|
San Diego
is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern
corner of the continental United States. As of 2006, the
city has an estimated population of 1,256,951. It is the
second largest city in California and the eighth largest
city in the United States. It is the county seat of San
Diego County.GR6 and is the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San
Marcos metropolitan area, the 17th-largest metro area in
the U.S. 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 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 make the area influential in biotechnology research.
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.
The area has long been inhabited
by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the
region was Portuguese 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.
Mission San Diego de Alcalá, July 1979 (Robert E.
Nylund)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
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 Industrial Workers
of the World labor union conducted a free speech fight in
San Diego, arousing a brutal response.
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.
A view of One America Plaza from Seaport Village.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.
|
