This Friday, January 29th at 8PM, Hey Riverside joins up with Dr. Sharon Mateja's Residents for Responsible Representation and our friends the 28ers to present an unprecedented evening of music, information and community.
Just over 14 months ago, Riversiders soundly defeated yet another attempt to weaken our historic growth management laws Proposition R and Measure C. Celebrate Our Voice is bringing together the citizens who beat back the big money...and we're hoping to grow our coalition of Riverside residents who want to preserve our "Emerald City" heritage.
I first heard of Sharon's group when I was learning about 2014's Measure L. "Save The Hills," said the slick mailers. However, what I was hearing from the "RRR" was completely counter to the slick messaging from the Las Vegas developer seeking to fit almost 2,000 homes on to one of our last open spaces in the city limits (not cool at all by Prop R and Measure C). The RRR info led me to more information, and more people in La Sierra who were ready to fight. The backlash went citywide and the 'No on L' effort gained notice with figureheads including a former city councilperson, a member of the RCCD board and a beloved, now-retired Press-Enterprise columnist.
As these things tend to go, that guy from Vegas is back with a new proposal - and somehow he's talked two of those three 'figureheads' into changing sides (we don't know about the columnist yet). The citizens are not happy about all of this.
Sharon and I had a chance last week to talk at length about the No on L campaign, the history of RRR and what we have planned for this Friday at Mexicali Bar and Grill.
For the music, we're grateful to have some of the best Riverside has to offer: Bob and Lisa from Riverside legacy band The BellRays, Stephanie Dianne Moore, Kevin Matthew Hunt, Donita Lang Smith, Raincross Drive, and (actual size). Check out the links below for more info on everyone!
For the information: Dr. Sharon Mateja; The 28ers Matthew Snyder; Norco city councilperson Kevin Bash (Norco gets our traffic, you know); from Friends of The Riverside Hills, Kevin Dawson and Gurumantra Khalsa; and I will even get up in front of the room for a couple of minutes.
The celebration will be hosted by my esteemed Hey Riverside co-host Patrick Maloney!
Mexicali has great food and drink! We'll have volunteers there to get you registered to vote! We'll have representatives from neighborhood groups all over town!
Join us!
- Ralph from Riverside
• Celebrate Our Voice, Friday January 29th
• Residents for Responsible Representation
• 28ers
