Dear Sang,

Hi, I’m Cal Matters reporter Deborah Brennan. Every Wednesday I’ll share news about interesting people and places in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

From time to time I’ll take a look at various corners of the Inland Empire, where the region’s agricultural legacy collides with its urban and industrial development. One of those places is Riverside County’s First District, represented by Supervisor Kevin Jeffries.

Jeffries, who previously served in the state Assembly, is in his final term on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. He discussed the geography and character of the First District, which includes the cities of Riverside and Perris and several unincorporated communities. 

How do the communities in your district differ?

Riverside city is very self-sufficient and compact in the sense that they have strong city council leadership, strong mayoral leadership, and they’re very actively engaged in regional political efforts and lobbying efforts. They're doing very well looking out for their constituents, to improve the long-term viability of the city.  It allows me to focus on our disadvantaged communities. Some of them are areas that time forgot, that infrastructure services didn’t come into. 

What are the challenges for unincorporated communities such as Mead Valley and Good Hope?

They are truly the last vestiges of rural communities in the western half of the county. The population has exploded in those communities, so now we have over 20,000 people, which is actually bigger than some of our small cities in this county. And they don't have the services, they don’t have the amenities, they don’t have the infrastructure. So we’ve been walking this fine line between trying to maintain the rural atmosphere while delivering some modern infrastructure, like street lights, paved streets, water lines and sidewalks — just bare essentials necessary to make the communities a little safer for the kids to walk to and from school and make the roadways a little safer.

What are some objections to modernizing those areas?

The residents who moved there a long time ago love their rural lifestyle, love their horseback riding, love the trails. They're holding onto that lifestyle, and rightly so in many ways. We don’t want to overturn that rural lifestyle. But, at the same time, we have to make it safer as the population continues to grow. So that gets back to the competition between sidewalks and trails, the competition of having dark streets and having well lit streets. We want to improve the quality of life while protecting the rural atmosphere, so it’s a delicate balance.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week awarded $130 million in local grants for housing and healthcare for people living in encampments, including more than $40 million to the Inland Empire. On Oct. 4 Newsom announced that Riverside County will get $12.6 million and San Bernardino County will receive $11 million. The cities Palm Springs, Redlands and Victorville will get $5.1 million, $5.3 million and $6.4 million respectively. The grants will provide funding for permanent and interim homes, housing navigation services, rapid rehousing subsidies, security deposits and other moving expenses and the acquisition of property for homes. The state will distribute money to 18 cities, counties and local agencies in California for housing and safety to 3,364 people living in encampments and to permanently house 1,565 people.

A packed State of Black IE event Saturday brought 700 Inland Empire residents to Moreno Valley’s Conference Center, where they discussed the region’s Black population growth — Riverside now is third behind Los Angeles and the Bay Area — and Black homeownership at 44%, compared to 35% statewide. They also examined the health effects of warehouse growth and the much higher rate of Black mother and infant death from childbirth compared to Whites. The Rev. Al Sharpton canceled his scheduled appearance because his father died last week. And law enforcement kept out a group of 10 protesters, whose loud chants criticizing the California Legislative Black Caucus for holding back two reparations bills occasionally reached the audience.  

Thanks for reading! While you are here, please sign up for the Inland Empire newsletter and let me know what kinds of stories you’d love to read.

For more Inland Empire news and live updates on the upcoming election, make sure to join us in Riverside next month as we bring our Voter Guide to life. We'll break down, analyze, and answer your questions about this year’s ballot propositions. The event takes place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the Cheech, 3581 Mission Inn Avenue Riverside. You can register here. 

And please add my email to your contacts:  inlandempire@calmatters.org

Thanks for reading,