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Happening in Upland is your weekly rundown of what’s going on around town—local news, community events, public safety updates, new restaurants, development, weather, schools, and the stuff Upland residents actually talk about.
Delivered with humor, honesty, and a very local point of view, this isn’t stiff broadcast news. It’s real, relevant information with personality. If you live in Upland or anywhere nearby in the Inland Empire, this is your weekly shortcut to staying in the loop.
MARK: Welcome back to another miserable Monday in the jewel of the Inland Empire. I'm Mark, and I'm currently wondering why the hell I still live in a place where the air tastes like a tailpipe. It's April 6, 2026, and if you're listening to this, you've survived another weekend of traffic, smog, and the general bullshit that makes Upland, well, Upland. We're here to talk about the absolute state of this city, and frankly, it's a lot to handle today. I'm joined by Joleen, who I assume spent her Easter trying to find a parking spot at a park that was already full by sunrise.
JOLEEN: Spot on, Mark. I'm Joleen, and I'm upbeat only because the caffeine has finally hit my bloodstream, even though I'm fully aware that everything is falling apart. I didn't even try the parks. I just sat in my driveway and watched the neighbors argue over a charcoal grill. It's 'Happening in Upland', the show where we tell you what's going on while simultaneously questioning why any of us care. We've got a lot of ground to cover today, including a massive bridge project that's going to make your commute even more of a nightmare, and some Easter Sunday drama that didn't involve eggs.
MARK: Before we get into the meat of this sandwich, let's just address the elephant in the room. This show is your one-stop shop for everything Upland, and if you aren't subscribed or commenting yet, what the fuck are you even doing? We need the engagement to justify our presence in this tiny studio. You can find us at upland@thehappeningnetwork.com if you want to bitch about something we missed or tell us how much you hate my voice. Now, let's talk about this bridge. It's officially Monday, April 6, which means the Mission Boulevard Bridge project is kicking off. They're spending ninety-one million dollars to replace a seventy-year-old structure.
JOLEEN: Ninety-one million dollars. That's a lot of money to spend on a bridge that connects us to Jurupa Valley. No offense to Jurupa Valley, but is it really worth nearly a hundred million? The bridge is seventy years old, which in infrastructure years is basically a zombie. It's seismically deficient, which is a fancy way of saying it'll fall down if a stiff breeze hits it during an earthquake. They're starting Stage 1 today, and it's going to take until 2029 to finish. That's three more years of orange cones and people forgetting how to merge.
MARK: I love how they say 'no long-term closures' like that's supposed to make us feel better. They're going to have lane closures at both ends. It's a vital river crossing, but let's be real, it's just another excuse for Skanska to park their trucks in the middle of the road for the next forty months. They're building a multi-purpose trail on the south side for pedestrians and cyclists. I'm sure all three people who cycle across that river are thrilled. It's a state-of-the-art design, but I'll believe it when I see a bridge that doesn't feel like it's vibrating when a semi-truck passes you.
JOLEEN: The trail is supposed to connect to the Santa Ana River Trail, which is cool if you're into that sort of thing. But for the rest of us just trying to get to work without having a mental breakdown, it's just more construction noise. Speaking of noise, did you hear about the guy who decided Easter Sunday was the perfect time for a cross-county tour? An attempted murder suspect led the CHP on a high-speed chase that started in Ventura and ended in Barstow. He went right through our neck of the woods on the freeway while everyone else was trying to have a peaceful ham dinner.
MARK: Easter Sunday. You've got to be a special kind of asshole to lead a chase on a holiday. It started around five in the evening. Imagine being a family driving home from grandma's house and some dickhead in a stolen car flies past you at a hundred miles an hour with twenty sirens behind him. It's becoming a weekend tradition in the Inland Empire. If there isn't a car chase on the ten or the two-ten, did the weekend even happen? The police actually had to pass him off between departments because he was moving too fast through different jurisdictions.
JOLEEN: It's a wonder nobody got killed. We've seen so many of these pursuits end in total wreckage lately. Remember that crash on Mountain and Sixteenth a while back? It's like people think the streets are a video game. But hey, at least the suspect was caught. Happy Easter, dickhead. Hope the jail food was worth it. Switching gears to something slightly less criminal, let's talk about the kids. The Upland Unified School District is still pushing those wellness centers. They're trying to give the students a place to 'reset'. I wish I had a wellness center at my office where I could just sit in a dark room and forget that my mortgage exists.
MARK: The wellness centers are a nice touch, but I'm more focused on the sports right now. Upland High baseball is in the middle of a big week. They had a massive win against Kennedy recently, twenty to three. That's not a baseball score, that's a massacre. They've got a series starting today against Chino Hills. They're at Chino Hills today, then they're back home on Wednesday. If they keep playing like they did against Kennedy, Chino Hills is in for a rough afternoon. I like seeing the Highlanders actually win something. It gives this town a tiny shred of dignity.
JOLEEN: The Battle of the Baseline League is really heating up. They've got that big event on Saturday, April 11th, at eleven in the morning. Upland versus Chino Hills again. It's a whole day of baseball with Los Osos and Etiwanda playing right after. If you've got nothing better to do than sit in the sun and watch teenagers throw a ball, that's your destination. I'll probably stay inside and hide from the 'record-breaking heat streak' the forecasters were crying about last week. Although, apparently, that heat is about to break.
MARK: That's the big news for the weather forecast. Today is the transition. We've been roasting like a cheap rotisserie chicken, but we're looking at rain and possible thunderstorms later this week. The forecast for April 6 through April 13 shows a real shift. We're going from highs in the eighties down to the high sixties. By the time we hit the weekend, specifically Friday the 10th and Saturday the 11th, it's going to be rainy and cool. It's the classic Southern California flip-flop. One day you're getting a sunburn, the next you're looking for your umbrella that's been buried in the garage since 2024.
JOLEEN: I'll take the rain over the heat any day. Heat just makes everyone in Upland angrier. The humidity goes up, the tempers flare, and suddenly people are fighting over the last pack of water at Stater Bros. The rain might actually wash some of the dust off the palm trees. But the cooler weather is perfect for the events coming up this weekend. If the rain stays away on Friday night, Pro-Five Brewing on Eleventh Street is having 'The Dogs' play at seven p.m. It's a local brewery, and honestly, we need more of those. Pro-Five is a solid spot if you're tired of the same old bars downtown.
MARK: I've been to Pro-Five. It's decent. They're actually hosting a cornhole tournament on Friday too. The American Cornhole Organization major. Nothing says high-stakes athletics like throwing beanbags into a hole while drinking a double IPA. It's actually a pretty big deal for the cornhole community. If you think you're a pro at throwing things while intoxicated, you should probably head down there. It starts at six p.m. Just don't be the person who gets too competitive and starts a fight over a bag of corn.
JOLEEN: The cornhole drama is real, Mark. People take their beanbags very seriously. Also on Saturday, there's a free kids event called Ocean Discovery at eleven a.m. It's got some dot art activity. If you've got kids and you're broke because your rent just went up again, it's a free way to keep them occupied for an hour. Just make sure they don't eat the paint. Upland Heritage is also doing a Mission Inn tour in Riverside on the 11th, but that's a bit of a drive. If you want to stay local, just stick to the brewery and the cornhole.
MARK: Speaking of being broke, let's talk about the real estate market. It's April 2026, and if you were hoping for a housing crash so you could finally move out of your parents' basement, I've got bad news. The median home value in Upland is still around eight hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars. It's a seller's market. Homes are selling in about fifty days, which is actually slower than last year, but the prices aren't budging. If you're looking in North Upland, you're looking at closer to eight hundred and seventy-five thousand for a single-story ranch home.
JOLEEN: It's insane. Who is buying these houses? The interest rates are supposed to be 'easing', but I haven't seen it yet. I saw a listing for a post-war bungalow that was basically a glorified shed and they wanted seven hundred thousand for it. The inventory is low, only about a hundred and seventy active listings in the whole city. It's a bloodbath out there for buyers. You have to walk in with cash and a blood sacrifice just to get an inspection. And don't even get me started on the property taxes in San Antonio Heights. If you want a view of the foothills, you better be ready to pay through the nose.
MARK: And if you do manage to buy a house, you'll be spending all your time sitting in traffic on Foothill Boulevard anyway. The construction there is never-ending. Between the I-10 express lane work and the local rehab projects, it's a miracle anyone gets anywhere. Now we've got the Mission Boulevard project starting today, too. It's like the city planners sat down and said, 'how can we make it impossible for people to leave their driveways?'. They're doing night work too, eight p.m. to six a.m. So if you live near the bridge, I hope you enjoy the sound of backup beepers and jackhammers instead of sleep.
JOLEEN: The night work is the worst. You're trying to sleep, and it sounds like there's a giant robot eating the street outside your window. But hey, it's progress, right? In three years, we'll have a bridge that looks slightly better and a trail that'll be covered in graffiti within a week. I'm trying to be positive here, Mark. I really am. We have a brewery with a cornhole tournament. That's a win. We have a baseball team that's actually hitting the ball. That's another win. If we keep this up, people might actually stop calling us the 'overflow parking for Rancho Cucamonga'.
MARK: We'll always be the ugly stepchild of Rancho, Joleen. Accept it. It's part of our charm. But honestly, despite the construction and the car chases, Upland still has that weird, gritty soul that the newer cities don't have. We've got history, even if half of it is seismically deficient. Just a reminder for everyone out there, if you like what we're doing, or even if you just want to see Joleen lose her mind over the real estate market again, subscribe to the podcast. Leave a comment. It helps us feel like we aren't shouting into a void of smog.
JOLEEN: Exactly. Like and subscribe. It's the only thing keeping us from becoming another statistic in the Inland Empire. If you've got a story about a bridge delay or you've found a restaurant that doesn't charge twenty dollars for a sandwich, hit us up at upland@thehappeningnetwork.com. We want to hear from you. We might even read your email on the air if it's sufficiently cynical. Stay safe out there today. Watch out for the lane closures on Mission, and maybe keep an eye out for any more high-speed chases.
MARK: I'm sure there's one scheduled for lunch time. Thanks for listening to Happening in Upland. I'm Mark, and I'm going to go sit in traffic for forty-five minutes to move three miles. It's been a pleasure as always. Don't do anything stupid, and if you do, make sure you don't get caught on camera. We'll be back later this week to see if the rain actually showed up or if the meteorologists were just lying to us for the sake of ratings. Until then, try not to let the city get you down too much. It's a shitshow, but it's our shitshow.
JOLEEN: It's definitely a shitshow. Bye everyone! See you at the cornhole tournament or in the line for a overpriced bungalow. Keep your heads up and your windows rolled up because the air quality is definitely not getting any better today. Catch you on the next episode of the only podcast that actually tells it like it is in this godforsaken valley.