three developments that would charge future homeowners annual taxes for public facilities, maintenance, and police and fire services, and allow up to $10 million in bonds repaid by those taxes. (item 41)
Commission on Aging
The Commission on Aging meets on Monday, Oct. 19, at 4 p.m. (agenda) to hear a presentation on You Are Not Alone — a free program in which Riverside Police Department volunteers make weekly phone calls to check on seniors and residents with disabilities who live alone, with welfare checks if they can’t be reached (item 2) — and receiving updates from the commission’s ad hoc committees on housing, senior health, events, environment and mobility (item 4).
Park and Recreation Commission
The Park and Recreation Commission meets on Monday, Oct. 19, at 6:30 p.m. (agenda) to consider renaming the Cesar Chavez Community Center following sexual abuse allegations against Chávez (item 6), and to review the City’s plans to seek state grants for four park projects, including a new La Sierra Park pool and a replacement Nichols Park community center (item 7).
Safety, Wellness, and Youth Committee
The Safety, Wellness, and Youth Committee (Councilmembers Robillard, Conder, and Mill) meets on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 1 p.m. (agenda) to discuss whether to raise the towing and storage rates that police-contracted tow companies can charge drivers — which are based on 2015 rates adjusted for inflation through 2019 — after tow operators raised concerns about the rates and City fees. (item 2)
Cultural Heritage Board
The Cultural Heritage Board meets on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 3:30 p.m. (agenda) to review the City’s third-quarter historic preservation activity, including three new historic designations and the removal of historic status from two Orange Street properties (item 3), and considering a recommendation to designate the Lord House at 4261 Glenwood Drive, a 1948 Mount Rubidoux-area home built for longtime Riverside physician Dr. Fred D. Lord and his wife, Alice Mary Lord, as a City Landmark (item 5).
Economic Development Committee
The Economic Development Committee (Councilmembers Robillard, Hernandez, and Hemenway) meets on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. (agenda) to hear a Business Excellence Series presentation featuring the company OHMIO (item 4) and a presentation on the City’s new Holiday Makers Market, which will feature local makers, food vendors and small businesses on Main Street during the Festival of Lights on Dec. 5 (item 5).
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HOUSING
Inland Mayors Rally for Prop 1 Housing Bond at Riverside's Mulberry Gardens
Mayors from Riverside, San Bernardino and Moreno Valley spoke at a 209-unit senior and family development rising on former Cal Fire land near Downtown.
Proposition 1 could help fund about 450 planned affordable apartments in Riverside, supporters say — including Mayor Lock Dawson.
Why it matters: Riverside voters decide the statewide bond on Nov. 3. Organizers say city and county figures show it could close funding gaps for 4,952 affordable units countywide.
Driving the news: Lock Dawson, San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran and Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera backed the bond Oct. 9.
- They spoke at Mulberry Gardens near downtown, at an event the Inland SoCal Housing Collective organized.
- Lock Dawson pitched it as a way to keep local graduates in Riverside: “A diploma should open the door.”
By the numbers: Supporters say the biggest pieces of the bond would go to:
- $5.1 billion for affordable rental housing — the largest share
- $1.25 billion for veterans’ home loans
- $1.15 billion for supportive housing for people leaving homelessness
Between the lines: Mulberry Gardens got $39 million from the 2018 state housing bond, which Lock Dawson said made the project possible.
- Its 209 units can’t count toward Riverside’s state housing targets — the state, not the city, handled land-use approvals.
Yes, but: A handful of state lawmakers oppose the measure.
- Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, asked why the state must borrow instead of funding the programs directly, KQED reported.
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This Week in Riverside
Today
- Adult Ballet Class at Riverside Ballet Arts LLC
- California Retired Teachers Divi at The Old Spaghetti Factory ($10)
- FREE YOGA - Moody Mondays with Cherie Amour at Community Yoga Center
- Monday Carillon Recitals at UCR Bell Tower
Tomorrow
- City Council at Riverside City Hall
- Arlington Library| Take & Make Craft: Flying Bat at Arlington library
- FREE YOGA - Mandala Yoga with Alejandro at Community Yoga Center
- Afro-Punk at Culver Center of the Arts
- Karaoke Tuesday Competition at The Hideaway
- ScotSurplus Sale at ScotSurplus Store
Save the Date
- Oct 21: FREE YOGA - Seated Yoga with Kristin Varner at All Saints Episcopal Church
- Oct 22: Experience RUSD, Riverside Unified State of the District at Riverside Municipal Airport
- Oct 23: FREE YOGA - The Evolution of Ashtanga with Kristin Varner at Community Yoga Center
- Oct 23: Riverside Sunrise Rotary Club Meeting at Zacatecas Café
- Oct 24: When the Science of Reading Meets the Science of Motivation at Ruth Lewis Center at Reid Park
- Oct 24: Fall Festival at the R'Garden! at R'Garden
- Oct 24: FREE YOGA - The Art of Vinyasa with Catherine Murray at Community Yoga Center
- Oct 24: FREE YOGA - Yin Yoga with Kristin Varner at Community Yoga Center
- Oct 24: Magic Underground at Back to the Grind ($30- $45)
- Oct 24: Skeleton Keys at First United Methodist Church of Riverside
- Oct 24: Vintage Car and Warbird Show at Riverside Airport - Commemorative Air Force Hanger and Museum
- Oct 25: A Glorious Celebration of America at 250 at Calvary Presbyterian Church ($15- $25)
- Oct 26: FREE YOGA - Moody Mondays with Cherie Amour at Community Yoga Center
- Nov 1: BIG BROADWAY BINGO at Avila’s Historic 1929 ($125- $150)
- Nov 5: LEAC Comedy and Magic Show at The Box Theater ($60)
- Nov 4: Medicare EXPO at Janet Goeske Center
- Nov 5: Les Miserables at Woodcrest Christian School ($15- $20)
- Nov 7: Art in the Gardens at UCR Botanic Gardens
- Nov 14: Riverside Veterans Parade - Downtown Riverside/Market St.
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