San Diego, California

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San Diego (pronounced /ˌsændiˈeɪgoʊ/) is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. In 2006, the city's population was estimated to be 1,256,951.^[1] It is the second largest city in California and the eighth largest city in the United States, by population. It is the county seat of San Diego County.^[2] and is the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos metropolitan area, the 17th-largest in the United States with a population of 2.9 million as of 2006, and the 21st-largest metropolitan area in the Americas when including Tijuana (See San Diego-Tijuana Metro.).

San Diego County lies just north of the Mexican border—sharing a border with Tijuana—and lies south of Orange County. It is home to miles of beaches, a mild Mediterranean climate and 16 military facilities hosting the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps.

The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center promotes research in biotechnology.^{[citation needed]} San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship-repair and construction, software development, telecommunications, and tourism.

[edit] History

Main article: History of San Diego, California

The area has long been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo sailing under the Spanish Flag, (1499 - 1543), who sailed his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain. Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire and named the site San Miguel. In November of 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast. Arriving on his flagship San Diego, Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and what are now Mission Bay and Point Loma and named the area for the Catholic Saint Didacus, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego. On November 12, 1602, the first Christian religious service of record in Alta California was conducted by Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of Vizcaíno's expedition, to celebrate the feast day of San Diego.

In 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Presidio of San Diego (a military post) overlooking Old Town. Around the same time, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Father Junípero Serra. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in and around the mission proper. After New Spain won its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1823, Mission San Diego de Alcalá's fortunes declined in the 1830s after the decree of secularization was enacted, as was the case with all of the missions under the control of Mexico. In 1847 San Diego was a destination of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) march of the Mormon Battalion which built the city's first courthouse with brick.

After the Battle of San Pasqual, the end of the Mexican-American War, and the gold rush of 1848World War I, the Industrial Workers of the World labor union conducted a free speech fight in San Diego, arousing a brutal response (see San Diego Free Speech Fight.), San Diego was designated the seat of the newly-established San Diego County and was incorporated as a city in 1850. In the years before

Significant U.S. Naval presence began in 1907 with the establishment of the Navy Coaling Station, which gave further impetus to the development of the town. San Diego hosted two World's Fairs, the Panama-California Exposition in 1915, and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935. Many of the Spanish/Baroque-style buildings in the city's Balboa Park were built for these expositions, particularly the one in 1915. Intended to be temporary structures, most remained in continuous use until they progressively fell into disrepair. All were eventually rebuilt using castings of the original facades to faithfully retain the architectural style.

After World War II, the military played an increasing role in the local economy, but post-Cold War cutbacks took a heavy toll on the local defense and aerospace industries. The resulting downturn led San Diego leaders to seek to diversify the city's economy, and San Diego has since become a major center of the emerging biotechnology industry. It is also home to telecommunications giant Qualcomm.

Downtown San Diego has been undergoing an urban renewal since the early 1980s, beginning with the opening of Horton Plaza, the revival of the Gaslamp Quarter, and the construction of the San Diego Convention Center. The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), San Diego's downtown redevelopment agency, has transformed what was a largely abandoned downtown into a glittering showcase of waterfront skyscrapers, expensive live-work loft developments, five-star hotels, and many cafes, restaurants, and boutiques.

The North Embarcadero is slated to have parks in addition to a waterfront promenade. And Balboa Park will be linked to downtown with a view corridor. The recent boom in the construction of condos and skyscrapers has brought with it a gentrification frenzy, and some people are concerned that speculators have played too big a role in the condo market downtown. In the meantime, the city is committed to a "smart growth" development scheme that would increase density along transit corridors in older neighborhoods (the "City of Villages" planning concept.) Some neighborhoods are resisting this planning approach, but "mixed-use development" has had its successes, especially the award-winning Uptown Shopping Center in Hillcrest.

The latest accomplishment of CCDC has been the recent inauguration of PETCO Park. The once-industrial East Village adjacent to the new ballpark is now the new frontier in San Diego's downtown urban renewal.

A series of scandals has rocked the city in recent years. With mounting pressure aggravated by underfunding of pensions for city employees that began prior to his administration, Mayor Dick Murphy, in April 2005, announced his intention to resign by mid-July. Two city council members, Ralph Inzunza and deputy mayor Michael Zucchet — who was to take Murphy's place — were ultimately convicted of extortion, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for taking campaign contributions from a strip club owner and his associates, allegedly in exchange for trying to repeal the city's "no touch" laws at strip clubs. Both subsequently resigned. The judge later set aside (overturned) the conviction in Zucchet's case.

On November 28, 2005, U.S. Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned over a bribery scandal. Cunningham represented California's 50th congressional district, which mostly lies outside (north) of the city of San Diego proper. He is currently serving a one-hundred-month prison sentence.

[edit] Geography

See also: Beaches in San Diego, California and Parks in San Diego, California

The city of San Diego itself has deep canyons separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city. The same canyons give parts of the city a highly segmented feel, creating literal gaps between otherwise proximal neighborhoods and contributing to a low-density, car-centered built environment. Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay. Balboa Park lies on a mesa to the northeast. It is surrounded by several dense urban communities and abruptly ends in Hillcrest to the north. The Coronado and Point Loma peninsulas separate San Diego Bay from the ocean. Ocean Beach is on the west side of Point Loma. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach lie between the ocean and Mission Bay, a man-made aquatic park. La Jolla, an affluent community, lies north of Pacific Beach. Mount Soledad in La Jolla offers views from northern San Diego County to Mexico. Mountains rise to the east of the city, and beyond the mountains are desert areas. Cleveland National Forest is a half-hour drive from downtown San Diego. Numerous farms are found in the valleys northeast and southeast of the city. San Diego County has one of the highest counts of animal and plant species that appear on the endangered species list among counties in the United States.^[3]

[edit] Climate

Main article: Climate of San Diego, California

San Diego has a temperate Mediterranean climate (Koppen climate classification CSb). It enjoys mild, Dry-Summer subtropical, sunny weather throughout the year. Average monthly temperatures range from about 57 °Fahrenheit (14°C) in January to 72 °Fahrenheit (22°C) in July, although late summer and early autumn are typically the hottest times of the year. The average annual daily temperature is 62.6° Fahrenheit. Snow and ice are virtually nonexistent in the wintertime, typically occurring only inland from the coast when present. "May gray and June gloom", a local saying, refers to the way in which San Diego sometimes has trouble shaking off the marine layer, a cloudy layer typically higher in the atmosphere than fog, that comes in during those months. Temperatures soar to very high readings only on rare occasions, chiefly when easterly winds bring hot, dry air from the inland deserts (these winds are called "Santa Anas"). The record highest temperature at the airport is 111°F (44°C) on September 26, 1963, and the record lowest temperature is 29°F (-2°C) on January 4, 1949.^[4] The National Weather Service reports that San Diego's all-time lowest temperature was 25°F (-4°C) on January 7, 1913.^[5] The National Climatic Center says that temperatures exceed 90°F (32°C) on an average of 3.5 days annually and 100°F on only .2 day annually.^[4]

The average annual precipitation is less than 12 inches (300 mm), resulting in a borderline arid climate. Rainfall is strongly concentrated in the cooler half of the year, particularly the months December through March, although precipitation is lower than any other part of the U.S. west coast. The summer months are virtually rainless. Rainfall is highly variable from year to year and from month to month, and San Diego is subject to both droughts and floods. Thunderstorms are very rare. National Weather Service research has found documentation of a hurricane which hit San Diego on October 2, 1858, the only hurricane in history to reach California.^[6] There is even greater documentation of a tropical storm which affected much of the southern California coast in September 1939.^[7] The greatest 24-hour rainfall at the airport was 2.71 inches on February 6, 1937, and the greatest monthly rainfall was 9.09 inches in January 1993.^[8] Measurable snowfall has never occurred in downtown San Diego; snow flurries were reported at the airport in January 1949 and January 1979. Light amounts of snow have occurred in higher locations within the city limits, according to the National Weather Service's climatological summary.

Climate in the San Diego area often varies dramatically over short geographical distances, due to the city's topography (the Bay, and the numerous hills, mountains, and canyons): frequently, particularly during the "May gray / June gloom" period, a thick "marine layer" cloud cover will keep the air cool and damp within a few miles of the coast, but will yield to bright cloudless sunshine between about 5 and 15 miles (24 km) inland—the cities of El Cajon and Santee for example, rarely experience the cloud cover. This phenomenon is known as microclimate.

^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Ecology

Like most of southern California, the majority of San Diego's current area was originally occupied by chaparral, a plant community made up mostly of drought-resistant shrubs. The endangered Torrey Pine has the bulk of its population in San Diego in a stretch of protected chapparral along the coast. The steep and varied topography, and proximity to the ocean creates a number of different habitats within the city limits, including tidal marsh and canyons. The influence of humans has altered existing habitats and has also created habitats that did not exist prior to human development, by construction of buildings, the introduction of new species, and the use of water for lawns and gardens. A number of species of parrots, including the Red-masked Parakeet and Red-crowned Amazon have established feral populations in urban neighborhoods such as Ocean beach.

San Diego's broad city limits encompass a number of large nature preserves, including Torrey Pines State Reserve, Border Field State Park, Mission Trails Regional Park. Due to a combination of the steep topography that prevents or discourages building, and some efforts for preservation, there are also a large number of canyons within the city limits that are nature preserves, including Tecolote Canyon Natural Park^[9], and Marian Bear Memorial Park in the San Clemente Canyon.^[10], as well as a number of small parks and preserves.

[edit] Communities and neighborhoods

There are around one hundred named areas within the city of San Diego.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[11] of 2000, there were 1,223,400 people, 450,691 households, and 271,315 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,771.9 people per square mile (1,456.4/km²).

Population by race/ethnicity (Census 2000 def.).^[12]

There were 451,126 households out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.8% were non-families. 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.30.

In the city the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 12.4% from 18 to 24, 34.0% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 101.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $45,733, and the median income for a family was $53,060. Males had a median income of $36,984 versus $31,076 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,609. About 10.6% of families and 14.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Current estimates

The San Diego Association of Governments estimated the median household income and population as of January 1, 2006, had increased from the year 2000. The population of San Diego was estimated to be 1,311,162, up 7.2% from 2000, and median household income was estimated to be $47,816 (when adjusted for inflation in 1999 dollars), up 5.9% from 2000.^[13]According to the U.S. Census 2004 American Community Survey, San Diego city had the fifth largest median household income of places with a population of 250,000 or more.^[14]

The population as of January 2007 was above 1.3 million.

San Diego has the lowest percentage of Hispanics for any city adjacent to the United States-Mexico border.^[13][15]

[edit] Gay population

According to U.S. Census data from the year 2000, San Diego had a gay index of 186 (gay male index of 226 and a lesbian index of 144); the national average gay index is 100.^[16] San Diego has the highest gay index in Southern California, surpassing Los Angeles (168).^[17] Most of the gay community, including the LGBT center and every gay bar, in San Diego is located in Hillcrest and surrounding neighborhoods of University Heights and North Park.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Crime

San Diego has had a declining crime rate since the early 1990s, where the city had averaged 139 murders (or 12.2 murders per 100,000 residents) from 1990 to 1994.^[18][19][20] In 2004, San Diego had the sixth lowest crime rate of any U.S. city with over half a million residents.^[20] In 2005, San Diego had 4.2 murders per 100,000 (national average of 5.9) and was the lowest U.S. city over one million residents.^[21] From 2002 to 2006, violent crime decreased 12.4% while overall crime decreased 0.8% partly due to a 1.1% increase in property crime.^[22]

In the year 2004, all violent crimes, which includes murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, were lower than the national average.^[23] Total property crimes were lower than the national average. However, while burglaries and larceny/thefts were lower than the national average, vehicle thefts were twice as high as the national average. This is due the proximity of Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego and the ability to quickly bring cars across the border.

[edit] Economy

See also: List of companies headquartered in San Diego, California

The three largest sectors of San Diego's economy are defense, manufacturing, and tourism respectively.^[24]

Several areas of San Diego (in particular La Jolla and surrounding Sorrento Valley areas) are home to offices and research facilities for numerous biotechnology companies. Major biotechnology companies like Neurocrine Biosciences and Nventa Biopharmaceuticals are headquartered in San Diego, while many biotech and pharmaceutical companies, such as BD Biosciences, Biogen Idec, Integrated DNA Technologies, Merck, Pfizer, Élan, Genzyme, Cytovance, Celgene and Vertex, have offices or research facilities in San Diego. There are also several non-profit biotech institutes, such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Scripps Research Institute and the Burnham Institute. The presence of University of California, San Diego and other research institutions helped fuel biotechnology growth. In June 2004, San Diego was ranked the top biotech cluster in the U.S. by the Milken Institute.^[25]

San Diego is home to companies that develop wireless cellular technology. Qualcomm Incorporated was founded and is headquartered in San Diego; Qualcomm is the largest private-sector technology employer (excluding hospitals) in San Diego County.^[26] The largest software company in San Diego (according to the San Diego Business Journal) is security software company Websense Inc.^[27]

The economy of San Diego is influenced by its port, which includes the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the West Coast, as well as the largest naval fleet in the world. The cruise ship industry, which is the second largest in California, generates an estimated $2 million annually from the purchase of food, fuel, supplies, and maintenance services.^[28]

Due to San Diego's military influence, major national defense contractors, such as General Atomics and Science Applications International Corporation are headquartered in San Diego.

Tourism is also a major industry owing to the city's climate. Major tourist destinations include Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, nearby Wild Animal Park and Legoland, the city's beaches and golf tournaments like the Buick Invitational.

[edit] Real estate

Prior to 2006, San Diego experienced a dramatic growth of real estate prices, to the extent that the situation was sometimes described as a "housing affordability crisis". Median house prices more than tripled between 1998 and 2007. According to the California Association of Realtors,^[29] in May 2007, a median house in San Diego cost $612,370. Growth of real estate prices has not been accompanied by comparable growth of household incomes: housing affordability index (percentage of households that can afford to buy a median-priced house) fell below 20% in early 2000s. San Diego metropolitan area had the second worst median multiple (ratio of median house price to median household income) of all metropolitan areas in the United States. As a consequence, San Diego had experienced negative net migration since 2004, with significant numbers of people moving to Baja California and Riverside county, with many residents commuting daily from Tijuana, Temecula, and Murrieta, to their jobs in San Diego. Others are leaving the state altogether and moving to more affordable regions.^[30]

From 2005 to 2007, San Diego experienced a greater than 15% decline in real estate prices, which continued to accelerate into 2008. The two-year drop already experienced is worse than the four-year period between June, 1992, and November, 1996, when the region experienced an 11.8% decline in housing prices. ^[31] Much of this is blamed on the speculative attitude of investors in the early 2000s, who bought much of the available real estate, hoping to "flip" it for a large profit shortly thereafter, and the availability of "stated income" and other "exotic" loans available. When the decline hit, and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) adjusted, many investors simply abandoned their properties, and areas that recently experienced double-digit annual increases in property value, such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas are being hit the hardest. ^[32]

In the first quarter of 2008, the number of foreclosures repossessed by banks exceeded the number of home sales.^[33]

[edit] Education

[edit] Libraries

The San Diego Public Library, headquartered downtown, has 34 branches throughout the city.^[34] The San Diego libraries have had reduced operating hours since 2003 due to the city's lack of finances. In 2006 the city increased spending on libraries by $2.1 million. ^[35]

[edit] Primary and secondary schools

Main article: Primary and secondary schools in San Diego, California

The San Diego Unified School District, also known as San Diego City Schools, is the school district that serves the majority of the city, it includes 113 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, 4 atypical schools, 10 alternative schools, 27 high schools and 25 charter schools. In the northern part of the county, Poway Unified School District and San Dieguito Union High School District are districts outside city limits, but serve several schools within city limits. In the southern part of the county, Sweetwater Union High School District serves multiple schools within city limits, although it is headquartered outside city limits.

San Ysidro School District (K-8) serves areas of San Diego also served by Sweet Water Union High School District. Del Mar Union Elementary School District and Solana Beach Elementary School District serve areas of San Diego also within San Dieguito.

[edit] Colleges and universities

According to education rankings released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 40.4 percent of San Diegans ages 25 and older hold bachelor's degrees. The census ranks the city as the ninth most educated city in the United States based on these figures.^[36]

Public colleges and universities in the city include University of California, San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), and the San Diego Community College District, which includes San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College.

Private colleges and universities in the city include Alliant International University (AIU), Design Institute of San Diego (DISD), John Paul the Great Catholic University, National University, NewSchool of Architecture and Design, Pacific Oaks College, The Art Institute of California, San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), San Diego Christian College, Woodbury University School of Architecture's satellite campus, and University of San Diego (USD) .

There is one medical school in the city, the UCSD School of Medicine. There are three ABA accredited law schools in the city, which include California Western School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and University of San Diego School of Law. There is also one unaccredited law school, Western Sierra Law School.

[edit] Politics

Prior to 2000, San Diego voted Republican.^{[citation needed]} However, since 2000, San Diego has voted Democratic in presidential elections.^{[citation needed]} In August 2007, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 7 to 6.^[37] Despite the edge in voter registration for Democrats, the current mayor, Jerry Sanders, is a Republican. San Diego has not elected a Democratic mayor since 1988. Democrats hold a 5-3 majority in the city council, including the current Council President, Scott Peters, a Democrat who often sides with the mayor. 55% of the city of San Diego voted for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.^[38]

On September 18, 2007, the City Council with support from Mayor Sanders, voted 5-3 to endorse a pending lawsuit before the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage in California. Proposition 22 was supported by 62 percent of San Diego voters.^[39]

[edit] State and Federal

In the state legislature San Diego is located in the 36th, 38th, 39th and 40th Senate District, represented by Republicans Dennis Hollingsworth and Mark Wyland, and Democrats Christine Kehoe and Denise Moreno Ducheny., and in the 74th, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th and 79th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Martin Garrick and George A. Plescia, Democrat Lori Saldaña, Republicans Joel Anderson and Shirley Horton and Democrat Mary Salas. Federally, San Diego is located in California's 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd, and 53rd congressional districts, which have Cook PVIs of R +10, R +5, D +7, R +9, and D +12 respectively^[40] and are represented by Republicans Darrell Issa. and Brian Bilbray, Democrat Bob Filner, Republican Duncan Hunter, and Democrat Susan Davis. respectively.

[edit] Culture

Main article: