Having impoverished residents has paid off for the City of Fontana. Toning down the Republican rhetoric that four of the city’s top elected leadership are prone to did not hurt either.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the City of Fontana a $19,808,986 grant Safe Streets and Roads for All Program grant.
In 2021, the Joseph Biden administration passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in so doing launching the Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary funding program with $5 billion in appropriated funds to be distributed over the five years running from 2022–2026. A commitment involved in the program is that 60 percent of the money is to be used for improving standards for underserved populations by funding community-led projects intended to reduce the number of preventable deaths on roads, streets, and highways in the United States through safer designs and standards.
As delineated in the application for the grant, the funding is to be used for substantial improvements to the portion of historic Route 66 running through the city. In Fontana, Route 66 is known as Foothill Boulevard.
Officials are hopeful that after six months of preparation, construction will begin in July 2025 and be completed by June 2026.
Enhancing safety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians who routinely utilize Foothill Boulevard was deemed worthwhile, given that city statistics show eight vehicle-related fatalities along that stretch of highway in Fontana since the beginning of 2019.
The city’s project construction proposals call for establishing 1.75 miles of Class II buffered bicycle lanes, 1.5 miles of Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks which include curbs and gutters, 13 Americans With Disabilities-compliant ramps, street lighting, traffic signals, a landscaped median and road signage.
“The road signage will give residents living in underserved communities better visibility and means of reaching public transit more safely,” according to the city. “The intent is to achieve zero serious injuries or fatalities along the city’s stretch of Route 66.”
The practical focus of the program relates to protecting bicyclists and pedestrians, including those using public transportation, from injury or mayhem likely to occur from being hit by vehicles, either in the roadway, where bicycles transit or on sidewalks near bus stops.
Included among the improvements are four public bus stops on routes that provide access to neighboring cities, county services, a Metrolink station, Ontario International Airport, Cal State San Bernardino, Chaffey Community College, San Bernardino City College, other public and private schools, workplaces and service providers.
In qualifying for the money, city officials committed to carrying out the improvements by the end of Fiscal Year 2026-27 and matching the $19,808,986 federal award with $5,942,695.80 of its own, which is 30 percent of the estimated cost of the projects to be undertaken.
City officials, including Mayor Acquanetta Warren and City Manager Matthew Ballantyne, recognizing in the days and weeks following Democrat Kamala Harris’s defeat by Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election that would be followed by the closing out of the Biden Administration in which the Democrats would be making every more desperate giveaways of federal grant money in an effort to ingratiate the Democratic Party with American citizens, instructed those officially representing Fontana and others associated with it to be on their best behavior in dealing with federal officials. This included having the Republican-dominated city council from desisting in its normally charged rhetoric and discontinuing the characterization, at least temporarily, of U.S Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as a “queer,” “fag” and “pillow-biter.” More recently, as well, Warren, formerly one of San Bernardino County’s highest profile Republicans, began cozying up to Democrat Congresswoman Norma Torres and Democrat Congressman Pete Aguilar.
Nevertheless, once Donald Trump has again taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Warren, who has been publicly identified as one of the country’s mayors most supportive of Donald Trump during his first term, will be able to take up where she left off with the president almost four years ago.
-Mark Gutglueck