Evaluating the cleanliness of our city every year is a crucial element to the Keep Riverside Clean and Beautiful (KRCB) programs. In order to determine the effectiveness of the KRCB program over time, a comprehensive evaluation system has been developed to check how clean Riverside truly is. Every January KRCB conducts the Community Appearance Index (CAI) Judging Tour throughout the City of Riverside. Judges are driven to five streets in all of the seven Riverside council wards, which include:

• Residential
• Mall/Shopping Center
• School
• Park
• Business District

While touring these streets, judges score five categories:

1. Litter is misplaced solid waste. It is not just plastic cups or paper napkins; it comprises these items and other trash NOT in its proper place in the collection and disposal stream. Litter is often carried from its points of origin by water, wind, traffic, and animals until it becomes trapped by fence lines, walls, curbs or other barriers.
   
   
2. Graffiti or tags are monikers with words, colors and shapes that are drawn, painted, etched and put on various surfaces such as buildings, walls, signs, utility boxes, sidewalks, glass and any surface that can display their symbols. Graffiti can be one-color monikers or complex compositions with several colors being repeated on many surfaces within an area or spread throughout the City.
   
   
3. Illegal Signs are placed on streets, curbs, medians, traffic lights, utility poles or unimproved shoulders of streets. Banners, balloons, streamers, placards, pennants or portable signs are prohibited and considered illegal signs.
   
   
4. Abandoned/Junk Vehicle is a vehicle parked on a public street that has not been moved for at least 72 hours. This may also include a wrecked, dismantled or inoperative vehicle on private or public property that promotes blight to the City and surrounding neighborhoods. Property owners are responsible for vehicles on privately owned property, such as a parking lot of a business.
   
   
5. Outside Storage Any outdoor storage of material shall be completely screened from view through the use of architecturally integrated screen walls of 6 feet or greater and all materials shall be stored below the level of the walls.

How we calculate the CAI:

• Each category is scored on a 1-4 grading scale (1 being best and 4 being worst). The totals from all judges are then averaged to determine the cleanliness for each council ward and for the City of Riverside as a whole.