[carreradpt]

I flew my first solo at Riverside. It was tough to understand radio comm due to all the japanese student helicopter pilots at the time. It seemed to be a busy airport at the time, 80's. I lived in Riverside for 12 years, first near UCR then bought a house in Canyon Crest up near the top of Alessandro. Left in 1992. It is hot and smoggy. Mostly a bedroom community. Home of the original parent Navel Orange tree. Mostly a bedroom comunity as all of the citrus industry is gone. The area around UCR had gone to a Central American third world area. University Ave used to have good restaurants and a couple of hotels. No longer good retaurants. No gringos now. The Mission Inn is cool and a very small downtown around the Inn is OK. Riverside is in a very good area to go places from. The mountains are close, can be on the slopes in an hour. San Diego is 1.5hrs. The beaches are an hour. LV is 3.5hrs. Mammoth is 5. I have been thru there on occasion over the years. Has not gotten better, in fact I think it has really gone to ....... Moreno Valley to the east is worse.