Pomona, CA

Pomona is a city of large institutions positioned around an older downtown. Fairplex occupies 487 acres north of the center, Western University of Health Sciences has its main campus among downtown blocks, and Cal Poly Pomona spreads across former ranch land on the western edge. Interstate 10 separates Fairplex and the northern transit district from much of central Pomona, while State Route 60 crosses the south. Two rail hubs serve separate areas: Metrolink stops downtown, and Pomona North combines San Bernardino Line service with the Metro A Line extension that opened on September 30, 2025. Pomona North allows transfers between Metro and Metrolink. The A Line ends there rather than entering downtown, so the stations serve different walking areas. The result is a place whose university, medical, fairground, arts, and transportation centers are substantial but separated by freeways and several miles of city streets.

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Agriculture and rail shaped that geography long before the current institutions arrived. Rail service in the 1870s accelerated vineyards, citrus groves, and olive production, and residents named the community for the Roman goddess of fruit. Pomona incorporated in 1888 and hosted the first Los Angeles County Fair in 1922. Another agricultural property became an educational campus after cereal manufacturer W. K. Kellogg deeded his winter ranch of more than 800 acres to the state in 1949. Cal Poly Pomona grew there as a polytechnic university and still maintains an Arabian Horse Center for teaching, breeding, research, and public programs.

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Fairplex likewise retains an educational farm, connecting two of the city's largest campuses to the agricultural landscape they replaced. Education, health care, events, and specialized services shape present working life. Cal Poly Pomona reported more than 27,000 students for 2025–26, making its western campus a major daily destination. Downtown, WesternU operates eight graduate health-professions colleges along with patient-care centers, placing classrooms, clinics, and professional training in the historic core. Fairplex hosts the Los Angeles County Fair and hundreds of events throughout the year on a campus large enough to function as its own district. Its dragstrip also has national importance: the first NHRA-sanctioned event was held in Pomona in 1953, the Winternationals began there in 1961, and the 2026 schedule returned both the Winternationals and season-ending Finals to the track.

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Downtown's Arts Colony concentrates galleries and events around Second Street. Studios, murals, performance spaces, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and the dA Center for the Arts occupy storefronts and former commercial buildings near WesternU. Murals and public art extend the district from gallery interiors onto downtown streets. Second Saturday Art Walks recur each month, bringing exhibitions, performers, food, and independent vendors into the same blocks. In 2026, arts workshops and exhibitions also took place downtown, at Cal Poly Pomona, and at Fairplex. On an art-walk evening, medical students, gallery visitors, artists, and market vendors share streets in the old center while trains serve two separate Pomona districts.