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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. 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 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.
History
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.
San Diego's Gaslamp QuarterDowntown 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.
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