Inland Empire

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Aerial view from the Inland Empire. In the foreground San Bernardino, the Foothill Freeway leads west towards Los Angeles

Inland Empire is both a metropolitan area and a region of Southern California . It is located directly east of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and, with it, is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area . The term Inland Empire is often used instead of the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario Metropolitan Area officially defined by the US Census Bureau. The entire metropolitan area covers more than 70,000 km² and consists of Riverside County and San Bernardino County .

structure

Until the 1990s, the Inland Empire was dominated by agriculture, in particular the cultivation of citrus fruits extended over large areas. There were large military bases next to it. The villages lived from light industry , the population is still on average socially underprivileged and has a relatively low level of education. Some localities attracted seniors who benefited from relatively low land prices.

Structural change has been taking place in the region since the mid-1990s, and this will continue unchecked until the mid-2010s. The Inland Empire has become the largest warehouse and shipping facility in the United States for imported goods. Most of the imports from Asia to North America come via the Port of Los Angeles and the neighboring port of Long Beach . In the Inland Empire , the manufacturers and retail groups found sufficient space to pack the goods and distribute them from there.

The construction of around 1.5 million square meters of hall space per year is jointly driven by project developers and local politicians. With the help of legal campaign donations and occasionally illegal bribery, investors have been creating a political climate that suits their interests since the mid-2000s.

Citizens suffer massively from air pollution from the heavy goods traffic that brings the goods to the warehouses and distributes them from there. Asthma and other lung diseases have values ​​well above average in the region.

literature

  • Rob Leicester Wagner: Sleeping Giant: An Illustrated History of Southern California's Inland Empire . Stephen's Press, LLC, 2005. ISBN 1-932173-07-2

Web links

Commons : Inland Empire  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files