Mayor’s Monthly Message April 2021

Published: 04/09/2021

Mayor’s Monthly Message April 2021

Each month I will be sharing with Riverside a “Mayor’s Monthly Message” that highlights how my team and I are working to serve Riversiders, grow opportunities, and unify around common goals to take on today’s pressing challenges.

I come to the mayoral role with a background in environmental science, green technology, and open space preservation— all of which have been my professional work for the last thirty years and what my administration will prioritize.

During this month of April, a time when we celebrate our natural environment, I share with you whatactions I am taking in partnership with UC Riverside and green tech industries to create a city and economy committed to protecting our planet.

A new job sector is launching in Riverside that will utilize our local higher education institutions to propel these industries. What has ignited the clean tech movement for our City has been the Southern California Headquarters of the Air Resources Board. This move builds upon previous successes of businesses like SolarMax and SunSpark—which share a similar sustainability mission.

Inland Southern California businesses, governments, and communities are looking for engines of innovation and growth. With that regional desire in mind, UCR created “OASIS” to fill this need–Opportunities to Advance Sustainability, Innovation, and Social Inclusion (OASIS).

OASIS will be an innovation hub focused on the goal of creating a location—an economic ecosystem—with facilities and living laboratories created to support research and catalyze the creation of innovative startups. This goal will work in tandem with the creation of a skilled workforce to fulfill the needs caused by technological changes.

My team and I have begun working with OASIS leaders along with businesses to make Riverside an international center for green and clean technology. As Mayor, I enthusiastically support this economic development initiative and will use my professional qualifications, paired with the influence of the mayoral title, to see this effort come to fruition—for our City’s economy and for our planet’s future.

I share near-daily updates on social media, so be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more—search
“Riverside Mayor Lock Dawson.”