Corona’s 2026 State of the City showcases Tech advancements and City Growth

Aryana Noroozi

Before the lights lowered and a film capturing the city of Corona’s new parks, downtown storefronts and police drone footage, Mayor Jacque Casillas asked the audience at the Historic Civic Center Theater to look past the projects.

“Look at the people. Look at the collaboration. Look at the care that goes into making a city work,” Casillas said at the City of Corona’s 2026 State of the City.

The evening’s theme, “Grand by Design,” nodded to Grand Boulevard, the circular road Corona’s founders laid out around the heart of the city more than a century ago.

“They had a vision, they made a plan, and the city grew around it,” Casillas said. “But here’s the thing about building a city: you can design the streets, the buildings, and the parks, but you can’t design what makes a community special. That part comes from the people.”

Casillas, who has served on the City Council since 2018, told the crowd she was born and raised in Corona, grew up in the downtown circle, and attended local public schools. She and her husband, Zach, are now raising their two children in the city.

“It’s a remarkable thing to raise your children in the same community that helped raise you,” she said.

She drew laughs comparing Corona to the Disney film “Zootopia,” a city where residents hold “very different opinions about how things should run.” She said she could assign a character to every council member but would keep that private “in the interest of maintaining some productive working relationships.” She identified herself as Judy Hopps, the film’s determined rabbit police officer.

“Underneath all of the humor is this lovely idea that a city works because of its differences and not in spite of them,” she said.

Casillas also quoted the 17th-century English poet John Donne: “No man is an island entire of itself” — and turned to the city’s workforce. Corona has 1,035 employees, she said, and 427 of them, about 41%, live in the city.

“When local government works well, much of that work goes unnoticed,” Casillas said. “You turn on the faucet, the water comes out. You drive down the street, the traffic light signal works, and when something doesn’t work, well, that’s usually when I get the email.”

The roughly 18-minute film, produced by city staff, featured residents, employees and city leaders. It traced Corona’s history from its 1886 founding as South Riverside, to the early-1900s road races on Grand Boulevard, to the citrus groves that once surrounded the circle.

Highlights included community events such as a new race honoring the city’s historic road races, and a Fourth of July parade marking the nation’s 250th anniversary. One speaker in the film said spectators stood “shoulder to shoulder the entire parade route.” Concerts on Sixth Street and fireworks at Santana Park were also featured.

It also shed light on Corona’s 38 parks – with over 70,000 tree sites and about 500 acres of landscape district, according to the film. City Park is slated for a renovation that includes an aquatic center inside a recreation center and event space for festivals and gatherings.

The film featured speakers who spoke about older buildings coming down and new businesses, restaurants, and retail moving in – including a bookstore on Sixth Street. “Downtown revitalization; those two words have been uttered in the city of Corona since I got here,” said one of the featured speakers who said they moved to Corona in 1980. “But this is different.”

The community also addressed one of its largest obstacles – describing traffic as “probably the number one complaint in the city.” The film described cameras at major intersections that measure vehicle counts, speeds, and wait times. An AI system, now “in learning mode,” will use that data to time signals across the city.

Other technological advancements included the police department’s real-time Information Center that pulls up intersection cameras and launches drones that can reach a scene minutes before officers arrive. On the creative side, the library’s new Innovation Center offers 3D printing, AI programming, robotics and mechanics for learners from kindergarten through adulthood. Staff said they built it two to three rooms at a time.

The film’s most personal moment came from a motorcyclist injured in a freeway crash. Through the fire department’s Blood on Board program, Corona fire crews carry whole blood on their apparatus and can transfuse patients before they reach a hospital.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that the Corona Fire Department was able to give blood transfusions at the scene of the accident, I honestly, deep down in my heart, believe I would have been DOA at the hospital,” he said.

A firefighter in the film said crews delivered the blood “as they were actually making the turn to head into Orange County.”

The film closed on city workers, including water crews, electricians, and maintenance staff, who described working through heat, rain, and holidays.

One resident recalled thanking two city employees she met at lunch. One told her nobody had ever thanked him before.

The evening opened with pre-show music by singer and violinist Jasmine Lopez and ended with a reception outside the theater. Elected officials recognized at the event included Vice Mayor Wes Speake, council members Jim Steiner, Tom Richins and Tony Daddario, City Treasurer Chad Willardson and Riverside County Second District Supervisor Karen Spiegel, along with representatives of several state and federal lawmakers.

Cityside Fiber was the event’s main sponsor. Community and supporting sponsors included the Western Riverside Council of Governments, the Inland Regional Energy Network, Spiegel’s office, Southern California Edison and the Riverside County Office of Economic Development.

“From the vision that shaped Grand Boulevard to the people shaping our next chapter,” the film’s narrator said, “Corona’s future is not left to chance. It is grand by design.”