Yvette Walker
With 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Today, we've invited Paul Leon, city of Ontario Mayor. Thank you so much for being with us here today Mayor Leon.
Paul Leon
Thanks for having me.
Yvette
Mayor Leon, please talk about your journey to becoming mayor of the City of Ontario.
Leon
It was accidental. I didn't intend on becoming a political leader. I was happy to be a minister. And also, I was working at a counseling agency. So just helping people was kind of the thing that I love to do.
Yvette
Please talk about the work that has been done during your time as mayor. And how long has that been?
Leon
Well, I've been mayor a full 19 years, I'm working on my 20th. It's been a while and I was on the council for five years before that. So, I'm about a 25 year veteran. I'm thankful to the people in the city of Ontario for keeping me in this position. There are so many things going on, it's almost hard to describe or to identify each single one. But I all I can tell you is that as Ontario grows, it is a challenge to maintain a balance to where we can be a growing city, but also a safe city.
Yvette
Please share a bit about what the fabric of the city of Ontario looks like today.
Leon
Well, it depends on if the fabric that you mean is the business of the city, the people of the city, the format of the city, the future the city. As far as the people go, we're a mixed culture community, we are obviously more Hispanic. But many of those Hispanics are not just your traditional thought of Hispanics. The highest population is either white or assimilated Hispanic. What I mean by assimilated Hispanic, many years ago, I actually wrote a document on the identity of Hispanics in California. And you have the immersing Hispanic who got here, maybe recently, first generation. Second generation is typically dual identity. Third generation is total immersion, normally, you know. But you also have the people who reject immersion, and stay in barrios that just are basically Hispanic, where they shop Hispanic, talk Hispanic and everything else. But in the city of Ontario, I think it is a melting pot. There's somebody of every ethnicity and every level of immersion, or rejection, I don't care what it is. But we all get along very well. And I think that they all see me, being Hispanic, as probably the right guy to be leading the city at this time.
Yvette
Please talk about some of the staple projects that you're most proud of during your time as mayor.
Leon
Oh gosh, managing the growth and making sure that it's done right. A lot of cities around us grew really quick in the early 2000s. As far as I'm concerned, they weren't really managing their growth well and demanding the right product from the developers. We resisted growing that fast and a lot of our area did not even get developed. So, we have this 13 square mile area that we call Ontario Ranch now, that is developing, but it's, not only is it developing quickly, but it's also developing in the right way as far as we're concerned. So many things have changed since the early 2000s. Just the number of kids in a family has changed where the schools don't have to be as big anymore. Streets have to be bigger. Homes also have to be smaller, unfortunately, so that the density can go up so that people can have a place to live. What I really like is that we've invested a lot of money in work force attainable housing. And when people go oh, is that affordable housing? I say there is no real affordable housing in California. So we do our best to make sure that the people have all of the amenities of a big city, small city. It needs to be the big city with a small town feel. That's how I look at it.
Yvette
Please talk about what the community can look forward to in Ontario as we look at 2024.
Leon
Growth and supersizing. And once again, the management of that growth and supersizing is very important. We're going to be doubling the size of our convention center and adding a 5-star hotel with about 550 rooms. We're bringing a dedicated bus line right straight through Holt that will traverse basically, the west end of the county. We are doubling the size of the arena and building a night life entertainment environment all the way around it, including another 5000 seat concert venue as well as smaller venues for many concerts and stuff while you're eating. And then of course, the Ontario Ranch is growing and we're making sure that everything is done correctly down there. But we're also adding a 300 acre great park and a 200 acre sports complex. Because when you start reaching 300,000 people, like we will be, you have to have all of the things so that people can live, work and play here. And I know that that's used up, beat up a little saying, but the reality is, we want people to be able to live here, work here and entertain themselves here so they don't have to get on the freeway.
Yvette
Thank you so much for being with us here today. Mayor Leon.
Paul Leon
thank you.
Yvette Walker
Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/ielatinovoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from the CIELO fund at IECF, uplifting and investing in the IE’s Latino community. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
