Ontario (California)

Ontario
Nickname : The Gateway to Southern California
Ovitt Family Community Library
Location in California
Basic data
Foundation :	December 10, 1891
State :	United States
State :	California
County :	San Bernardino County
Coordinates :	34 ° 4 ′  N , 117 ° 39 ′  W Coordinates: 34 ° 4 ′  N , 117 ° 39 ′  W
Time zone :	Pacific ( UTC − 8 / −7 )
Residents :	163,924 (as of 2010)
Population density :	1,267.3 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	129.515 km 2  (approx. 50 mi 2 ) of which 129.345 km 2  (approx. 50 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	306 m
Postcodes :	91758, 91761-91762, 91764
Area code :	+1 909
FIPS :	06-53896
GNIS ID :	1652764
Website :	www.ci.ontario.ca.us
Mayor :	Paul S. Leon

Ontario is a city in San Bernardino County in the US state of California , United States , with 163,924 inhabitants (as of 2010). The city to the east of Los Angeles is popularly known as the Gateway to Southern California ("Gateway to Southern California"). The local area has a size of 129.5 km².

The Los Angeles-Ontario Airport is the second largest airport in the Los Angeles area in Ontario . The city is also home to the Ontario Mills shopping center , which the operator calls the largest single-story shopping center in western North America. From 1970 to 1980, Ontario also had a motorsport racetrack, the Ontario Motor Speedway .

The city is named after the Ontario Colony, which was founded in 1882 by the brothers George, William and Charles Chaffey.

geography

The city is located in the southwest of San Bernardino County in California , 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles . It is bordered by Chino to the south, Montclair to the west, Upland and Rancho Cucamonga to the north, Fontana to the east, and Eastvale in Riverside County to the southeast .

Ontario has 163,924 inhabitants (2010 census), making it the fourth largest city in San Bernardino County. The city extends over an area of ​​approximately 129.5 km², of which the land area makes up the largest part; the population density is thus 1,267.3 inhabitants per square kilometer. The city center is at an altitude of 306 meters. Ontario is part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area .

history

In the first week of August 1881, the Canadian engineer George Chaffey made the decision to transform the barren Cucamonga Desert into productive land through adequate irrigation. Together with his brother William, he acquired the 25 km² "San Antonio Lands" with the associated water rights for 60,000 dollars. This area became the core of their future settlement, which was later expanded south to the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad and north to Kincaid Ranch in San Antonio Canyon, a major water source.

The land chosen by Chaffey was measured and sold in November 1882. He had Euclid Avenue, named after the Greek mathematician Euclid , built in the center. The two lanes of the 13 kilometer long and sixty meter wide road were separated by a green strip with pepper trees . Today Euclid Avenue forms part of California State Route 83 .

Cement pipes were laid to supply the land with water. The San Antonio Water Company later bored a tunnel into the San Antonio Canyon to tap the underground water course, which was a technical innovation at the time. The high demand for electricity to lift the water led to the founding of the Ontario Power Company.

A special feature in Ontario was that buyers of land in the settlement automatically received shares in the Water Company. This regulation should provide all landowners with an amount of water appropriate to the size of their land. This saved the settlers from problems that had emerged in cities where land and water rights were sold separately. The Chaffrey brothers later left Ontario to found more cities in Australia. Charles Frankish now became the coordinator of the young city.

Ontario mule track

In 1887 the Ontario tram traveled on Euclid Avenue for the first time , then still pulled by mules . Charles Frankish and Godfrey Stamm founded the Ontario and San Antonio Heights Railroad Company. After the mules had pulled the tram up from Holt Street to 24th Street, a trailer could be used to bring them back to the starting point on the way back. In 1895 the mule track was replaced by electrically powered wagons. The power generator was damaged once after a flood, so that mules were sometimes used again. The tram service stopped in 1933.

On December 10, 1891, Ontario was promoted to City under the California Constitution . At first the mayor was elected by the city council, only later was the general population eligible to vote.

Agriculture, especially the cultivation of citrus fruits, dominated the following period. Chaffey College, from the early days of the city, therefore focused on providing help to the farmers. Here Professor George Weldon developed the Babcock Peach, a peach that is particularly well suited to the mild California winters. Today Chaffey College is in Rancho Cucamonga , the former campus in Ontario is used by Chaffey High School. The most important types of fruit in Ontario and its neighboring city of Upland were oranges, peaches, walnuts, lemons and grapes.

In 1923, Judge Archie Mitchell, Waldo Waterman, and other aviation enthusiasts established Latimer Field, which made local aviation important. The growth of the city itself forced the operators of the airfield to move further and further east until the airfield found its current location as Los Angeles-Ontario Airport . During World War II, Lockheed P-38 pilots trained here .

After the end of the war, Ontario gained in diversity through the influx of new residents, attracted by the favorable climatic conditions. The approximately one square kilometer urban area incorporated in 1891 has since been enlarged to almost 130 km². Today the economy is enriched by industry and manufactories, so 41 km² of the city area is intended as an industrial area. The proximity to the metropolis of Los Angeles plays an important role in urban growth .

politics

Ontario is part of the 20th district in the California Senate , currently represented by Democrat Alex Padilla . In the California State Assembly , the place is assigned to the 52nd District and is thus represented by the Democrat Freddie Rodriguez . At the federal level, Ontario belongs to California's 35th  Congressional constituency , which has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D + 15 and is represented by Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod .

Town twinning

Ontario has twinned cities with the following four cities:

• Brockville , Ontario , Canada since 1977
• Guamúchil , Sinaloa , Mexico since 1982
• Los Mochis , Sinaloa, Mexico since 1988
• Mocorito , Sinaloa, Mexico since 1982

Economy and Infrastructure

Ontario Mills

With Ontario Mills, the city ​​has the largest shopping center in Southern California and one of the largest in North America . The headquarters of the unofficial GMDAT subsidiary Phoenix Motorcars , which is dedicated to the development and construction of electric vehicles, is also located in Ontario .

traffic

Between 1888 and 1933, Ontario initially operated a mule-powered tram .

The LA / Ontario International Airport is an important airport especially for domestic flights. In addition, the airport for cargo transportation by airlines as is FedEx and UPS Airlines used. It is operated by the City of Los Angeles .

Because of the city's convenient, central location, Interstate 10 and the Pomona Freeway ( CA 60 ) run through the city in an east-west direction, with the airport south of Interstate 10 and north of CA 60. The east of the city is also passed by Interstate 15 , which runs in a north-south direction . The California State Route 83 than Euclid Avenue an important role in the city's history. It is located in western Ontario and also runs in a north-south direction.

Ontario has an Amtrak station that is served by the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle passenger trains . In addition, the city has a train station in the route network of the Metrolink , which connects it with the rest of the Greater Los Angeles Area , Orange County and the San Fernando Valley .

education

Ontario has 25 elementary schools, six middle schools, and five high schools . The city is also home to Chapman University as a university and earlier also Chaffey College (now located in Rancho Cucamonga ).

Sports

The Citizens Business Bank Arena opened in late 2008 and is owned by the City of Ontario, but operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group . It has 11,000 seats and is the largest enclosed arena in the Inland Empire . It is home to the Ontario Reign , an ice hockey team in the ECHL . The Los Angeles Kings also occasionally play games in Ontario.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• Hobart Age (1933-2014), surfboard maker and yacht designer
• Jay Anderson (* 1955), double bass player
• Henry Bumstead (1915–2006), art director and production designer
• Gilbert Espinosa Chávez (1932–2020), auxiliary bishop in San Diego
• Landon Donovan (born 1982), football player
• William Graber (1911–1996), track and field athlete
• Robert Graettinger (1923–1957), composer
• Anthony Muñoz (born 1958), American football player
• Antonio Pierce (born 1978), American football player
• Mike Skinner (* 1957), automobile racing driver

Ontario personalities

• Bob Marcucci (1930–2011), music producer, died in Ontario
• Bill Summers (1935–2011), automobile designer, died in Ontario
• Joseph Wambaugh (* 1937), writer, lives in Ontario

Web links

Commons : Ontario, California  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Internet presence of Ontario (English)
• The Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
• Ontario Airport
• further information and pictures on CityData.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Paul S. Leon. Ontario Official Website.
2. ↑ ^{a b} History of the City. Ontario Official Website.
3. ↑ Card of the 20th Senate district. Around the Capitol.
4. ^ List of Senators in California. Official website of the Senate of California.
5. ^ Map of the 52nd Assembly District. Around the Capitol.
6. ^ List of members of the California State Assembly. Official website of the California State Assembly.
7. ^ Map of the 35th congressional electoral district. Around the Capitol.
8. ^ Table with Cook Partisan Voting Index of all congressional districts. (PDF; 115 kB) Official website of the Cook Political Report .
9. ↑ List of California MPs in the House of Representatives. Official website of the United States House of Representatives.
10. ↑ Information on Ontario's twin cities. ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Ontario Official Website.