Community Overview
The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region in Southern California. The term may be used to refer to the cities of western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino County, sometimes including the desert communities of Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley; a much larger definition includes all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.[2]
The U.S. Census Bureau-defined Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area, which comprises Riverside County and San Bernardino County, California, covers more than 27,000 sq mi (70,000 km2) and has a population of approximately 4 million.[3] Most of the area's population is located in southwestern San Bernardino County and northwestern Riverside County. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Inland Empire was a major center of agriculture, including citrus, dairy, and winemaking. However, agriculture declined through the twentieth century, and since the 1970s a rapidly growing population, fed by families migrating in search of affordable housing, has led to more residential, industrial, and commercial development.
The term "Inland Empire" is documented to have been used by the Riverside Enterprise newspaper (now The Press-Enterprise) as early as April 1914.[4] Developers in the area likely introduced the term to promote the region and to highlight the area's unique features. The "Inland" part of the name is derived from the region's location, about 60 miles (97 km) inland from Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. Originally, this area was called the Orange Empire due to the acres of citrus groves that once extended from Pasadena to Redlands during the first half of the twentieth century.[2][5] The Inland Empire is a nebulous region, but is defined as the cities of western Riverside County and the cities of southwestern San Bernardino County; adjacent to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. A generally broader definition will include the desert community of Palm Springsand its surrounding area, and a much larger definition will include all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Housing
Since the 1950s, the area has changed from a rural to a suburban environment. The region now comprises numerous cities known as bedroom communities that are suburban cities to Los Angeles. Affordable home ownership is the primary motivation behind the growth in these Inland Empire cities as homes in the region are generally less expensive than comparable homes in Los Angeles and Orangecounties. The steady rise in population and the demand for housing has led to a dramatic increase in the building of single-family homes on parcels of 0.25 acres (1,000 m2) or more, as opposed to the construction of high-density development such as multi-story apartment or condominium buildings. This low-density development has caused sprawl in the Inland Empire; a commute between Beaumont and Ontario is approximately 43 miles. Much of the vacant land is being developed. Land that was used for agriculture is now being sold by owners for conversion to shopping centers, industrial warehouses, etc. Due to the lack of the Inland Empire having just one central city, and the smaller geographical footprint that suburban cities tend to have, this continuous development has become seemingly unplanned suburban sprawl as local interest and zoning laws may quickly change from one city to the next city.[38] The Inland Empire was declared the nation's worst example of sprawl according to a study by Smart Growth America in 2002.[39][40]
During the housing bubble collapse of the late 2000s, foreclosures rose by 3,500 percent.[41] In 2010, the area ranked fourth in the nation in the number of foreclosures, with one filing for every 133 households.[42] The problem of abandoned homes became so great that the city of Perris initiated a program to paint the brown lawns of abandoned homes green as a way to cut down on the appearance of blight.[43]
