Why did Inland Empire develop, but not Antelope Valley (Los Angeles: military, vs)

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Why has the Inland Empire (San Bernadino, Riverside Counties) develop to such extent, and the Antelope Valley and Southern Kern like Mojave, and Rosamond?

I have only been to the Antelope Valley, and Kern County. Both nice places with nice scenery. Antelope Valley has Palmdale and Lancaster, but no smaller cities or towns around it seemingly. In Kern you have towns like Mojave, Ridgecrest, and Rosamond which sprung around the military installations but there is nothing between those two or to Palmdale and Lancaster. And then there is California City out there by itself.

I drove to California City once late at night. LOL, it is all out there by itself. No street lights or anything between it and Tehachapi.

In the Inland Empire, you have cities similar in size to Palmdale and Lancaster, but they are surrounded by smaller towns and smaller cities.

I guess the Antelope Valley has a geographical feature separating it from Los Angeles. Does the Inland Empire not have anything separating it from Los Angeles and Orange County?

[MaxLMG]

The inland empire is closer to LA and OC vs antelope Valley and those locations you mentioned like Palmdale and Lancaster. Plus antelope Valley only has the 14 coming in.


At least the inland empire has 91, 210, 10, 66, 60, etc

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by MaxLMG

antelope Valley only has the 14 coming in.

Interesting information on the Antelope Valley. I didn't realize that the 14 wasn't even built until the mid-1960s.
GAVAR - Greater Antelope Valley Association of Realtors

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Why has the Inland Empire (San Bernadino, Riverside Counties) develop to such extent, and the Antelope Valley and Southern Kern like Mojave, and Rosamond?

I have only been to the Antelope Valley, and Kern County. Both nice places with nice scenery. Antelope Valley has Palmdale and Lancaster, but no smaller cities or towns around it seemingly. In Kern you have towns like Mojave, Ridgecrest, and Rosamond which sprung around the military installations but there is nothing between those two or to Palmdale and Lancaster. And then there is California City out there by itself.

I drove to California City once late at night. LOL, it is all out there by itself. No street lights or anything between it and Tehachapi.

In the Inland Empire, you have cities similar in size to Palmdale and Lancaster, but they are surrounded by smaller towns and smaller cities.

I guess the Antelope Valley has a geographical feature separating it from Los Angeles. Does the Inland Empire not have anything separating it from Los Angeles and Orange County?

Part of the answer to that lies in the fact that the Antelope Valley is desert, whereas Riverside/San Bernardino are not.

Riverside came into existence because of the orange-growing industry, whereas San Bernardino was started by the Mormons, abandoned and then built up again because of citrus and the railroad coming through.

Just a longer history.

[WizardOfRadical]

Inland Empire was an entirely seperate metro area.

Overtime the LA metro sprawled into it.

Antelope valley is way out there.

[It is 57 below zero]

Because the Antelope Valley is separated from the LA metropolis and the Inland Empire, by a stretch of mountains.

Palmdale and Lancaster are about 70 miles away from the area, and are rather isolated.

The IE was once a separate area to itself, but was brought together by the LA metro area as it grew quickly. There are mountains separating the twin cities in the Antelope Valley from the LA metro, although I guess theoretically they *could* count as part of the area, since it's still in LA county (which has a rather large land area), and the Kern County portion, part of the Bakersfield area, albeit remote.

As a result, they tend to have hotter weather in the summer, and nights during the winter can be quite colder than the rest of the metropolis, and colder than one would normally expect for California standards. (they have actually recorded wind-chills below zero before, just saying).

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by MaxLMG

The inland empire is closer to LA and OC vs antelope Valley and those locations you mentioned like Palmdale and Lancaster. Plus antelope Valley only has the 14 coming in.


At least the inland empire has 91, 210, 10, 66, 60, etc

But in San Bernardino, you have Hesperia, and Victorville, and Adelanto which are north over the Angeles Mountains. And Riverside county has Indio, Palm Desert and Cathedral City which are also pretty far into the interior. And the 14, 58, and the 138 go through Antelope Valley.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

Part of the answer to that lies in the fact that the Antelope Valley is desert, whereas Riverside/San Bernardino are not.

Riverside came into existence because of the orange-growing industry, whereas San Bernardino was started by the Mormons, abandoned and then built up again because of citrus and the railroad coming through.

Just a longer history.

Both have some communities over the mountains in the interior too though. Are those areas not desert?

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Both have some communities over the mountains in the interior too though. Are those areas not desert?

Yes, but at some point it stops being called the Inland Empire and is just simply known as "the desert" -- for San Bernardino County it's the high desert --Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia, Oro Grande, Helendale -- and points farther east -- Yucca Valley, Twentynine Palms, etc. Actually pretty much all of San Bernardino County north of the mountains IS high desert (part of the Mojave), and there are many mountain ranges within that area. High desert is where the elevation is high enough for below-freezing temps and snow to occur in the winter.

For Riverside County, by and large, it's the low desert -- Palm Springs, Indio, Cabazon, La Quinta, etc, etc, though perhaps parts of northern Riverside County toward the Arizona border and Beaumont/Banning MIGHT qualify for high desert status. Low desert is lower in elevation -- in Imperial County much of the area is below sea level--and the Riverside County portion outlined above is a northern outlier of the Sonora/Colorado desert which extends into Mexico (biome people, feel free to correct where I am wrong).

Climatologists looking at rainfall will award desert status to areas receiving less than 10 inches of rain per year on the annual average. I would say that just outside of Moreno Valley is where the desert starts in earnest, at least as you go down the 60. There is a natural pass there between Moreno Valley and Beaumont......very interesting but weird to cross, especially in the dark.

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Both have some communities over the mountains in the interior too though. Are those areas not desert?

And, to add, I was referring to the CITIES of San Bernardino and Riverside (with immediately adjoining towns).