Fast is a widely used adjective in Fontana, California. Aside from hosting numerous car and motorcycle races every year and being the venue of the fastest half-marathon course in the world, the city is also growing at a very fast pace. With more and more people moving to Fontana, its population (currently at 189,125) has been increasing explosively within the past years. The completion of the Foothill Freeway extension in 2003 has contributed to the city's prominence as both a residential district and a center of industry. When moving to Fontana, brace yourself for the city's constant need for speed.
Economy:
Fontana's convenient geographical location and excellent transportation network makes it an ideal location for railroad and trucking operations, medium to heavy industrial facilities and warehousing distribution centers. Industrial uses, particularly trucking-based industries largely constitute Fontana's economy. The city is home to several truck dealerships, and other industrial equipment sales centers. Distribution centers of companies such as Toyota, Southern California Edison, Sears and Avery Dennison can be found in Fontana. It also has numerous small manufacturers of building materials and other locally-used products and many small auto dealerships and salvage yards. Fontana's economy has also heavily encouraged developing and construction of new housing tracts and has attracted a hoard of interstate and intrastate movers.
History:
The earliest recorded landowner in the Fontana area was Don Antonio Maria Lugo, who received a land grant in 1813. However, active development of the area did not begin until the early 1900s when the Fontana Development Company acquired the land and began a community called Rosena. The name was later changed to Fontana. In 1913, A.B. Miller founded the city and established it into a diversified agricultural area with citrus, grain and grapes being the leading produce.
Originally a sleepy town of citrus orchards and cattle ranches, Fontana was radically transformed in 1942 by the construction of a steel mill belonging to the Henry J. Kaiser. The City was incorporated June 25, 1952 and became Southern California's leading producer of steel and related products. The steel industry dominated the city's economy since the mill was built. However, in the late 1970's, Kaiser Steel began to cut down on production and manpower due to foreign competition and mismanagement. Eventually, the steel mill closed in 1984 and adversely wounded the city's economy. Fontana's fortunes improved notably (along with the rest of the cities of the Inland Empire) with the dawn of the Southern California real estate boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s
Tourism:
Fontana's main cultural and entertainment attraction is the Auto Club Speedway (formerly known as the California Speedway), a racetrack that plays host to the biggest car and bike races in the world, including the Superbike 100K, the Historic Sports Car Festival, California 100 and Toyota Indy 400. The 2-mile D-shaped track sits below the 36,030 seat upper grandstand and the 42,490 seat lower grandstand. It is built on the former site of the Kaiser Steel mill.
Annual events such as The Fontana Days Festival, The Fontana Days Half Marathon, and The Summer Concert Series are also crowd favorites. The city also has number local shopping centers, such as the Summit Heights Gateway/Falcon Ridge Town Center at the north end of the city, and Palm Court in the southern section.