How a 1908 election shrunk the city of Riverside – Press Enterprise

From the time of its founding in 1873 until the year of our story in 1908, Riverside had expanded significantly from its beginnings in downtown Riverside.

By the early part of the 20th century, Riverside included the following: the Arlington area; a strip of land that stretched south from Arlington along the parallel streets of Magnolia, Indiana and Victoria Avenues, all the way to the Corona city limits; and, to the southeast, land that was located in the area of today’s Chicago Avenue and Alessandro Boulevard.

“The strip,” as it was known, south of Arlington, was approximately 7 square miles. The land to the southeast, known as the Oak Glen and Olive Heights subdivisions, consisted of 5 square miles. Both areas were very rural, much of it considered to be undevelopable at the time, with some pasture and alfalfa land, and less than 300 acres of orange groves. However, the people that lived there were paying city taxes for city services they didn’t receive.

The people living in the strip were especially frustrated concerning the state of Magnolia Avenue, a major road through their area, which connected downtown Riverside to Corona.

Magnolia in the area of the strip became so muddy during winter rains it trapped cars that had to be pulled out by horse teams. Representatives went to the city council, who made it clear — due to the distance of both areas from the heart of Riverside — that no improvements would be made in either area. This included no extension of the city’s electrical, sewer, water and gas systems. These areas didn’t even have any police or fire protection. The council said it doubted those “city”-type improvements would ever be extended into those areas.

The representatives then went to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. There they got a more sympathetic hearing, and the board was willing to commit to improving Magnolia Avenue in the strip but couldn’t because it was inside an incorporated city.

Thus, a movement began to remove 12 square miles of land from the city of Riverside and make it unincorporated once again. This movement was generally called an “exclusion” in Riverside newspapers, but it was really a plan to secede from the city.

The residents of the two areas were so serious in their desire to secede that they made an agreement with the Riverside City Council to pay for the entire election themselves should it be successful in their favor. They put down a $500 deposit to have a special election on Dec. 19, 1908.

For the secession to occur, the entire city had to vote on the matter, not just the areas that wished to part ways with Riverside. On the day before the election, a half page advertisement appeared in the Riverside Daily Press titled “An Appeal to the Intelligent Voter.”

The primary argument was that it wasn’t fair that the citizens of the two areas had to pay city taxes for services they were never going to receive. As a last argument to appeal to the rest of the city voters, the ad said: “Vote for right and justice – vote yes. Do unto them as you would wish to be done by. Put yourself in their place; vote accordingly.”