Steel built Fontana, and the Kaiser Steel legacy still shapes its identity, though today it is better known as a warehouse and logistics hub in the Inland Empire. About 221,000 people live here, roughly 50 miles east of Los Angeles. The old Auto Club Speedway closed in 2023, so all that remains is a look from outside.
Honestly, most people come to live rather than visit. Fontana works as a commuter base, with Southridge and Summit Heights offering newer master-planned neighborhoods and Sierra Avenue as the historic core. Outdoors, the Pacific Electric Trail, Lytle Creek and the Angeles National Forest are close, and Route 66 heritage stops line Foothill Boulevard. Housing is pricey, though cheaper than coastal California. Summers are hot, air quality is often poor because of freight traffic, and car theft and break-ins are the main crime problem.
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- Known as
- Steel town turned logistics hub; Home of Auto Club Speedway (closed 2023); Gateway to the Inland Empire; Kaiser Steel legacy city
- Founded
- 1913 founded (Fontana Development Company, name from Italian for fountain); 1952 incorporated
- Languages
- English; Spanish; Tagalog; Vietnamese; Chinese; Korean
- Airports
- Ontario International (ONT), about 8 miles west; San Bernardino International (SBD), about 12 miles east; Los Angeles International (LAX), about 55 miles west; Hollywood Burbank (BUR), about 55 miles northwest
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20%; bars $1-2 per drink; taxis and rideshare 15-20%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; bellhops $2-5 per bag; counter service optional; delivery 15-20%
About this data
Population 221,223 (July 1, 2025) and land area 43.07 sq mi (about 111.5 km2) from Census QuickFacts; home value and rent from Census ACS 2020-2024. Fontana has no separate tourism bureau found, so the city website is used as visitor_website and the city Calendar page as the events calendar. Metro figure 4,769,007 is the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA figure supplied for this batch, shared with Riverside and San Bernardino (not anchored by this city). Elevation, coordinates, founding, event months, hotel ranges, tipping, cost-of-living index, airport distances, 1BR rent, crime rates and market prices are approximate or from general knowledge and not verified in this pass (search snippets gave no figures for these). Only URLs seen in search results are used; not load-tested.
