The Riverside City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to use almost $3 million in state grant money to fund the Riverside Civil Rights Walk project, a self-guided tour through 24 local historical sites across Ward 1. Councilmembers Philip Falcone and Jim Perry were absent.
“This is what the museum of the 21st century looks like,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said during the March 24 city council meeting. “It’s a totally different reimagining of experiencing history.”
The project will create a “core loop” within the downtown Riverside region, according to Senior Traffic Engineer Brett Craig, consisting of signs leading people through a series of local historical stops like the Martin Luther King Jr. statue and Riverside City Hall. There will also be an “expanded loop” guiding people toward sites farther away from downtown such as the Peace Tower on Mt. Rubidoux and the Harada House.
Craig added the project was entirely funded by Caltrans’ Active Transportation Program grants and that the money would go toward reconstructing sidewalks, installing Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant infrastructure and creating 24 large signs filled with historical information. The city said it also planned to issue a request for proposals for artists to design 10 decorative signal wraps and four crosswalks.
“We’ve talked about it being kind of like Riverside’s Boston Freedom Trail,” he said. “It’s a really cool destination, and I think this project is going to be something that puts Riverside on the map even more so than it already is.”
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Nathan Mustafa, the city’s interim public works director, also acknowledged that the original plan included the Cesar Chavez statue located on Main Street. Following several sexual abuse accusations against the labor rights leader, first reported in a New York Times investigation released last week, Mustafa said the city would work closely with the community about the monument’s future as part of the historical walk.
“There’s ample time to allow for additional dialogue surrounding the site and our planned improvements,” he said. “This community dialogue, and the guidance of our city council, will inform our next steps.”
City leaders last week said it would host community forums and work with the Riverside Latino Network, which owns the statue, to figure out how to best proceed with the memorial statue. Several of the organization’s members told the council that they were open to working with the city on the plans, but preferred that the monument remained in downtown Riverside.
“I do think that we need to be careful and make sure that, when we’re having this conversation, that we involve the community,” Councilmember Sean Mill said. “But I think that monument, what it stands for in the movement, is vitally important, especially when you think about the history of Riverside and the citrus heritage and all the work of the people that made Riverside great.”
Construction on the project is set to begin in May with a ribbon-cutting ceremony set to happen by October.
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What does the Peace Tower have to do with civil rights? What about acknowledging the area where the Lincoln Park Pool used to be back when Black people could only use the pools at Fairmount Park the day before it was drained? The Eastside is the only neighborhood I have known to LOSE a local swimming pool! What about The Place nightclub which was part of the Chittlin’ Curcuit? Why isn’t the Orange Valley Lodge listed. Seems the Black community sites, in addition to being torn down, don’t even warrant honorable mention or a plaque.