When Riverside's Fox Theater screened the first public showing of "Gone With the Wind" in 1939, the landmark was a glamorous vaudeville stage and cinema, popular with Hollywood luminaries and featuring the rare luxury of air-conditioning.
More than six decades later, the Spanish colonial-style theater is faded and run-down, like the city blocks that surround it.
The city has spent $122 million trying to revitalize its downtown with limited success, leaving a mishmash that includes a four-star hotel within strolling distance of abandoned storefronts.
Downtown Riverside -- An article, and in some editions a photo caption, in Monday's California section about the revitalization of downtown Riverside said a historic building had come close to being razed to make way for a law firm's parking garage, until the firm backed down from the redevelopment project. In fact, the project that would have led to the razing did not materialize because the city's redevelopment agency and the developer were unable to overcome complexities involving financing of the plan, which also included a new office building.
Now, Riverside leaders are staking downtown's revival on the creation of a cultural and nightlife hotspot for the booming Inland Empire; a place where people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties can go for a night on the town without driving to Los Angeles or Orange County.
If successful, the lethargic downtown center would be transformed into a lively, urban district with a performing arts center, art galleries, a Broadway-style theater, restaurants and upscale shops.
Before, "the time wasn't right for Riverside -- the population base was too small, the demographics didn't quite work," said Joseph Gogas, the city's downtown project manager. "But the whole Inland Empire has transformed itself."
Steven Erie, director of the Urban Studies and Planning Program at UC San Diego, said Riverside's efforts are similar to what occurred in Orange County in the 1970s and 1980s. The result, the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, helped provide an identity for that onetime bedroom community.
"If [Riverside] can bring a performing arts center in, that will bring people back to the city -- to work, to live," he said.
There are already signs of life: Workers jam Simple Simon's cafe on the pedestrian mall every weekday lunch hour, college kids gather at Back to the Grind coffeehouse and at art galleries, and BMW-driving couples nosh at Mario's Place and other restaurants on weekends.
But intermingled with these bright spots are bail bond offices, pawnshops and dusty tchotchke emporiums. Businesspeople and urban planners say downtown's prospects depend on whether more residents can be persuaded to dine, shop and play in the city center, and if the city is focused enough to achieve its goal.
There are doubters.
