Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson’s recent opinion piece asks Riverside residents to celebrate outside partnerships, national conferences, climate grants, visiting mayors, advisory networks, and symbolic recognition.

But Riverside residents are entitled to ask a much simpler question:

If City Hall is producing so much progress, why are residents being asked to pay higher taxes again?

The Mayor’s article is polished, but it is not a complete accounting of Riverside’s condition. It highlights the parts of the story that make City Hall look ambitious, connected, and visionary, while leaving out the problems residents and local businesses deal with every day: public safety, homelessness, deteriorating roads, infrastructure backlogs, rising costs, City Hall instability, and another flawed Measure Z tax proposal.

Riverside does not need more self-promotion. Riverside needs disciplined leadership focused on the people who actually live here and the businesses that have invested here for decades.

Partnerships Are Not the Same as Results

The Mayor lists partnerships with Accelerator for America, Bloomberg Philanthropies, ICLEI, Harvard fellows, and climate-action programs. Some of those relationships may produce useful planning assistance, technical support, or grant funding. But her opinion piece blurs an important distinction:

Activity is not achievement.

• A conference is not economic development.
• A visiting mayor getting a Raincross tattoo is not a jobs strategy.
• A climate grant is not road repair.
• A planning document is not public safety.
• A fellowship is not fiscal discipline.
• A national nonprofit relationship is not proof that Riverside families are better off.
  

The Mayor points to Accelerator for America’s support for the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Plan and Inclusive Development Action Plan. But AFA itself describes its economic and community-development work broadly as helping local leaders with housing affordability, small businesses, neighborhoods, capital access, and career pathways. Those are goals — not proof that Riverside has solved the local affordability, homelessness, infrastructure, or revenue problems now being used to justify another tax increase. 

If these partnerships are truly transforming Riverside’s economic future, then residents should see measurable outcomes: net new employers, higher-paying jobs, private-sector investment, faster permitting, fewer vacant storefronts, safer neighborhoods, reduced homelessness, improved roads, and less dependence on regressive taxes.

Instead, City Hall is back asking for more money.

What the Mayor Leaves Out About Measure Z

The Mayor’s article celebrates outside resources, but it avoids the obvious contradiction: Riverside is simultaneously asking voters to increase and extend Measure Z.

The City’s own press release says voters will decide whether to extend and increase the Measure Z sales tax.  The City Attorney’s impartial analysis states that the measure would eliminate the current expiration date, increase the existing transaction and use tax from 1% to 1.25%, raise Riverside’s total retail sales tax rate from 8.75% to 9%, and generate approximately $21 million more annually. 

That is not merely “renewal.” It is an increase. It is also a general tax, meaning the revenue goes into the general fund and is not legally locked into the specific priorities used in campaign-style messaging.

The ballot language was so problematic that a judge ordered the City to rename the measure after a resident challenged the language as misleading. Raincross Gazette reported the court ordered changes after the City’s proposed wording was challenged over whether it fairly described the tax measure.  Riverside Record similarly reported that a Superior Court judge ordered the City to update the ballot language after ruling in favor of a resident who argued the wording was biased and violated election law. 

That matters. If City Hall’s case for Measure Z is so solid, why did it require judicial correction?

Sales Taxes Are Regressive — and Riverside Families Pay the Price

A sales tax is regressive because it takes a larger share of income from lower-income and middle-income households than from wealthier households.

A wealthy household can absorb another quarter-cent at checkout. A working family living paycheck to paycheck cannot. Seniors on fixed incomes cannot. Renters already squeezed by housing costs cannot. Small businesses whose customers are price-sensitive cannot simply ignore the cumulative impact.

Sales taxes hit ordinary purchases. They fall hardest on people who spend most of their income on basic needs. So when Riverside raises the sales tax, City Hall is not taxing an abstraction. It is taxing residents at the register.

• It is taxing families buying school supplies.
• It is taxing seniors buying household goods.
• It is taxing workers maintaining their cars.
• It is taxing small businesses trying to compete.
• It is taxing the very people City Hall claims to be helping.
  

If the Mayor and City Manager were truly effective at bringing high-value businesses and durable private-sector investment to Riverside, the City should be growing its tax base through productivity and economic expansion — not demanding another regressive tax increase from residents.

Riverside Should Be Reducing the Tax Burden, Not Increasing It

The Mayor says Riverside can build “a more resilient and diversified economy that creates jobs so people can live where they work.” That is a worthy goal. But after years of that rhetoric, Riverside is still being asked to raise taxes for the same core issues: public safety, homelessness, roads, and infrastructure.

That is the problem.

If City Hall were bringing in enough value-producing businesses, expanding the employment base, accelerating quality development, and supporting long-standing local employers, Riverside would be discussing how to reduce the regressive sales tax burden — not increase it.

Strong economic development means the City can fund core services without constantly returning to taxpayers for more. It means a broader base of productive businesses. It means better jobs. It means a healthier local economy. It means prioritizing private investment over government vanity projects.

Instead, the Mayor’s article celebrates partnerships and accolades while City Hall asks residents for more money.

That is not proof of success. It is evidence that the current strategy is not producing enough real value.

The Article’s “Studies” and Plans Are Incomplete Without the Missing Context

The Mayor cites plans and initiatives — the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Plan, Inclusive Development Action Plan, Economic Development Strategy, Bloomberg-supported procurement work, climate-action funding, and infrastructure partnerships.

But the missing context is this:

• Planning support is not the same as delivered infrastructure.
• Residents do not drive on plans. They drive on roads.
• Recognition is not the same as fiscal health.
• A “green fleet” award does not prove Riverside has solved public safety, homelessness, staffing, or infrastructure funding.
• Climate grants do not answer why basic services require higher taxes.
• A Youth Climate Action grant may fund civic engagement or sustainability projects, but it does not explain why residents must pay a higher sales tax for core services.
• Inclusive development language does not prove economic inclusion.
• The relevant question is whether Riverside residents are seeing better jobs, improved affordability, safer neighborhoods, and a stronger business climate.
• Outside partnerships can create dependency and distraction.
• Chasing grants and national recognition can become a substitute for disciplined local governance.
• The Mayor does not measure opportunity cost.
• Every dollar, staff hour, and executive focus spent on conferences, awards, advisory networks, climate branding, and image-building is time and attention not spent fixing roads, cleaning neighborhoods, improving permitting, enforcing standards, protecting businesses, and stabilizing City Hall.
  

The article lists activity. It does not prove results.

Vanity Projects Are Part of the Fiscal Problem

Riverside’s leaders continue to ask residents for more money while City Hall pursues projects and partnerships that often look better in press releases than they feel in neighborhoods.

Residents are tired of hearing that every new initiative is an “investment” while the basics remain unresolved. City Hall cannot continue to celebrate civic-space visions, national nonprofit partnerships, outside conferences, climate branding, and feel-good accolades while telling residents the City needs another sales tax increase for police, fire, homelessness, roads, and infrastructure.

That is exactly how cities lose public trust.

The City must stop confusing visibility with value. Riverside needs economic engines, not image campaigns. It needs safe streets, functional roads, clean public spaces, disciplined spending, accountable leadership, and support for businesses that have already committed to Riverside.

City Hall Must Focus on Existing Residents and Businesses

Riverside’s future will not be built by chasing applause from outside organizations. It will be built by taking care of the people and businesses already here.

That means:

• supporting long-standing Riverside businesses;
• reducing barriers to business expansion;
• fixing permitting delays;
• cleaning up commercial corridors;
• prioritizing police, fire, roads, and infrastructure;
• addressing homelessness with treatment, enforcement, and accountability;
• reducing wasteful spending;
• rebuilding trust with employees;
• and restoring discipline inside City Hall.
  

The Mayor says she acts as Riverside’s ambassador in every room. That sounds good. But Riverside does not need a mayor chasing personal accolades in every room. Riverside needs leaders who fix the rooms residents actually live and work in.

The City Must Manage Rogue Charter Officers and Clean Up City Hall

Before asking residents to pay higher taxes, Riverside’s leaders should clean up their own house.

Public records already show serious governance concerns involving the City Manager’s office and the City Manager’s spouse. The City Council sent Susan Freeman a certified letter stating that she contacted City employees through “unwanted and harassing calls, text messages, emails, comments, social media posts, and other communications.” The letter also said comments involving confidential personnel or disciplinary issues were intrusive and violated employee privacy. 

The City’s letter further stated that Freeman’s relationship with the City Manager created pressure for staff when she solicited employees to participate in paid services or asked for donations, and that staff could fear negative career consequences if they opted out. 

That is a City Hall governance problem.

The Mayor’s article talks about bringing the best of the country and the world home to Riverside. But residents are asking for something more basic: manage City Hall, protect employees, control spending, and stop letting rogue Charter officers destabilize the City.

A city cannot credibly ask for higher taxes while failing to manage its own executive leadership.

The Real Test Is Not Whether Riverside Gets Invited — It Is Whether Riverside Gets Better

The Mayor wants residents to celebrate the fact that Riverside is in the room with national organizations and visiting mayors.

But the test is not whether Riverside is invited to the table.

The test is whether Riverside residents are safer, whether roads are better, whether businesses are growing, whether homelessness is reduced, whether taxes are lower, whether City Hall is stable, and whether residents trust their government.

By that standard, City Hall has a lot more work to do.

Riverside deserves leaders focused less on personal recognition and more on measurable results.

• Less branding.
• Less boasting.
• Less dependency on outside validation.
• Less tax pressure on working families.
• Less tolerance for dysfunction inside City Hall.
• More public safety.
• More road repair.
• More support for local businesses.
• More fiscal discipline.
• More accountability.
• More focus on Riverside residents.
  

The Mayor’s opinion piece tells a story about ambition. Riverside residents deserve a government that delivers results.

And if City Hall cannot deliver those results without increasing a regressive sales tax again, then residents should ask whether the problem is really lack of revenue — or lack of leadership.