Riverside California has affordable housing, community and beauty. It’s a place you belong.
My move to Riverside showed me how sometimes the things we discount can be exactly what we’ve been looking for.
Really? Really!
I’d been looking to buy a home (again) in Los Angeles but quickly faced the reality that the price was too high. Trying to compete with hoards of people for a half million-dollar fixer that I wouldn’t even qualify for seemed absurd. It didn’t help that LA had changed (and maybe I’d changed too) with each neighborhood becoming “discovered” – cue boutique shops, hipsters, and rent increases (I guess they call that progress). L.A. was feeling less and less like the place I’d originally fallen in love with. Like many others, I was feeling squeezed out and started accepting that I was wanting a quality to my life that LA could no longer provide.
Over the last several decades I’ve chosen to live in communities within LA that were affordable, down-to-earth, and had a local feel. These communities game me a sense of what “real” Los Angeles was like – not the Access Hollywood version. I guess my heart and soul knew it was time to find a place like that again, but where?
Leaving L.A.
I’m pretty familiar with the greater LA basin, or at least I thought I was. The truth is, the times I’d pop out of the LA bubble heading East on the 210, 10, or 60 freeway making the 110 mile drive to Palm Springs, I found myself in another world that I didn’t much regard. Driving anywhere East of the 710 meant there were miles to cover as quickly as possible and plenty of in between to ignore. On those trips I’d look to the left and see the incredible snow-capped San Gabriel mountain range, almost forgetting they’re right there. But I never stopped and stood in front of them, dead-on, to take in their majesty.
The suburbs and communities I’d pass through “didn’t count” in my book. They didn’t have Old Town Pasadena, The Valley, Silver Lake nor the (over-rated) West Side. They weren’t LA. I admit it. I’m guilty of looking down my superior-LA-nose in judgment of those communities the same way people who live in the Bay Area often look in condescension at anyone who doesn’t live in “The Bay Area.”
Riverside Is the Best Kept Secret
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was drawn to drive East, inland, out to San Bernardino to remedy cabin-fever. Those journeys opened my mind and perspective to a greater appreciation for what Southern California has to offer. I began see the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountain ranges and not just notice them in passing. These inspiring drives were the impulse to consider the communities of the Inland Empire as a place to live and work. After five months and a handful of failed purchase attempts, I found a place in Riverside.
Riverside is Manageable
Living in Riverside has everything I want and need which is a paradox of sorts. The same way LA enchanted me years ago, so has Riverside. But in seemingly different ways that maybe aren’t so different after all.
Riverside feels like LA must’ve been like in the decades before I moved there – “old California” or “classic California.” In other words, it wasn’t on steroids yet.
When I moved to LA in the early 90s there were still remnants of the 50s, 60s, and 70s vibe. It had a familiarity and comfort that I attribute to its ubiquitous use as the backdrop for most of the TV shows I grew up on. It wasn’t too slick yet. It had rough-around-the-edges neighborhoods with character like Silver Lake and Sunset Junction. These places not only felt authentic, they were authentic. The authenticity isn’t entirely gone but they’ve been cleaned-up and marked-up for sale to the highest bidders (like countless other places). Sadly, many of the diverse people who made those places and gave them a sense of place have died or moved away.
That “Classic California” – American Graffiti Vibe
Riverside is far enough away from LA that it feels like you’re in another state, yet you’re little more than an hour from Downtown. What’s utterly refreshing is its ordinariness. It’s not as self-absorbed as its big brother to the West. Riverside and its residents aren’t trying to be or portray anything beyond face value. What you see is what you get. It is full of people who grew up here and stayed. (Which can sound odd if you’re from another state because it seems most people in California are from somewhere else).
A Place Rich with History
Beginning with the native American communities that lived along the Santa Ana River, to the arrival of the railroads, citrus industry and Amazon, Riverside’s always been at the cross-roads of commerce. Located on a major North, South, East, West transit corridor, busy rail lines and interstates pass through it moving goods from the ports of Southern California to the rest of the country.
Even though the citrus industry is less a force now than it was in the past, its geographic importance continues to be relevant in the 21st century. Three nearby airports serve as a logistics nexus for Amazon, UPS and FedEx. Although you’re removed from the hustle of LA, it doesn’t feel static and backwater. There is action going on if you choose to participate in it (in LA you don’t have so much of a choice).
Its Ordinariness is its Charm
Maybe Riverside’s ordinariness is what allowed it to largely escape detection from people like me passing by on their way somewhere else. But is it really ordinary? It’s home to numerous bike trails, huge open spaces for hiking and not too distant mountains on three sides. Citrus groves and vast plant nurseries abound. Horse corrals and family-owned produce markets dot the community. Palm-lined streets and lanes give it charm, place and identity. It’s even got two gay bars!
Driving down commercial streets that have a look and feel right out of the 50’s and that have escaped the progress’s bulldozers delights me. There’s a vacant old (vintage) Sears department store I pass by on Arlington that looks right out of a Doris Day movie. Mid-Century modern architectural gems can be found that have not yet been exploited into lofts with trendy cafes on the main floor. (Or worse yet, torn down.) Maybe the distance from LA, has allowed for it to escape being engulfed into an LA make-over.
Great buildings, streets, and neighborhoods (Arlington Heights, Casa Blanca, Villegas Park and Victoria Avenue – to name only a few) give Riverside its character and charm. Speaking of neighborhoods, it has homes at all tiers of the market (with architecture from all decades with many diamonds-in-the-rough).
Riverside is a place with a middle class (hard to find in California). It feels like a place to be from compared to LA – which has very few who can say they were born and raised there.
Living is Easier in Riverside
Moving to Riverside made me realize how much my quality of life had slipped after years of calling LA home. (Simplicity and manageability have become two qualities I highly value.) Access to grocery stores and parking are easy. Its small-town feel has big city niceties (Macy’s and Trader Joe’s, (sadly Nordstrom recently closed)).
Speaking of small town, it still has many independent businesses that haven’t been crushed by big box retailers and chains. Businesses like Elliotts For Pets, Baker’s Dozen, Patio World, Yvette’s Bakery and the famed Mission Inn (to name only a few) are true community stakeholders. These establishments have great products, services, and people. Perhaps more importantly, they provide a refreshing sense of a simpler time when shopping was more personal and less transactional. Their presence is what makes Main Street, MAIN STREET and Riverside, RIVERSIDE!
Affordable, Friendly, Beautiful and Location, Location, Location
I got more than I could have asked for when I found an affordable condominium in a beautiful community in Riverside. It even came with a lemon tree (Meyers) that produces the sweetest, juiciest lemons you’ve ever tried. My kitchen/dining room face Northwest with a view of a potted hibiscus in front of the patio wall. Beyond the wall I can see the tops of the palm trees lining historic Victoria Avenue. In the distance, I have a spectacular view of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains! I can now spend all the time in the world contemplating their beauty and that of my new-found home and community.
