Western Riverside County's growth, discussed with the people managing it.
COGCast comes from the Western Riverside Council of Governments. Rachel Singer interviews officials and agency leaders about the subregion's cities, child care and conservation, and the subjects run from a Norco mayor's pointed defense of local control over housing to child care waitlists and habitat for an endangered kangaroo rat.
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COGCast is the podcast of the Western Riverside Council of Governments, and every conversation here is rooted in that subregion of inland Southern California. Rachel Singer introduces the episodes and does the interviewing. The episode titles follow a light template: each begins with 'The One About' and then names the subject, such as local control, early childhood development education, the City of Eastvale or the Bureau of Land Management. The casual titles undersell how pointed the talk can get. The two-part series on local control is the sharpest of these episodes. Singer frames it around growth. She notes that the region is poised to stay one of the fastest growing in California, then asks Mayor Kevin Bash of Norco how to support a rising population without losing a community's culture. His answers are blunt. He objects to a state agency carrying out policy from a small group in Sacramento, wants partisan politics to go away, and defends the large-lot areas that equestrian living requires. He points out that Norco's entire council goes out to clean up trash, and he compares his city to the Alamo. Singer also puts the opposing view to him: that cities cannot solve the housing crisis on their own. The early childhood series is calmer but full of specifics. Part 1 is set against the reopening after COVID-19. It describes teachers who kept working with the children of frontline workers, teaching in masks and worn out from reorganizing classrooms under difficult new rules. In Part 2, Tammy Graham, executive director of First 5 Riverside, and Pam Robinson, director of the Concilio Child Development Center, describe more than 13,000 children on an eligibility list for subsidized care, with the lowest-income families served first. Robinson's center is licensed for more children than it is contracted to serve, and staff vacancies also get in the way. The conversation ends with families whose jobs fall outside a Monday-to-Friday, 8-to-5 schedule, and with a call for businesses to help. Brian Jones, city manager of Eastvale, gives a city hall account of the pandemic. He covers buying laptops at a local Costco and weighing each decision against three things: employee health, employee finances and service to the community. The Bureau of Land Management episode, with a guest named James, is framed by the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency's work for an endangered kangaroo rat. It explains why the agency's scattered parcels make partnerships unavoidable, and it lists the interests the agency balances, from recreation and mining to hunting, fishing and off-highway vehicle areas. For a first listen, 'The One About Local Control - Part 1' is the most forceful choice, and 'The One About the City of Eastvale' is the steadier civic counterpart.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to hear Western Riverside County's cities and agencies talk about growth, housing, child care and conservation in their own words, and who doesn't mind a guest voicing strong partisan opinions.
What sets it apart: The show comes straight from the Western Riverside Council of Governments, so the guests are the local decision-makers themselves. Its range runs from a mayor's pointed defense of local control to the details of child care waitlists and federal land partnerships.
The Western Riverside Council of Governments seeks to unify the Western Riverside Subregion so that it can speak as a collective voice on important issues that affect its members. The WRCOGCast is a helpful resource intended to educate the local community of the different agencies, individuals, and programs working to make Western Riverside County a great place to work, live, and play.
City hall bought laptops at Costco, and your civic curiosity finally has a receipt.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid, locally rooted look at growth, regional competition, and identity in inland Southern California.
Mayor Kevin Bash frames Norco's future as inseparable from its inland Southern California neighbors, including Corona, Jurupa Valley, and Eastvale.
A pointed housing conversation about municipal judgment, local democracy, and the limits of control from the neighborhood council upward.
Local control comes through as the central question in this single-episode review: who should get to define a community's housing future. Rachel Singer's conversation with Norco Mayor Kevin Bash traces his view from the city's recovery from near bankruptcy to his belief that…
A grounded look at how workforce gaps, eligibility rules, and program hours affect early childhood care access.
Early childhood care is framed as a test of public capacity, with Tammy Graham of First 5 Riverside and Pam Robinson of Concilio Child Development Centers explaining the systems that sit behind family access.
A grounded Riverside County discussion links teacher exhaustion, workforce shortages, and student equity to the public systems behind early childhood care.
Public responsibility comes into focus in the rooms where young children are cared for, and COGCAST keeps that idea grounded in Riverside County's early childhood education system.
A grounded look at how Eastvale kept city services and civic connection going during COVID-19.
Eastvale's COVID-19 response comes through as a practical test of a young city's capacity. City manager Brian Jones describes a local government trying to keep work moving while protecting employees, supporting their financial stability, and continuing service to residents and…
County government, translated into everyday Missoula life.
COGCast host Rachel Singer interviews Norco Mayor Kevin Bash about preserving local control as Riverside and San Bernardino counties continue growing.
COGCast host Rachel Singer interviews Norco Mayor Kevin Bash about how local control should shape housing decisions in Western Riverside County.
Rachel Singer's COGcast part two with Tammy Graham of First 5 Riverside and Pam Robinson of the Concilio Child Development Center centers on a child care system that has more than 13,000 children on an eligibility list and not enough staff to serve them.
Rachel Singer opens COGCast from the Western Riverside Council of Governments with Joanne Lauer of the Riverside County Office of Education and Sarah Burnett of Norco College, and both say staffing is the bottleneck for early childhood centers.
Eastvale City Manager Brian Jones tells CogCast how a city incorporated in 2010 and home to more than 73,000 residents kept expanding while COVID-19 disrupted budgets and operations.
CogCast host Rachel Singer asks Conservation Biology Institute scientists Wayne Spencer and Deanne DiPietro how a range-wide plan could improve Stevens kangaroo rat conservation.
COGCast host Rachel Singer interviews EMWD Senior Director Linnea Voles Alexander about water supplies in Western Riverside County.
Craig Miller says Western's customers get water from Northern California because its retail area lacks access to Riverside groundwater, and moving that water makes it costly.
An interview with California State Senator Scott Weiner discussing his journey into politics and his work on housing and transportation issues.
An interview with SCAG's executive director about regional planning, COVID-19, and housing in Southern California.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with former Riverside Mayor Ron Leverage about his career in public service and leadership.