These are public bodies. None of them are affiliated with this site, and listing them implies no relationship in either direction. Nothing here is a referral to any commercial service, because this site makes none.
City
- City of Riverside — the authoritative source for city services, resident information, neighborhood profiles, planning and zoning, permits, historic designation, code enforcement, parks and city council business. If a question concerns something inside the city limits, this is almost always the right starting point.
- Riverside Public Utilities — the city-owned electric and water utility: establishing service, current rates, billing, outage information, efficiency and water-conservation rebates, and current watering rules. Because the utility is municipal rather than investor-owned, general California utility advice found elsewhere frequently does not apply here. See the utilities page.
County
- County of Riverside — county government, including the assessor, the clerk-recorder, the tax collector, public health, elections and the courts. Property records, parcel data, assessed values, recorded documents and the actual tax bill for a parcel are county functions, not city ones — a distinction that catches people out constantly.
- Riverside County Transportation Commission — regional transport planning, highway and rail corridor projects, commuter rail and funding. The right source for what is being built and when.
Schools and education
- California Department of Education — enrolment, staffing, programme and assessment data for every public school in the state, plus the state's multi-measure accountability reporting. Better than any composite rating, because you can see what the score is made of. Attendance boundaries themselves are held by the individual districts — see the schools page for how to check an address.
- Riverside City College — public community college, founded 1916.
- University of California, Riverside — public research university.
Housing, property and consumer protection
- California Department of Real Estate — public licence lookup for agents and brokers, including status, responsible broker and disciplinary history, plus consumer publications on buying and selling. Two minutes here before signing anything is the best-value check available.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — standardised mortgage disclosures explained line by line, comparison tools, and plain-language guides to the closing process. Non-commercial and genuinely useful.
- California Housing Finance Agency — state homebuyer assistance and financing programmes, with current eligibility criteria.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — fair housing rights, housing counselling agencies, and federal housing programmes.
- California State Board of Equalization — how property tax assessment works in California, including reassessment on change of ownership and the mechanics behind supplemental bills.
Environment, hazards and climate
- California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — fire hazard severity zone maps, defensible-space requirements and current incident information. Check any address near open brush.
- United States Geological Survey — topography, hydrology, groundwater and seismic hazard information for the region.
- National Weather Service — forecasts, heat and wind advisories, and the long-term climate record for the area.
- California Department of Water Resources — statewide water supply conditions and drought status, which drive local conservation requirements.
- California Energy Commission — building energy efficiency standards and consumer guidance on reducing residential energy use.
- California State Parks — including the citrus-heritage state historic park within the city, described on the history page.
How to use this list
A simple rule covers most questions. Anything about the property itself — its assessed value, its parcel boundaries, its recorded documents, its tax bill — is county. Anything about what you may do with it — permits, zoning, setbacks, accessory dwelling units, historic review, utility service — is city. Anything about licensing and consumer rights is state or federal. When two sources disagree, the agency that administers the thing wins.
If something on this site conflicts with what one of these agencies publishes, the agency is right. This is a guide; they hold the record.