Downtown Riverside, CA- the Cultural and Urban Hub of the Inland Emphire

I evaluated Downtown Riverside as a neighborhood because it’s really not a major job center with only about 10K jobs here. Dwtn Riverside is also a large area of about 2 square miles with about 65% of its use as traditional early 20th century residential streets.

Riverside was founded in the early 1870s and a traditional street grid was quickly laid out setting the foundation for a well connected and walkable neighborhood. Downtown Riverside is also the birthplace of the California citrus industry and home of the Mission Inn, the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States. It also fills the roll of cultural and urban hub of the Inland Empire; a title that San Bernardino unfortunately cannot claim given how disinvested its become. Downtown Riverside hosts a great concentration of cultural amenities, decent retail amenities, an interesting pedestrian street along a couple blocks of Main St., good public transit, quality schools, great parks, and attractive historic architecture representing well the main historic styles common in California. What Downtown Riverside primarily needs to become a great urban district is more people. Its density is only 4,500 per square mile. I was shocked at how few apartment bldgs there are dwtn. Outside of the business core, the historic residential areas are primarily single family homes. Additional density would go a long way to attract additional retail amenities and expanding the mixed-use footprint of Downtown.

Click here to view my Downtown Riverside album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Generally consistant sidewalks and curbs (except for western edge going up to the mountains) but curbs generally not ADA compliant.
* Great location for if you have a job in Dwtn Riverside, but only about 10K jobs there.
* Public transit is generally good Dwtn but some transit deserts in the western and northern sections.
* Several dedicated bike lanes Dwtn, including recreational trails along the river. No dedicated bike stations however.
* Great economic and racial diversity. Some households with children but nice mix of college students and young professionals.
* Several excellent parks Dwtn including the expansive Mt. Rubidoux Park and Fairmount Park on the western edge of the district, the gorgeous White Park located near the center and the pedestrian street/plaza covering several blocks of Main St.
* Decent # of schools dwtn and generally rated pretty well.
* Decent retail amenities including a couple medium sized Mexican grocery stores, several drug stores, a bookstore, plenty of quirky boutiques, antiques, home goods and gift shops, several banks, plenty of dessert stores, a dwtn post office & public library, plenty of churches, and large hospital on Dwtn’s southern border.
* Dwtn Riverside is generally considered safe but some areas are best to avoid at night.
* Overall quality historic architecture both in the Business districts (Esp. with all the Spanish based mission architecture) and in the residential neighborhoods.
* Pedestrian traffic good in the core of dwtn. Pretty sparse in the res. areas.
* Good culturally amenities Dwtn including a plethora of restaurants, bars, & cafes, lots of art galleries, several live music venues & night clubs, a convention center, a couple performing arts theaters, and several museums and historic sites.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is rather low.
* Hsg is pretty expensive but similar to other stable inner city neighborhoods. Limited 1-bed product. Surprisingly there are few condos dwtn. What does exist sells around 400-500K, 2-beds sell btwn 300K-650K, 3 & 4 beds 400K-1 M.
* Rentals are surprisingly limited. What is available seems to lease in the 2-3Ks.
* Urban form is a mixed-bag in Dwtn Riverside. Mission Inn Avenue has the best form, Market Street is a mixed bag, the smaller streets btwn 14th and 5th Streets are more “dwtn” in feel and a mix of surface parking lots, office towners, and areas of decent urban form. Main St in the northern half of dwtn is awful.

Magnolia Center- an amenity rich mid-century neighborhood several miles from Dwtn Riverside, CA

Magnolia Center has long been an important commercial hub for Riverside since its foundation in 1883. This is thanks to the convergence of major streets at Magnolia Center (i.e. Magnolia, Central, Arlington, Jurupa and Brockton Avenues) making it a natural location for commercial activities. The neighborhood was developed with small farms and orange groves interspersed with single-family residences. Residential development began in the northern edges of the district in the 1920s but really picked up with the post WWII boom. While retaining some walkability with sidewalks and some orientation to the street, most of Magnolia Center’s commercial development is rather auto centric. Thankfully good urbanism is beginning to win out with the renovation of Riverside Plaza into a walkable lifestyle center and a new mixed-use urban overlay implemented along Brockton and Magnolia Avenues.

Magnolia Center also is a very safe community, hosts several quality schools, has decent park amenities, and good cultural and retail amenities. As long as the neighborhood continues to densify and built more mixed-use, urban orientated development along its commercial corridors, it could become a quality urban neighborhood.

Click here to view my Magnolia Center album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Several dedicated bike lanes running through Magnolia Center, but no dedicated bike stations.
* Excellent diversity across the board, especially economic diversity.
* Overall a very safe community.
* Decent park amenities with several small/medium parks spread throughout. Magnolia Center also hosts a public pool too.
* Pretty good tree canopy throughout.
* Good array of walkable schools (both public & private) with good ratings.
* There appears to be a decent amount of aff. hsg in Magnolia Center.
* Some very nice 1920s-1940s residential homes, especially in the northern half of the district.
* Cultural amenities include a good array of ethnic restaurants, several bars & cafes, a performing arts center, a cineplex, and a night club.
* Retail amenities include several supermarkets & drug stores, several boutiques, a Nordstrom Rack, Marshall’s & several other brand name clothing stores, several antique stores, a staples, a bookstore, plenty banks, a hardware store, several gyms & dessert joints, and a community post office/public library. Many of these amenities however, are set in auto centric developments.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is pretty low .
* Okay public transit but pretty good access to Downtown.
* Some rental product available, generally on the expensive side. 1-beds lease btwn 1.5K-2.5K, 2-beds 2K-3K, and not much 3 & 4 bed product available.
* For sale Hsg is pretty expensive but some moderately priced smaller units available. A handful of 1-beds sell around 400K. 2-beds 400K-650K, 3 & 4 beds anywhere btwn 300K-1M depending on size and condition.
* Sidewalks exist on about 70% of all streets in the neighborhood. Up to date ADA infrastructure is hit or miss.
* Most of Magnolia Center’s commercial streets are auto centric but always have sidewalks. Once one enters the Riverside Plaza, it becomes pretty walkable like a lifestyle center.
* Modern in-fill ins a mix of decent mid-century architecture, crappy autocentric commercial, and some more recent urban in-fill.
* Imageability isn’t great due to a lack of defined boundaries, mediocre connectivity, a lack of iconic landmarks, and semi-autocentric business districts. But the newly renovated Riverside Plaza is helping create a heart to Magnolia Center.
* Pedestrian traffic isn’t great.

Wood Streets- an attractive early 20th inner-city neighborhood in Riverside CA

Riverside’s Wood Streets neighborhood was devoted to orange groves until about 1913 when fill was introduced to the Tequesquite Arroyo River, allowing Magnolia Avenue to connect with Downtown. Wood Streets was then built out as a typical early 20th century streetcar suburb with residential design reflecting a traditional aesthetic. This is likely Riverside’s most cohesive and urban neighborhood outside of Dwtn.

Other positive urban aspects to Wood Streets include good public transit, excellent racial, economic, and generational diversity, a decent # of walkable schools, good parks, and good retail amenities on its northern and southern edges. But in order for Wood Streets to become a truly quality urban district it needs to densify and modify its zoning to permit multi-family construction at least along its arterials. With a lack of density Wood Streets is missing quality mixed-use fabric, walkable cultural amenities, and vibrancy. There is also need for better bike infrastructure here and more affordable housing in this single family dominated neighborhood.

Click here to view my Wood Streets album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Consistant curbs and sidewalks just outdated ADA ramps.
* Good public transit and convenient access to Dwtn Riverside. Unfortunately Dwtn Riverside doesn’t host very many jobs.
* Excellent diversity across the board, especially economic diversity.
* Retail Amenities include a decent number of amenities on the northern and southern edges of the neighborhood. This includes a supermarket, several drug stores, a couple salons, Major Hospital, several banks, a couple boutiques & dessert shops, and a staples. Lots of retail amenities, bars, and restaurants at Riverside Plaza (a quasi-urban outdoor mall) located 2 blocks from Woods Street.
* Good park amenities including the expansive Ryan Bonaminio Park and recreational Evans Park to the North. The mountainside park of Mt Rubidoux, is only 1/2 mile to the north of the district.
* A decent # of walkable schools but of mixed ratings.
* Overall a very safe community.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is pretty low.
* A couple dedicated bike lanes but not dedicated bike stations.
* Cultural amenities are very limited as there is a mostly residential only neighborhood. The only cultural amenities in the neighborhood that I see are at Riverside City College (College Art Gallery & Performing Arts Center). Decent access to cultural amenities in Dwtn to the North and Magnolia Center to the south. Score
* Hsg is pretty expensive but some moderately priced smaller units available. A handful of 1-beds sell around 400K. 2-beds 400K-700K, 3 & 4 beds anywhere btwn 500K-800K.
* Rentals are very limited. What does existin are SF homes for rent and there are few apt. bldgs here.
* Where commercial does exist its pretty auto centric (i.e. Jurupa Ave).
* Pedestrian traffic is pretty sparse here.

Redlands, CA- Historic Citrus Growing Center of Southern California

Its difficult to pick out precisely the urban core of Redlands but I did my best using San Mateo and Center St. as the western border, Highland Ave as the southern, Brookside and Lugonia as the northern, and University and Redlands as the eastern.

Development of Redlands started in the 1880s with the arrival of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, connecting Southern California to San Francisco and Salt Lake. Immigrants quickly discovered the area with its hot, dry climate and ready access to water was the ideal center for citrus production. The City was named “Redlands” after the color of the adobe soil. The Pacific Electric Railway completed an interurban connection between Los Angeles and San Bernardino in 1914, providing a convenient, speedy connection to the fast-growing city of Los Angeles. Redlands reached 2,000 people by 1890 and 10,500 by 1910, 14K in 1940 and population steadily grew as it continued to sprawl. Redlands now hosts just over 71K souls.

Downtown is pretty spreadout centered along State Street, a very intact main street. Orange St also has some nice Dwtn fabric. The rest of Dtwn is a hodgepodge of urban and auto centric blocks. Also included in this rather large evaluation area is the gorgeous residential Smiley Park Historic District with especially beautiful Victorians along Highland Avenue. North of I-10 is a more modest district with a mix of attractive 1920s-1940s homes and gritty areas. This is also where Redland University is located. Really no urban biz district of note in this sub-district. Redland does very well, from an urban perspective, with racial and economic diversity, a decent amount of dedicated affordable hsg, good parks and schools, good cultural and retail amenities. The main areas for Dwtn Redlands to improve is more density, better public transit access, more affordable housing, better tree cover in areas outside of the Smiley Park Historic District, and better urban in-fill in the Dwtn area.

Click here to view my Redlands Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Several decent bike trails but no dedicated bike stations here.
* Great racial and economic diversity and good generational diversity as well.
* Good array of walkable schools in central Redlands with generally good ratings.
* A couple sections of Central Redlands are a bit rough north of the highway but generally a safe community.
* A decent amount of dedicated affordable hsg sites in Redlands.
* Several solid parks in Central Redlands and pretty well distributed.
* Cultural amenities include a good # of restaurants, bars, and cafes, several art galleries, several performing arts theaters (including Redland University), a local cinema, a couple local museums, several live music venues & night clubs. Most of these amenities are concentrated Dwtn.
* Retail amenities include several supermarkets & drug stores, plenty of boutiques/consignment stores, several antique stores, banks, a couple bookstores, plenty of gyms & dessert joints. Also within Dwtn is a post office, office depot, public library. The Mountain Grove Shopping Center (a healthy power center complete with several dept. store and lots of retail) is just NW of the evaluation area. Much of this retail is auto oriented.
* State Street hosts the best urban form, followed by Orange St. Redlands Blvd is very auto centric.
* Excellent pockets of historic architecture in central Redlands, esp. in the Smiley Park Historic District. Other areas are so .

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density isn’t that great.
* Sidewalks are generally there. Up to date ADA infrastructure is hit or miss.
* Public transit is so .
* Decent access to Dwtn Riverside as its only a 20 min drive but only ~10-15KK work in Dwtn Riverside. Also terrible public transit connection. A drive to Dwtn LA is 1 Hr. + and 2 HR+ by transit.
* Not a ton of rental product but what exist is pretty expensive, although not too bad for California standards. 1-beds lease btwn 1.5K-2K, 2-beds anywhere btwn 1.5K-2.5K, 3-beds in the 2Ks & 3KS.
* For sale is also expensive but some moderately priced options. 1-bed condos/small homes sell anywhere btwn 200K-500K, 2-beds anywhere btwn 300K-800K, 3 & 4 beds btwn 400K-1 M with some higher end product reaching the mid 1 Ms.
* Modern in-fill is mostly unattractive in-fill architecture.
* Tree cover is good in the Smiley Park Historic District. Not so good Dwtn or north of Dwtn.

Palm Springs- California’s Desert Resort

Palm Springs became a fashionable resort town starting in the early 1900s when health tourists arrived here. It received another boast in popularity when movie stars began to buy second homes here in the 1930s helping to create the ultra exclusive Movie Colony, Tahquitz River Estates, and Las Palmas neighborhoods sitting just outside of Downtown. Palm Spring also built California’s first self-contained shopping center “La Plaza”, which still stands today. The 1950s brought architectural modernists and the blossoming of the arts and cultural. Many argue that Palm Springs became the model for mass-produced suburban housing, especially in the Southwest. The 1970s brought more and more year round residents to Palm Springs as many retirees began to live here fulltime. Since the 2000s much effort has gone into building up and urbanizing Dwtn especially along the main drag (S Palm Canyon Dr.) and surrounding blocks.

Not surprisingly Dwtn Palm Springs hosts great cultural and shopping amenities, very interesting architecture from the 1920s-1950s, and several very walkable blocks. But the eastern half of Dwtn has many dead spaces and plenty of vacant lots or self-enclosed apartments and subdivisions. These areas need to urbanized for Dwtn Palm Springs to be a quality urban area. There is also need for more affordable housing, better connectivity, bike infrastructure, and better walkable schools.

Click here to view my Dwtn Palm Dessert Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Other than some outdated curb cuts the ADA infrastructure is very good in Palm Springs.
* Poor access to Job centers and Dwtn. Residents are a 1 hr. drive to Dwtn Riverside and 2.5 hrs. by bus. Dwtn LA and Anaheim and even further.
* Surprisingly very good racial and economic diversity.
* Park amenities just got a lot better with the construction of the expansive and multi-faceted Downtown Park. Frances Stevens Park is another nice one with a couple other pocket parks. Dwtn Palm Springs also has access to get hiking and trails with the mountain practically hoping right up to it.
* Great culturally assets including many restaurants, bars, and cafes, tons of art galleries, several performing art galleries, several museums, and many night clubs.
* Retail amenities are also great and include a discount supermarket, a couple gourmet grocerias, a couple drug store, tons of boutiques and clothing store with a good mix of name brands and locally owned, many gift shops, a couple bookstores, a couple gyms, many dessert joints, and a dwtn public library.
* Vey safe dwtn.
* Interesting 1920s/1930s and mid century architecture especially along the core of Dwtn. The eastern edge is mostly modern in-fill and pretty bland. Good urban in-fill in the core as well.
* Great urban massing and streetscaping along S Palm Canyon Dr., decent massing along Indian Canyon Dr. and the western half of Tahquitz Canyon Way.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is more similar to a suburb.
* A couple dedicated bike lanes but no bike stations dwtn.
* Not surprisingly the medium age is about 60 and few children households here.
* Only a couple schools within walking distance to Dwtn Palm Springs.
* For sale hsg is on the expensive side but a decent # of moderately 1-bed condos in older bldgs selling btwn 200K-500K. A good # of 2-bed condos sell btwn 300K-500K. Also plenty selling btwn 500K-1M. 3 & 4 beds go for anywhere btwn 500K-1.5 M. Multi-Million $ hsg exists just outside of Dwtn.
* Not a ton of rentals available. They are also expensive with 1-beds renting btwn high 1Ks-3K, 2-beds 2K-4K, and 3-beds a very rare.
* Dwtn is missing a dwtn post office, only has a handful of churches, and a major hospital is about 1 mile north of Dwtn.
* A couple dead/gritty parts of Dwtn on the eastern edge.
* Connectivity is good in the western half of Dwtn (the core) but not so great in the eastern half. Lots of private developments. Lots of open vacant lots here too and urban massing is very good.