A City Transformed - Riverside's Renaissance
By M Malia Vincent-Finney
MAIN STREET, RIVERSIDE CA - I was transported. To another place, another time. Raindrops splashed on the awning overhead and created a fine gentle spray trapped under the archway, like ocean mist on a stormy day. My hands wrapped around the rich dark brew to warm against the chill.
I watched as sidewalk vendors held their church pamphlets over their heads. Customers shopped for fresh produce and braved the rain, just steps away at the Farmers’ Market. A rollerblader, oblivious to the puddles, bobbed his head to tunes that played on his Skull Candy headphones. The musician who had come out to play for change, folded up shop. It wouldn’t do to get his instruments wet and ruined. Uniformed staff hurried between buildings, serious faces that smiled warmly when they saw me – a patron of their hotel.
For a brief moment, under the shelter of the archway, trees hanging heavy with moisture, sidewalk slick with water, I could have been almost anywhere in the world. That’s what the Historic Mission Inn is all about and probably what Frank Miller and architect, Stanley Wilson, had in mind in 1930.
But I was not at Hearst Castle on the coast, or in Europe; I was drinking coffee al frescoe at Bella Trattoria Italian Bistro, on the corner of Sixth and Main in downtown Riverside on a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon. And that’s what Main Street, Riverside CA is all about. A lifestyle that can be at once cosmopolitan and yet cozy like home.
Like a centuries old tapestry, Main Street promenade weaves a story of history past with present-day. The heart of the Mile Square, early visionaries and innovators established the City’s government, financial and retail district on Main Street and its cross streets. Historic landmarks abound from First Street and beyond Fourteenth Street to the arroyo alongside the football field of Riverside Community College. Main Street breathes its history everyday.
Store owners and patrons tell me of dynamic changes in downtown scenery in recent years. The stories and experiences of generations of family owned businesses that survived the challenges of the recession, are threads of the fabric of this vital community, rich in depth of colors from the City’s changing economic seasons, interwoven among the vibrant contemporary hues of newer establishments opened by business owners who happily anticipate the opportunities of the future.~
You can read the full article in our January 2015 issue, IE Entrepreneur, Volume 1 Issue 1
