Are you looking to move to Riverside, CA?  Riverside is a great place to start a business or raise a family.  With a growing and vibrant downtown, a strong business community, great schools, a center for arts and culture, and so much more Riverside is the heart of the Inland Empire.

 Conveintly located Riverside is less then 60 miles away from Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Laguna, Temecula wine country, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Ski Resorts, and Fishing lakes.  And unlike it neighbors to the west (Orange County) Riverside is an affordable place to buy a home. The median price for a home is in the mid 300k's.

 Riverside is not only a great place to live but it is also a safe place to live (Crime Stats: http://www.riversideca.gov/rpd/crstats/cstats.html).  Crime is relatively low for a city of 300,000 people.

 If are thinking about moving to Riverside please contact me today.  I have a Riverside Newcomer's Booklet that is a great information tool.

Dear Neighbors, Clients, and Friends,

             I want to thank both Councilman Dom Betro and Mr. Mike Gardner for participating in the interview "Election 2007: Meet the Candidates for Ward 1."  The Wood Streets are an integral part of Riverside and it is important to understand the vision that our elected representative has for the future of our neighborhood and for our city.   Local politics are important and the more information we know about those who will represent us, the better.  If you would like to hear more from the candidates please tune into the Raincross debate airing on Charter Channel 33 on Monday evenings at 7pm until Election day.  The live candidate debate is also available on www.raincross.net. I hope that you all enjoyed learning more about the two candidates running for our ward and that it will encourage all of you to get out and vote on November 6th.  If you are not registered to vote, the deadline to register to be able to vote in this election is October 22nd.  Please contact me if you would like to register to vote or contact our local Registrar of Voters, 951-486-7200.  Good luck to both candidates!   

Make no mistake about it...the real estate market is slow.  As you can see from the statistical report in this newsletter sales have dropped 61% from this time last year.   Currently the average home will take more than 9 months to sell.  However, prices are remaining relatively stable in our area as are other established neighborhoods in Riverside.  On almost a daily basis, the media has continually sensationalized the extent of the slow real estate market.  While prices overall are falling throughout many places in the state, the communities that are being hit the hardest are newer less established neighborhoods.  Given this, as you can see from my sales report, I am thankful that my business has remained busy. 

For the last 8 years I have been in real estate I have worked in many neighborhoods and networked with a lot of different people.  Currently, I am working with developers on new home projects downtown, the County of Riverside, UCR, California Baptist University, Riverside Community Hospital, Riverside Medical Clinic and many others.  So even though the market is slower, I am not.  I believe that it is important to stay optimistic in this market.  While there is no denying the market is not what it once was, people will always have to buy and sell homes.  In the Inland Empire there is an average of over 200 people moving here everyday and they all need a place to live . 

I hope you all enjoy this month's edition of Brent Lee's The Wood Streets Press. For those of you who are considering selling your home or know someone who is please do not hesitate to  contact me with your questions and concerns.  All referrals and clients will be rewarded with excellent service and professionalism.  In a difficult market, such as the one we are having, it is important to have a realtor with years of experience and one who works not only in one neighborhood but  in many.  Buyers are difficult to come by and with my many networks with buyers in many different price ranges I can help attract buyers that might otherwise not  know about your home. 

Your Neighbor and Realtor,

Brent Lee

On November 6th voters will be asked to make a choice for who they would like to represent them as their City Council member.  After a run-off election in June, no one candidate was able to gain the 50 percent plus 1 to win the seat.  Therefore, the two top candidates will square off in a run-off where voters will have to decide a winner.  Incumbent Dom Betro and challenger Mike Gardner agreed to an interview with me to discuss the issues and explain their vision for Ward 1.  Ward 1 covers downtown and the Wood Streets, the north side and Grand Avenue neighborhoods, and a section of the University Avenue neighborhood:

BL: What are your strategies to deal with growth in Riverside?

DB: The Southern California Association of Governments predict that 38,000 new households, 80,000 new residents will come to our city by the year 2030, whether we want them or not. It is therefore incumbent to have a complex and thoughtful strategy to deal with this. That is why in Ward 1, it is important to plan for a livable and viable city environment that allows residents to live, work, and play in our city. This is an environmentally smart approach as it stops the sprawl and preserves up our valuable lands; takes cars off the road stopping the pollution; creates a growing job base and larger economic pie to provide more city amenities without having to tax residents; and revitalizes our downtown and the entire city by creating opportunities for residents to spend their disposable income here in Riverside.

MG: I believe we should focus on creating jobs for the people who are already in Riverside over major new developments that will bring more people who will commute to Los Angeles and Orange Counties.  Our limited developable land should be dedicated to job intensive uses, not the land intensive job poor warehousing we are currently building in the Box Springs Corridor.  Our infrastructure is stretched too thin.  We don't have enough police officers, firefighters, parks or libraries.  We have an electricity shortage and face a water shortage.  Our roads are crowded.  We should not approve major annexations or large projects without an analysis of the project's impact on infrastructure and a plan for meeting the identified needs.  We cannot continue to play catch up and we need to ensure that current residents are not saddled with the cost of infrastructure improvements required by new development and annexations.

BL: What are your priorities regarding public safety, especially in the Wood Streets?

MG: Public safety is the single most important issue in a city or neighborhood.  In general, Riverside provides good public safety services although we lack sufficient resources and are at risk of falling further behind.  I would like to see an additional 50 police officers beyond those presently on the street.  There are times when the North Policing Area, which covers most of Ward 1 and part of Ward 3, has as few as five patrol officers on duty.  This is clearly inadequate.   The Wood Streets are served by Fire Station 3 on Riverside Avenue between Central and Arlington Avenues, on the other side of the railroad tracks from the Wood Streets.  We need to acquire technology that will let our dispatch center know where trains in the city are and how fast they are moving so units from the downtown station can be sent if the Station 3 units will be delayed. 

DB: The good news is that crime is down to an all time low in Ward 1. We need to continue to pursue strategies that strategically place police resources to have the most impact, and be willing to fund public safety at the levels necessary to fulfill local government's primary responsibility of insuring the safety of its citizens. In addition, it is important to also understand that the basis for crime has many other determinants...economic, social, educational, etc...and we need to continue to support preventative measures that especially help our youth  to make other positive choices in their lives; much like we have reduced homelessness, taking a strong enforcement stand when it comes to our parks, especially Fairmount Park, but providing a shelter and services to help those willing to get off the streets.

BL: What will you do to preserve and maintain the quaint and historic nature of the Wood Streets?

DB: I have taken strong and consistent stands in not allowing for building/renovation variances, which would alter the historic nature of the Wood Streets. When the owner of the Kawa Market said he wanted to sell his business, I moved swiftly and decisively to return this property to support the residential character of the Wood Streets. When the residents of the Wood Streets raised their voices in unison, and asked that the Tequesquite dairy lands property be utilized as the park that has long been denied the Wood Streets for 40 years, I once again acted decisively, and did the heavy political lifting to secure a  unanimous vote by the council for a park at Tequesquite. The point is, that preserving the historic nature of the Wood Streets takes vision, good listening skills, the ability to act decisively-regardless of the political vulnerabilities, and having the skills to get the council votes necessary to get something done.

MG: One of the things that make the Wood Streets special is the street trees.  In recent years the City has been more aggressive in removing street trees and has slowed down replacing them.  We need a plan to replace trees as they are lost so we don't have entire blocks without mature trees.  Several varieties of large hardwood trees do well in our climate and are less destructive than the Shamel Ash and Carob trees currently in much of the Wood Streets.  They should be planted as replacements as trees are lost.  We should also replace with more mature trees than we currently use.  A five gallon tree takes too long to grow to a useful size.

Responsibility for street trees was recently moved from the Parks and Recreation Department to the Public Works Department.  I believe our trees were better cared for by Parks and will explore moving that responsibility back.

BL: The Wood Streets are a very family oriented community and many children leave Riverside to go to college in other cities. Do you have any plans to attract young professionals back to Riverside after they leave for college?

MG: Riverside lacks two things young people desire: jobs and entertainment.  We need to focus our economic development efforts on attracting quality jobs to Riverside.  High tech and clean light manufacturing are particularly desirable.  As the Columbia Tech Park and airport areas build out, the older manufacturing area north of Third Street between the railroad tracks and Chicago Avenue may become a prime area for new office space.

Reopening of the Fox Theater and the influx of residents with disposable income to the downtown will help attract new entertainment venues and restaurants to the area.  We need to continue efforts to rejuvenate the downtown without destroying the historic charm and small town feel that makes Riverside, Riverside.  I want to keep our antique stores and unique downtown shops.  We need to be careful not to overdo high density residential projects.  We do not want to be Orange County.

DB: The infill housing strategies creating more affordable living units, continuing to attract more businesses and jobs to Riverside, and making Riverside the Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Capital City of the Inland Empire, will make Riverside the city of choice for this next generation. That is why having a vibrant downtown, ending the blight and hold of the self interests, will be good for Ward 1 and great for Riverside. For the first time Riverside is an importer of jobs, meaning that we have more people coming to work in our city, than we have leaving the city. Downtown is filling up with businesses, the only area in the city showing increases in sales, and downtown has more cars and people coming there than ever before. The upcoming Festival of Lights, our signature city event, is gathering regional and national attention, and is establishing Riverside as a destination point. The opening of the Fox Theater, will be the ultimate symbol of our renewal and revitalization, signaling to the next generation that Riverside is the place they want to be.