I find it curious when I hear “people in Riverside don’t know we have a river.” After all, it is the largest riparian ecosystem in Southern California, flowing nearly 100 miles beginning in the San Bernardino Mountains to the ocean at Newport Beach. Winding its way through 2/3rds of the state’s population under bridges and alongside freeways. For those paying attention, the river is a sustainer of life. An ecology that has been at the mercy of the dominant culture for over two centuries. This begs the questions; what does it mean to live alongside a river, what is our role in its caretaking and how do we balance infrastructure with restoration?