Hillcrest, La Sierra and Norte Vista are now in our Back to School collection, meet Neighbor of the Week Katie Wider. Plus, Anthony Solorzano’s series continues and this week’s creative prompt is “New Paint Job.”
⚠️ WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COLUMN WILL BE FULL OF HYPERBOLE
Six months into my life in Riverside, I have nothing to complain about. The community has been kind to my family and me.
During an event for the Raincross Gazette, readers came up to me and complimented my first column. My neighbor sent me a text to remind me to move my car because it was street cleaner day. Another writer from the Gazette has recommended excellent restaurants to check out.
Nothing but good exchanges with people from the Raincross section of the Inland Empire. I have no regrets. Sure, I have to drive a little over an hour for work in LA, but the trek is worth it when I come home and open the front door to a house I own.
But, if I had to nitpick at any small detail about Riverside, there is a small part of it that comes to mind. It is a place where evil personifies itself through traffic and the lines between reality and sleepiness fade into an abyss of winding road.
I am talking about the Van Buren Boulevard - the major artery of Riverside.
Here’s a short list of things I would rather do instead of driving from the intersection of Jackson Street and Van Buren to the 60 Freeway:
Walk on a blacktop in the middle of a heatwave in Riverside.
Get a Raincross tattoo across my forehead.
Burn the Raincross on my body using the sewer cover.
In Pomona, I held a grudge against a similar road - the 71 Freeway, a two-lane highway that ran through part of the city. It is the worst. There is always traffic, the road is filled with potholes but there are ways to avoid it - something that cannot be said about Van Buren, if you want to take the 60.
Drivers need to drive down the boulevard. They need to endure the boredom that comes from driving a long road filled with nothing. They have to fight the sleepy demon before it expedites the trip to the freeway on an ambulance.
Right now, there is a lot of construction happening on my arch rival. In the Jurupa Valley part of the road, they are building a “four-lane underpass on Jurupa Road under Van Buren Boulevard and the Union Pacific Railroad bridge,” according to Jurupa Road Grade Separation. The project promises to improve “safety and traffic circulation by separating train traffic from vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.”
Which is cool and all but if they really want to help drivers they’d build a new road that gives them options, or extend the boulevard into more than two lanes, or install buckets of water that will automatically fall on drivers that are falling asleep.
That would really improve safety for vehicles and pedestrians.
Anthony was born and raised in Pomona. After a decade in education, he now writes for Southern California News Group, LA Times, and LA Taco. He recently moved to Riverside with his wife Evelyn.
Riverside nonprofit sees peak demand for student services as families prepare for new school year, with thrift shop profits funding comprehensive programs for referred children.
