San Diego

San Diego is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. As of 2005, the city has a population of 1,255,540 people. It is the second largest city in California and the eighth largest in the United States. The San Diego metropolitan area has over 2.9 million people while the larger metropolitan area, which includes Tijuana, is the 21st-largest in the Americas, with a population over 4.8 million.

San Diego lies just north of the Mexican border (shares border with Tijuana, Mexico) and lies south of Orange County. It is home to miles of beaches, a mild Mediterranean climate and multiple military institutions, such as the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps.

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the affiliated UCSD Medical Center combined with nearby research institutes in the Torrey Pines area of La Jolla, provide a base for technological innovation. San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, maquiladora facilities, ship-repair and construction, software devlopment, telecommunications and tourism.

San Diego History

The area has long been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, (1499 - 1543), who sailed his flagship, the 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 (1548-1624) was sent to map the California coast. He arrived with his flagship "San Diego". Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and what is now Mission Bay and Point Loma, naming the area for the Spanish Catholic Saint St. Didacus (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, the Presidio of San Diego (military post), which overlooks Old Town, was established by Gaspar de Portolà at almost the same time as Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by the Franciscan friars led by Father Junípero Serra. By 1797 the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California (over 1,400 neophytes lived 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 2000 mile march of the Mormon Battalion which built the city's first courthouse with brick.

After the Battle of San Pascual, the end of the Mexican-American War and the gold rush of 1848, 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 World War I, the anti-capitalist labor union IWW had a major impact on labor struggles in San Diego. ().

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 (especially for 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.

Downtown San Diego, seen from Horton Plaza.

After World War II, the military played an increasing role in the local economy. But at the end of the Cold War the local economy experienced a downturn due to cutbacks in the local defense and aerospace industry. San Diego leaders sought to diversify the city's economy, and San Diego has since become a major center of the emerging biotech industry. It is also home to telecommunications giant Qualcomm.

A series of scandals has rocked the city in recent years. With mounting pressure due to 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 sentence in prison.

A view of One America Plaza from Seaport Village

Downtown San Diego has been enjoying an urban renewal since the 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, live-work loft developments, five-star hotels and a slew of cafes, restaurants and shops.

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.

San Diego Geography

The city of San Diego itself has deep canyons separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city. 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. Coronado and Point Loma 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 of the city. San Diego County also has more endangered plant and animal species (as determined by US Environmental Protection Agency) than any other county in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

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SanDiegoHomeBuyersInfo - want to know how homes are appreciating in a certain area. This link is to a handy chart published by the San Diego Union Tribune