A Great
Place to STay
Pomona means “welcome” in dozens of languages
If Pomona has a superpower, it’s making people feel right at home. Transplants from all over the planet have made their way to Pomona to start their American dream. Its culture of inclusivity, affordability and flexibility make it an ideal place for life’s “FIRSTS”: Your first job, your first apartment, your first degree, your first business and your first home.
City of Neighborhoods
Pomona doesn’t feel like much of the inland Empire, with its sprawling tracks of generic homes and shopping centers. Pomona’s neighborhoods tend to be smaller and more walkable. Many developed organically over decades, so an engaging mix of houses allows everybody to find an architectural style they enjoy. Combine that intimate scale and variety with a blend of new families and residents that have been here for generations, and you get neighborhoods with character.
The Sacred Heart neighborhood blends longtime black, Chicano and Vietnamese families. Lincoln Park and its historic homes are popular with educators, merchants and creatives, while Washington Park is a bustling hub for sports, weekend parties and Central American families.
Baseball fanatics cluster around Ralph Welch Park, which has produced many professional players (Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams played there in a youth tournament). It was the Dodgers’ first spring training camp when they moved to California. There is Westmont, a destination for hipsters into midcentury design and preservation. Phillips Ranch features rolling hills, valley views and a large Chinese and Southeast Asian community. Cal Poly staff and professors are drawn to Kellogg Park because they can walk and bike to work.
For the whole Mayberry experience in Pomona, you have to visit three annual celebrations. In Lincoln Park, thousands of trick-or-treaters in their cute and creepy costumes converge on East Jefferson every Halloween. Homeowners go all out, creating immersive themed attractions, unique effect spectacles and a beloved puppet show. Just a block away is the home of Christmas on Columbia. Arts and crafts bungalows and Spanish revival cottages are decked out with traditional Christmas lights while carolers stroll the streets and neighbors hand out free hot chocolate. Every spring, the Ohlone “Big Time” Gathering & Pow Wow comes to Tony Cerda Park (named after the Chairman of the Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribal Council). Tribal representatives from all over the country come to perform and celebrate Native American heritage.
Education
Education is one of Pomona’s biggest industries, serving tens of thousands of students in an ecosystem for lifelong learning, from neonatal workshops to vocational training to doctorate degrees. Furthermore, there is an abundance of choice with a wide range of academic programs from highly competitive religious schools to charter schools and public schools.
The Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) currently serves more than 21,000 students in pre-kindergarten to 12th grade and Adult and Career Programs. In recent years, the District has dramatically expanded its specialty schools and programs, including Career and Technical Education pathways. It has language immersion programs at two elementary schools that focus on Spanish and one on Mandarin. The District has a magnet school dedicated to advanced instruction in math, science, engineering, technology and design.
At the high school level, PUSD’s Diamond Ranch High School, Garey High School, Ganesha High School and Village Academy of Film and Technology regularly win national and state honors for academic and sports programs. PUSD has been honored to receive six Golden Bell Awards from the California School Boards Association for outstanding educational programming and student success.
Colleges and universities are deeply invested in childhood education in Pomona. Two local community colleges, Mount San Antonio College and Citrus College, have dual enrollment programs in Pomona, allowing high school students to take advanced college courses. The University of La Verne operates the Childhood Development Center (CDC) at Fairplex. Every day feels like a field trip when students can walk to see newborn piglets and one of the largest model railroads in the country. Cal Poly’s campus is home to the International Polytechnic High School (IPoly), which uses an international curriculum to prepare students for careers in the global economy.
Western University of Health Sciences leads the Pomona Health Career Ladder, a multiagency program that guides students into higher education and careers as healthcare practitioners. Western U, Cal Poly, Cal State Los Angeles and the Gates Foundation teamed up to open The School of Arts and Enterprise (The SAE), a free college prep school in PUSD for grades 6-12 located amongst the Arts Colony’s venues and galleries. It’s recognized as one of the top 20 art schools in the country and the only one that requires rigorous training in the business of the creative arts.
Ranked as one of the best public universities in the West by U.S. News & World Report, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is known for its focus on experiential learning and solving the real-world problems of tomorrow. Faculties in all disciplines apply theory to practice, allowing students to use their knowledge in hands-on projects, research, internships and service-learning programs. With an enrollment of 29,000, the university has 54 undergraduate programs, 31 graduate programs and one doctorate across nine academic colleges. It has numerous nationally-ranked programs, particularly in its highly regarded engineering, business and hospitality colleges. It has received special recognition for its record of educating Latinos, and the New York Times calls Cal Poly Pomona “an engine of upward mobility.”
Western University of Health Sciences (Western U) is a private, nonprofit graduate school for health professionals. Its main campus is in downtown Pomona, with a second campus in Lebanon, Oregon. Western offers 24 academic programs and degrees in osteopathic medicine, dental medicine, optometry, podiatric medicine, nursing, physician assistant studies, physical therapy, pharmacy, biomedical sciences and veterinary medicine. It operates two patient care centers, the Center for Oral Health and a pet wellness center. For decades, Western U has also been a major force in revitalizing downtown and dozens of community initiatives in the city. Their public health leadership during the recent pandemic was indispensable.
Medical
Two hospitals anchor Pomona’s large medical industry. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center has cared for patients since its opening in 1903. Today, it is a 412-bed regional medical center and one of the largest not-for-profit hospitals in the greater Los Angeles area. It has over 3,500 employees, 700 active physicians and over 1,000 volunteers. Its specialty programs include highly regarded centers for cancer care, heart and vascular care, and women and childhood care. It also serves as the Level II trauma center for eastern L.A. County.
Just up the street is Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare, a nonprofit leader in specialized medical, surgical and rehabilitative care for people with disabling conditions resulting from accidents, disease or illness. Its continuum of care includes medical-surgical and intensive care, acute rehabilitation, residential rehabilitation and long-term residential care. Outpatient services include orthopedic and neurologic rehabilitation, physician clinics, children’s services, diagnostic imaging, laboratory, audiology and day treatment. Home to a research institute, adaptive sports and recreation program and several residency programs, Casa Colina has proudly served the Southern California community and beyond for 85 years.
One of the region’s largest clusters of medical and dental practices has grown around the hospitals. Hundreds of practitioners offer a broad spectrum of surgical, diagnostic and clinical care. For more than 60 years, one of the largest providers has been Tri-City Mental Health, a Joint Powers Authority between the cities of Claremont, La Verne and Pomona, to deliver mental health services to the residents of the three cities.
Open for Business
Pomona is a major employment hub for the area, with more than 70,000 formal jobs. However, Pomona has always been a city where small businesses get their start. Some of this entrepreneurial drive can be credited to its large immigrant population, which start businesses at a rate 80% higher than natural-born citizens. While 13% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, the number is 34% in Pomona. College students and recent graduates are another factor. Of the 80,000 higher education students in the Pomona Valley, 31% of them start their own businesses.
Furthermore, Pomona has an impressive track record of lowering barriers to entry for startups. From home garages to swap meet stalls to artist lofts, Pomona has made it easier to start climbing the economic ladder. Cal Poly also lends a hand by operating multiple maker spaces, such as iLab on campus, Innovation Orchard at Ganesha High and the Bronco STEA2M Innovation Hub in downtown. In 2022, Garey High School’s Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam was awarded patent #US 11382563 B2 for their invention Heart and Sole — a device allowing individuals with diabetes to self-monitor foot health (an extreme achievement for high school students).
In addition to small businesses and nonprofit anchors like hospitals and universities, Pomona still has many large employers, especially in manufacturing. A short list would include companies such as Cal Spas, Envista, Yamamotoyama U.S.A., Siemens, Keystone Automotive Industries, KKW Trucking, Halex Corp, Lexmar Distribution and FSC Manufacturing. They are industry leaders in everything from logistics to manufacturing hot tubs, dental implants, forest products, auto parts and power systems for electric vehicles.
To help retain employers in town, the Pomona Chamber of Commerce and Pomona’s Promise (see next section for details about this organization) launched a business-to-business (B2B) assistance program. It helps small businesses scale up by becoming vendors to big enterprises and helps large businesses grow in place by matching them with local skilled labor.
Compassionate Pomona
Pomona’s challenges are big enough that everybody can feel their assistance is essential, while the city is small enough for people to see the results of their good deeds. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Pomona also has a large and entrepreneurial nonprofit community. Indeed, hundreds of nonprofit organizations make invaluable contributions to the quality of life in Pomona and surrounding communities. Even when Pomona faces the most endemic challenges, such as poverty and homelessness, its culture of caring and charity rallies the community.
Some of the most innovative and impactful organizations include House of Ruth and Project Sister, which serve women and children survivors of domestic abuse. Organizations like Just for Youth and the Youth & Family Club of Pomona Valley transform young lives with recreation, academic and mentoring programs. God’s Pantry and the Pomona Valley Food Bank have created a weekly hunger safety net serving thousands of people. The Pomona Leadership Network (a Pomona Community Foundation project) and Icon, a coalition of charities, focuses on building social infrastructure, training new leadership, building coalitions and nurturing new community initiatives.
Another nonprofit startup in Pomona has attracted international attention. The Community Home Energy Revolution Project (CHERP) has created the world’s first nonprofit solar module factory. It brings renewable energy and green sector jobs to economically dis-invested and environmentally burdened communities nationwide.
The largest nonprofit initiative in town is Pomona’s Promise, an alliance of dozens of secular and faith organizations that pool their resources to create measurable and enduring improvements to assist those in need and make Pomona a more prosperous and resilient city. With five multi agency initiatives (Community Engagement, Community Safety, Economic Development, Education and Career Readiness, and Community Health), each led by an anchor institution, the number of people served has soared and attracted new resources from regional and national foundations.
One recent national challenge demonstrated the full potential of Pomona’s charitable work. During the height of the pandemic, Pomona’s fairgrounds were a regional center for testing, vaccinating, and housing first responders with COVID. At the same time, the federal government was scrambling to process and temporarily house tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children. Again, Fairplex stepped up and turned its campus into what officials dubbed a national model of what migrant shelters should be. While the pandemic and migrant services triggered community opposition at sites across the country, residents and organizations in Pomona simply came together and made a difference. Federal officials called it “nothing short of extraordinary.” Pomona’s mayor said that our community was proud that “this place saves lives.”
There is a long history of religious schools in Pomona. Today, parents can choose from Christian, Catholic and Islamic-based programs. The most venerated parochial school is Pomona Catholic, a coed middle school and all-girls high school servicing the community for 125 years!
Pomona’s commitment to student success continues after graduation. The District works with Bright Prospect, a Pomona-based nonprofit that has helped hundreds of low-income, first-generation students graduate from the country’s most prestigious colleges. There has also been a revival of career path training to prepare students for working in growing industries. Programs in the high schools and at Fairplex impart real-world skills in culinary arts, digital media, entertainment, game design,
construction, manufacturing, cosmetology, agriculture
and aviation.
