San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
coast of
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
located immediately adjacent to the
Mexico–United States border
The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border trave ...
. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932,
it is the
eighth most populous city in the United States and the
seat of
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
, the
fifth most populous county in the United States, with 3,338,330 estimated residents as of 2019. The city is known for its mild year-round climate, natural deep-water
harbor
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...
, extensive beaches and parks, long association with the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, and recent emergence as a healthcare and
biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...
development center. San Diego is the
second largest city in the
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, after
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
Historically home to the
Kumeyaay people
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
, San Diego is frequently referred to as the "Birthplace of California", as it was the first site visited and settled by Europeans on what is now the
U.S. west coast
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
. Upon landing in
San Diego Bay in 1542,
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, forming the basis for the settlement of
Alta California 200 years later. The
Presidio
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th and 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Spanish Philippines in particular, were cen ...
and
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá ( es, Misión San Diego de Alcalá) was the second Franciscan founded mission in The Californias (after San Fernando de Velicata), a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it ...
, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly declared
Mexican Empire Mexican Empire may refer to:
* First Mexican Empire, the regime under Agustín de Iturbide (Agustín I) from 1821 to 1823
* Second Mexican Empire
The Second Mexican Empire (), officially the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy est ...
, which reformed as the
First Mexican Republic
The First Mexican Republic, known also as the First Federal Republic ( es, Primera República Federal, link=no), was a federated republic, under the Constitution of 1824. It was a nation-state officially designated the United Mexican States ( e ...
two years later. California became part of the U.S. in 1848 following the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
and was admitted to the union as a state in 1850.
San Diego's main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, research, and manufacturing. The city is the economic center of the
San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second most populous
transborder metropolitan area in the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
(after
Detroit–Windsor
The Detroit–Windsor region is an international transborder agglomeration comprising the American city of Detroit, Michigan, the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario, and the Detroit River between them. The Detroit–Windsor area acts as a critical ...
), home to an estimated 4,922,723 people as of 2012. The primary border crossing between San Diego and
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, the
San Ysidro Port of Entry
__NOTOC__
The San Ysidro Port of Entry (aka San Ysidro Land Port of Entry or San Ysidro LPOE) is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the fourth- busiest land border crossing in the world (second-busiest if one exclu ...
, is the busiest international land border crossing in the world outside of Asia (
fourth-busiest overall). The city's airport,
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Feder ...
, is the busiest single-
runway
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...
airport in the world.
History
Pre-colonial period
![Kumeyaay (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Kumeyaay_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the
San Dieguito and
La Jolla people. The
Kumeyaay people
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
migrated into the area of San Diego around 1000 CE, who erected villages scattered across the region, including the village of
Cosoy (Kosa'aay) which was the Kumeyaay village that the future settlement of San Diego would stem from in today's
Old Town.
The village of Cosoy was made up of thirty to forty families living in pyramid-shaped housing structures and was supported by a freshwater spring from the hillsides.
Spanish period
The first European to visit the region was explorer
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing under the flag of
Castile but possibly
born in Portugal. Sailing his flagship ''San Salvador'' from
Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
in 1542, and named the site "San Miguel". In November 1602,
Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia.
Early career
Vizcaíno was born in 154 ...
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
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
and named the area for the Catholic
Saint Didacus, a
Spaniard
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both i ...
more commonly known as ''San Diego de Alcalá''. On November 12, 1602, the first Christian religious service of record in
Alta California was conducted by Friar Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of Vizcaíno's expedition, to celebrate the feast day of San Diego.
The permanent
European colonization
The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs.
Colonialism in the modern sense began ...
of both California and San Diego began in 1769 with the arrival of four contingents of Spaniards from New Spain and the
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
peninsula. Two seaborne parties reached San Diego Bay: the ''San Carlos'', under Vicente Vila and including as notable members the engineer and cartographer
Miguel Costansó Miguel Costansó (1741–1814), original name Miquel Constançó, was a Catalan engineer, cartographer and cosmographer. He joined the expedition of exploration of Alta California led by Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra, serving aboard ship ...
and the soldier and future governor
Pedro Fages, and the ''San Antonio'', under
Juan Pérez. An initial overland expedition to San Diego from the south was led by the soldier
Fernando Rivera
Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
and included the
Franciscan
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
missionary, explorer, and chronicler
Juan Crespí
Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí (1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias.
Biography
A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain ...
, followed by a second party led by the designated governor
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar is a given and/or surname of French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish origin, cognate to Casper (given name) or Casper (surname).
It is a name of biblical origin, per Saint Gaspar, one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible.
Notable peo ...
and including the mission president (and now saint)
Junípero Serra
Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierr ...
.
In May 1769, Portolà established the Fort
Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the
San Diego River
The San Diego River is a river in San Diego County, California. It originates in the Cuyamaca Mountains northwest of the town of Julian, then flows to the southwest until it reaches the El Capitan Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the river ...
above the Kumeyaay village of Cosoy,
which would later become incorporated into the Spanish settlement,
making it the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California. In July of the same year,
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá ( es, Misión San Diego de Alcalá) was the second Franciscan founded mission in The Californias (after San Fernando de Velicata), a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it ...
was founded by Franciscan friars under Serra. The mission became a site for a Kumeyaay revolt in 1775, which forced the mission to relocate up the San Diego River. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in and around the mission proper. Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in
Alta California of the historic mission trail
El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are
National Historic Landmarks
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
Mexican period
![José_María_Estudillo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Estudillo.jpg)
In 1821,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of
Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began its attempt to extend its authority over the coastal territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the level land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was
secularized by the Mexican government in 1834, and most of the Mission lands were granted to former soldiers. The 432
residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a
pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
, and
Juan María Osuna
Juan María Osuna (1785 – March 5, 1851) was an early settler of San Diego, California.
Life
Juan María Osuna was born 1785 in California to Juan Hismerio Osuna and Maria Alvarado. He was a soldier and corporal of the San Diego Company and ...
was elected the first ''
alcalde'' ("municipal magistrate"), defeating
Pío Pico in the vote. Beyond the town, Mexican
land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
s expanded the number of
California ranchos that modestly added to the local economy. (See, ''
List of pre-statehood mayors of San Diego
This is a list of pre-statehood alcaldes and mayors of San Diego, from 1770 to 1850, during the Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods, prior to California's admission to statehood.
Commandants of the Presidio of San Diego
From 1770 San D ...
''.) However, San Diego had been losing population throughout the 1830s, due to increasing tension between the settlers and the indigenous
Kumeyaay and in 1838 the town lost its pueblo status because its size dropped to an estimated 100 to 150 residents. The
ranchos in the San Diego region would face Kumeyaay raids in the late 1830s and the town itself would face raids in the 1840s.
Americans gained an increased awareness of California, and its commercial possibilities, from the writings of two countrymen involved in the often officially forbidden, to foreigners, but economically significant hide and tallow trade, where San Diego was a major port and the only one with an adequate harbor:
William Shaler
William Shaler (1773 – March 29, 1833) was an American government official who served as a diplomat and confidential agent in several foreign locations, including Algiers, Mexico and Cuba.
Life and career
William Shaler was born in Bridgepo ...
's "Journal of a Voyage Between China and the North-Western Coast of America, Made in 1804" and
Richard Henry Dana's more substantial and convincing account, of his 1834–36 voyage, the classic ''
Two Years Before the Mast
''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the ...
''.
![SanPasqual](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/SanPasqual.jpg)
In 1846, the United States went to war against Mexico and sent a naval and land
expedition to conquer Alta California. At first, they had an easy time of it, capturing the major ports including San Diego, but the Californios in southern Alta California struck back. Following the successful revolt in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, the American garrison at San Diego was driven out without firing a shot in early October 1846. Mexican partisans held San Diego for three weeks until October 24, 1846, when the Americans recaptured it. For the next several months the Americans were blockaded inside the pueblo. Skirmishes occurred daily and snipers shot into the town every night. The Californios drove cattle away from the pueblo hoping to starve the Americans and their Californio supporters out. On December 1, the American garrison learned that the dragoons of General
Stephen W. Kearney were at
Warner's Ranch
Warner's Ranch, near Warner Springs, California, was notable as a way station for large numbers of emigrants on the Southern Emigrant Trail from 1849 to 1861, as it was a stop on both the Gila River Trail and the Butterfield Overland Mail stag ...
. Commodore
Robert F. Stockton
Robert Field Stockton (August 20, 1795 – October 7, 1866) was a United States Navy commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican–American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam-p ...
sent a mounted force of fifty under Captain
Archibald Gillespie
Major Archibald H. Gillespie (October 10, 1812 – August 16, 1873) was an officer in the United States Marine Corps during the Mexican–American War.
Biography
Born in New York City, Gillespie was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1832. He co ...
to march north to meet him. Their joint command of 150 men, returning to San Diego, encountered about 93 Californios under
Andrés Pico. In the ensuing
Battle of San Pasqual, fought in the
San Pasqual Valley
San Pasqual Valley, historically spelt as San Pascual (Spanish for " Saint Paschal"), is the northernmost community of the city of San Diego. It is named for the Kumeyaay village of San Pasqual that was once located there. It is bordered on the ...
which is now part of the city of San Diego, the Americans suffered their worst losses in the campaign. Subsequently, a column led by Lieutenant Gray arrived from San Diego, rescuing Kearny's battered and blockaded command.
Stockton and Kearny went on to recover Los Angeles and force the capitulation of Alta California with the "
Treaty of Cahuenga
The Treaty of Cahuenga ( es, Tratado de Cahuenga), also called the Capitulation of Cahuenga (''Capitulación de Cahuenga''), was an 1847 agreement that ended the Conquest of California, resulting in a ceasefire between Californios and Americans. ...
" on January 13, 1847. As a result of the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
of 1846–48, the territory of Alta California, including San Diego, was ceded to the United States by Mexico, under the terms of the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...
in 1848. The Mexican negotiators of that treaty tried to retain San Diego as part of Mexico, but the Americans insisted that San Diego was "for every commercial purpose of nearly equal importance to us with that of San Francisco," and the Mexican–American border was eventually established to be one league south of the southernmost point of
San Diego Bay, so as to include the entire bay within the United States.
American period
![Alonzo Horton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Alonzo_Horton.jpg)
The state of California was admitted to the United States in 1850. That same year San Diego was designated the seat of the newly established County of San Diego and was incorporated as a city.
Joshua H. Bean, the last alcalde of San Diego, was elected the first mayor. Two years later the city was bankrupt; the California legislature revoked the city's charter and placed it under control of a board of trustees, where it remained until 1889. A city charter was reestablished in 1889, and today's city charter was adopted in 1931.
The original town of San Diego was located at the foot of Presidio Hill, in the area which is now
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, located in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, California, is a state protected historical park in San Diego. It commemorates the early days of the City of San Diego and includes many historic buildings ...
. The location was not ideal, being several miles away from navigable water at its port at
La Playa. In 1850,
William Heath Davis
William Heath "Kanaka" Davis, Jr. (1822 – 1909) was a merchant and trader in Alta California who helped to establish "New Town" (now Downtown San Diego) in San Diego, California.
Life
Davis was born in 1822 in Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii ...
promoted a new development by the bay shore called "New San Diego", several miles south of the original settlement; however, for several decades the new development consisted only of a pier, a few houses and an Army depot for the support of
Fort Yuma
Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department o ...
. After 1854, the fort became supplied by sea and by
steamboats on the Colorado River and the depot fell into disuse. From 1857 to 1860, San Diego became the western terminus of the
San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line, the earliest overland
stagecoach and mail operation from the
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...
to California, coming from
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
through
New Mexico Territory in less than 30 days.
[Basil C. Pearce]
"The Jackass Mail—San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line"
''San Diego Historical Society Quarterly'', Spring 1969, Volume 15, Number 2
In the late 1860s,
Alonzo Horton promoted a move to the bayside area, which he called "New Town" and which became
Downtown San Diego. Horton promoted the area heavily, and people and businesses began to relocate to New Town because its location on
San Diego Bay was convenient to shipping. New Town soon eclipsed the original settlement, known to this day as
Old Town, and became the economic and governmental heart of the city.
Still, San Diego remained a relative backwater town until the arrival of a railroad connection in 1878. In 1884–1886,
John J. Montgomery
John Joseph Montgomery (February 15, 1858 – October 31, 1911) was an American inventor, physicist, engineer, and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, who is best known for his invention of controlled heavier-than-air ...
made the first controlled flights by an American in a heavier-than-air unpowered glider just south of San Diego at Otay Mesa, helping to pioneer a new science of aerodynamics.
In 1912, San Diego was the site of a
free speech fight
Free speech fights are struggles over free speech, and especially those struggles which involved the Industrial Workers of the World and their attempts to gain awareness for labor issues by organizing workers and urging them to use their collective ...
between the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
and the city government who passed an ordinance forbidding the
freedom of speech along an area of "Soapbox Row" that led to civil disobedience,
vigilantism
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...
,
police violence
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
, the abduction of
Emma Goldman's husband
Ben Reitman __NOTOC__
Ben Lewis Reitman M.D. (1879–1943) was an American anarchist and physician to the poor ("the hobo doctor"). He is best remembered today as one of radical Emma Goldman's lovers.
Reitman was a flamboyant, eccentric character. Emma Goldm ...
and
multiple riots. San Diego's proximity to Tijuana during the
Mexican Revolution made this one of the most significant
free speech fights
Free speech fights are struggles over free speech, and especially those struggles which involved the Industrial Workers of the World and their attempts to gain awareness for labor issues by organizing workers and urging them to use their collective ...
during the
Wobbly
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
era.
In 1916, the neighborhood of
Stingaree, the original home of San Diego's first
Chinatown and "Soapbox Row", was demolished by anti-
vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
campaigners to make way for the
Gaslamp Quarter
The Gaslamp Quarter is a 16½-block neighborhood in the downtown area of San Diego, California. It extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, and from 4th to 6th Avenue.
Listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as ...
.
![Guide Book of the Panama California Exposition](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Guide_Book_of_the_Panama_California_Exposition.jpg)
In the early part of the 20th century, San Diego hosted the
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
twice: the
Panama-California Exposition (1915) and the
California Pacific International Exposition
The California Pacific International Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California during May 29, 1935–November 11, 1935 and February 12, 1936–September 9, 1936. The exposition was held in Balboa Park, San Diego's large c ...
in 1935. Both expositions were held in
Balboa Park, and many of the Spanish/Baroque-style buildings that were built for those expositions remain to this day as central features of the park. The buildings were intended to be temporary structures, but most remained in continuous use until they progressively fell into disrepair. Most were eventually rebuilt, using castings of the original façades to retain the architectural style. The menagerie of exotic animals featured at the 1915 exposition provided the basis for the
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...
. During the 1950s there was a citywide festival called
Fiesta del Pacifico highlighting the area's Spanish and Mexican past. In the 2010s there was a proposal for a large-scale celebration of the 100th anniversary of Balboa Park, but the plans were abandoned when the organization tasked with putting on the celebration went out of business.
The southern portion of the
Point Loma
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
peninsula was set aside for military purposes as early as 1852. Over the next several decades the
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
set up a series of coastal artillery batteries and named the area
Fort Rosecrans
Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL) is located in Point Loma, a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It was established on 1 October 1998 when Navy facilities in the Point Loma area of San Diego were consolidated under Commander, Navy Region Southwest ...
. Significant U.S. Navy presence began in 1901 with the establishment of the Navy Coaling Station in Point Loma, and expanded greatly during the 1920s. By 1930, the city was host to
Naval Base San Diego,
Naval Training Center San Diego,
San Diego Naval Hospital,
Camp Matthews
Camp Calvin B. Matthews or Marine Corps Rifle Range Camp Matthews or Marine Corps Rifle Range, La Jolla (prior to World War II) or more simply Camp Matthews was a United States Marine Corps military base from 1917 until 1964, when the base was d ...
, and
Camp Kearny
Camp Kearny was a U.S. military base (first Army, later Navy) in San Diego County, California, on the site of the current Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It operated from 1917 to 1946. The base was named in honor of Brigadier General Stephen W ...
(now
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar). The city was also an early center for aviation: as early as World War I, San Diego was proclaiming itself "The Air Capital of the West".
The city was home to important airplane developers and manufacturers like Ryan Airlines (later
Ryan Aeronautical), founded in 1925, and
Consolidated Aircraft
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet in Buffalo, New York, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was ...
(later
Convair
Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, i ...
), founded in 1923.
Charles A. Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
's plane
The Spirit of St. Louis
The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlanti ...
was built in San Diego in 1927 by Ryan Airlines.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, San Diego became a major hub of military and defense activity, due to the presence of so many military installations and defense manufacturers. The city's population grew rapidly during and after World War II, more than doubling between 1930 (147,995) and 1950 (333,865).
[Moffatt, Riley. ''Population History of Western U.S. Cities & Towns, 1850–1990''. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1996, 54.] During the final months of the war, the Japanese had a plan to target multiple U.S. cities for
biological attack
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...
, starting with San Diego. The plan was called "
Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night" and called for
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...
planes filled with fleas infected with plague (''
Yersinia pestis
''Yersinia pestis'' (''Y. pestis''; formerly '' Pasteurella pestis'') is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both ''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis'' and ''Yersinia enterocolitica''. It is a facult ...
'') to crash into civilian population centers in the city, hoping to spread plague in the city and effectively kill tens of thousands of civilians. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but was not carried out because
Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.
After World War II, the military continued to play a major role in the local economy, but post-
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
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 by focusing on research and science, as well as tourism.
From the start of the 20th century through the 1970s, the American
tuna
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max len ...
fishing fleet and tuna canning industry were based in San Diego, "the tuna capital of the world".
San Diego's first tuna cannery was founded in 1911, and by the mid-1930s the canneries employed more than 1,000 people. A large fishing fleet supported the canneries, mostly staffed by immigrant fishermen from
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, and later from the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
whose influence is still felt in neighborhoods like
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...
and
Point Loma
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
. Due to rising costs and foreign competition, the last of the canneries closed in the early 1980s.
Downtown San Diego was in decline in the 1960s and 1970s, but experienced some urban renewal since the early 1980s, including the opening of
Horton Plaza, the revival of the
Gaslamp Quarter
The Gaslamp Quarter is a 16½-block neighborhood in the downtown area of San Diego, California. It extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, and from 4th to 6th Avenue.
Listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as ...
, and the construction of the
San Diego Convention Center
The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego ...
;
Petco Park opened in 2004.
Outside of downtown, San Diego annexed large swaths of land and for suburban expansion to the north and control of the
San Ysidro Port of Entry
__NOTOC__
The San Ysidro Port of Entry (aka San Ysidro Land Port of Entry or San Ysidro LPOE) is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the fourth- busiest land border crossing in the world (second-busiest if one exclu ...
.
As the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
ended, the military shrank and so did defense spending. San Diego has since become a center of the emerging biotech industry and is home to telecommunications giant
Qualcomm. San Diego had also grown in the tourism industry with the popularity of attractions such as the
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...
,
SeaWorld San Diego
SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outside aquarium and marine mammal park, in San Diego, California, United States, inside Mission Bay Park. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
SeaWorld San Diego ...
, and
Legoland California in
Carlsbad.
Geography
![San Diego with Tijuana by Sentinel-2, 2020-03-09](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/San_Diego_with_Tijuana_by_Sentinel-2%2C_2020-03-09.jpg)
According to SDSU professor emeritus Monte Marshall,
San Diego Bay is "the surface expression of a north-south-trending, nested
graben". The
Rose Canyon
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
and
Point Loma
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
fault zones are part of the
San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...
system. About east of the bay are the
Laguna Mountains
The Laguna Mountains are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System in eastern San Diego County, southern California. The mountains run in a northwest/southeast alignment for approximately .
The mountains have long been inhabited by the i ...
in the
Peninsular Ranges, which are part of the
backbone of the American continents.
The city lies on approximately 200 deep canyons and hills separating its
mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...
s, creating small pockets of natural open space scattered throughout the city and giving it a hilly geography. Traditionally, San Diegans have built their homes and businesses on the mesas, while leaving the urban canyons relatively wild. Thus, the canyons give parts of the city a segmented feel, creating gaps between otherwise proximate neighborhoods and contributing to a low-density, car-centered environment. The
San Diego River
The San Diego River is a river in San Diego County, California. It originates in the Cuyamaca Mountains northwest of the town of Julian, then flows to the southwest until it reaches the El Capitan Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the river ...
runs through the middle of San Diego from east to west, creating a river valley that serves to divide the city into northern and southern segments. During the historic period and presumably earlier as well, the river has shifted its flow back and forth between San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, and its
fresh water was the focus of the earliest Spanish explorers.
Miguel Costansó Miguel Costansó (1741–1814), original name Miquel Constançó, was a Catalan engineer, cartographer and cosmographer. He joined the expedition of exploration of Alta California led by Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra, serving aboard ship ...
, a cartographer, wrote in 1769, "When asked by signs where the watering-place was, the Indians pointed to a grove which could be seen at a considerable distance to the northeast, giving to understand that a river or creek flowed through it, and that they would lead our men to it if they would follow."
["Expeditions by Sea" ''The Explorers''. Trans. Richard F. Pourade. La Jolla: Copley, 1960. 64–72.] That river was the San Diego River.
Several reservoirs and
Mission Trails Regional Park
Mission Trails Regional Park is a open space preserve within the city of San Diego, California, established in 1974. It is the sixth-largest municipally owned park in the United States, and the largest in California.
Description
The park cons ...
also lie between and separate developed areas of the city.
![Mission Valley facing NW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Mission_Valley_facing_NW.jpg)
Notable peaks within the city limits include
Cowles Mountain, the highest point in the city at ;
Black Mountain at ; and
Mount Soledad
Mount Soledad, also known as Soledad Mountain, is a prominent landmark in the city of San Diego, California, United States. The mountaintop is the site of the Mount Soledad Cross, the subject of a 25-year controversy over the involvement of reli ...
at . The
Cuyamaca Mountains and Laguna Mountains rise to the east of the city, and beyond the mountains are desert areas. The
Cleveland National Forest
Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres (), mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by ...
is a half-hour drive from downtown San Diego. Numerous farms are found in the valleys northeast and southeast of the city.
In its 2013 ParkScore ranking,
The Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has compl ...
reported that San Diego had the 9th-best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities. ParkScore ranks city park systems by a formula that analyzes acreage, access, and service and investment.
Communities and neighborhoods
![Normal Height's sign, Adams Avenue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Normal_Height%27s_sign%2C_Adams_Avenue.jpg)
The City of San Diego recognizes 52 individual areas as Community Planning Areas. Within a given planning area there may be several distinct neighborhoods. Altogether the city contains more than 100 identified
neighborhoods
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
.
Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay.
Balboa Park encompasses several mesas and canyons to the northeast, surrounded by older, dense urban communities including
Hillcrest and
North Park. To the east and southeast lie
City Heights, the
College Area
The College Area is a residential community in the Mid-City region of San Diego, California, United States. The College Area is dominated by San Diego State University (SDSU; once known as San Diego State College), after which the area is named. Se ...
, and
Southeast San Diego
Southeast San Diego refers to the southeastern portion of the City of San Diego (excluding South San Diego) and the neighborhoods south of State Route 94 ( Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway) and east of Downtown San Diego. There are three official ...
. To the north lies
Mission Valley
Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Miss ...
and
Interstate 8. The communities north of the valley and freeway, and south of
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, include
Clairemont,
Kearny Mesa,
Tierrasanta
Tierrasanta, Spanish for "holy land," or "holy ground", is a community within the city of San Diego, California. The symbol of Tierrasanta is an encircled Conquistador cross, similar to one atop Montserrat (mountain) near Barcelona, Spain, though ...
, and
Navajo. Stretching north from Miramar are the northern suburbs of
Mira Mesa
Mira Mesa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mesa, Table View") is a community and neighborhood in the city of San Diego, California. The city-recognized Mira Mesa Community Plan Area is roughly bounded by Interstate 15 on the east, Interstate 805 o ...
,
Scripps Ranch
Scripps Ranch is a community of San Diego, California in the northeastern part of that city. Its ZIP code is 92131. It is located east of Interstate 15, north of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and south of Poway.
Scripps Ranch is a coastal/i ...
,
Rancho Peñasquitos
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
*Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
, and
Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Bernardo is a master-planned community in the northern hills of the city of San Diego, California.
Geography
The topography of Rancho Bernardo consists of canyons and rolling hills that have large bedrock outcroppings. The major floral bio ...
. The far northeast portion of the city encompasses
Lake Hodges
Lake Hodges is a lake and reservoir located within the city limits of San Diego, California. It is about north of Downtown San Diego, just north of the Rancho Bernardo community, and just south of the city's border with Escondido. When full, th ...
and the
San Pasqual Valley
San Pasqual Valley, historically spelt as San Pascual (Spanish for " Saint Paschal"), is the northernmost community of the city of San Diego. It is named for the Kumeyaay village of San Pasqual that was once located there. It is bordered on the ...
, which holds an agricultural preserve.
Carmel Valley and
Del Mar Heights occupy the northwest corner of the city. To their south are
Torrey Pines State Reserve
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is of coastal state park located in the community of La Jolla, in San Diego, California, off North Torrey Pines Road. Although it is located within San Diego city limits, it remains one of the wildest stretche ...
and the business center of the
Golden Triangle
Golden Triangle may refer to:
Places
Asia
* Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production
* Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development
* Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist ...
. Further south are the beach and coastal communities of
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
,
Pacific Beach,
Mission Beach, and
Ocean Beach.
Point Loma
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
occupies the peninsula across
San Diego Bay from downtown. The communities of
South San Diego
South San Diego is a district within the City of San Diego, and is in the larger South Bay region of southwestern San Diego County, California. South San Diego is a practical exclave of San Diego, having no land connection with the rest of the c ...
(an
Exclave), such as
San Ysidro and
Otay Mesa
Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border.
It is bordered by the Otay River Valley and the city of Chula Vista on the north; Interstate 805 and the neighborhoods of Oc ...
, are located next to the
Mexico–United States border
The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border trave ...
, and are physically separated from the rest of the city by the cities of
National City and
Chula Vista
Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fifteenth largest city in the state of California, and the 78th-largest city in the United States. The popu ...
. A narrow strip of land at the bottom of San Diego Bay connects these southern neighborhoods with the rest of the city.
For the most part, San Diego neighborhood boundaries tend to be understood by its residents based on geographical boundaries like canyons and street patterns. The city recognized the importance of its neighborhoods when it organized its 2008 General Plan around the concept of a "City of Villages".
Cityscape
![San Diego Night Time Skyline](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/San_Diego_Night_Time_Skyline.jpg)
San Diego was originally centered on the
Old Town district, but by the late 1860s the focus had shifted to the bayfront, in the belief that this new location would increase trade. As the "New Town" – present-day Downtown – waterfront location quickly developed, it eclipsed Old Town as the center of San Diego.
The development of skyscrapers over in San Diego is attributed to the construction of the
El Cortez Hotel in 1927, the tallest building in the city from 1927 to 1963. As time went on, multiple buildings claimed the title of San Diego's tallest skyscraper, including the
Union Bank of California Building
The Union Bank of California Building is a 27- storey, skyscraper in San Diego, California, completed in 1969. For 20 years, the tower stood as the tallest building in the city, until the completion of the Symphony Towers in 1989.
See also
*L ...
and
Symphony Towers. Currently the tallest building in San Diego is
One America Plaza
One America Plaza is the tallest building in San Diego, California and a prominent fixture in the waterfront district of the downtown San Diego skyline. The 34-story, , , obelisk-shaped tower was designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects ...
, standing tall, which was completed in 1991.
The downtown skyline contains no
super-talls, as a regulation put in place by the
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...
in the 1970s set a limit on the height of buildings within a radius of the
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Feder ...
.
An iconic description of the skyline includes its skyscrapers being compared to the tools of a toolbox.
There are
several new high-rises under construction, including two that exceed 400 feet (122 m) in height.
Climate
San Diego has one of the top-ten best climates in the United States, according to the ''
Farmers' Almanac
''Farmers' Almanac'' is an annual American periodical that has been in continuous publication since 1818. Published by Geiger of Lewiston, Maine, the ''Farmers' Almanac'' provides long-range weather predictions for both the U.S. and Canada. The ...
'' and has one of the two best summer climates in the country as scored by
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...
. Under the
Köppen–Geiger climate classification system, the San Diego area has been variously categorized as having either a
semi-arid climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...
(''
BSh
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a des ...
'' in the original classification and ''BSkn'' in modified Köppen classification with the n denoting summer fog) or a
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(''Csa''). San Diego's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and mild winters, with most of the annual precipitation falling between December and March. The city has a mild climate year-round, with an average of 201 days above and low rainfall ( annually).
The climate in San Diego, like most of Southern California, often varies significantly over short geographical distances, resulting in
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
s. In San Diego, this is mostly because of 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
A marine layer is an air mass that develops over the surface of a large body of water, such as an ocean or large lake, in the presence of a temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on th ...
" cloud cover keeps the air cool and damp within a few miles of the coast, but yields to bright cloudless sunshine approximately inland. Sometimes the June gloom lasts into July, causing cloudy skies over most of San Diego for the entire day.
Even in the absence of June gloom, inland areas experience much more significant temperature variations than coastal areas, where the ocean serves as a moderating influence. Thus, for example, downtown San Diego averages January lows of and August highs of . The city of
El Cajon
El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the va ...
, just inland from downtown San Diego, averages January lows of and August highs of .
The average surface temperature of the water at Scripps Pier in the
California Current
The California Current is a cold water Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Sur. It is considered an Eastern bound ...
has increased by almost since 1950, according to scientists at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Additionally, the mean minimum is now above , putting San Diego in
hardiness zone 11, with the last freeze having occurred many decades ago.
![SurfPacificBeach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/SurfPacificBeach.jpg)
Annual rainfall along the coast averages and the median is . The months of December through March supply most of the rain, with February the only month averaging or more. The months of May through September tend to be almost completely dry. Although there are few wet days per month during the rainy period, rainfall can be heavy when it does fall. Rainfall is usually greater in the higher elevations of San Diego; some of the higher areas can receive per year. Variability from year to year can be dramatic: in the wettest years of 1883/1884 and 1940/1941, more than fell, whilst in the driest years there was as little as . The wettest month on record is December 1921 with .
Snow in the city is so rare that it has been observed only six times in the century-and-a-half that records have been kept. In 1949 and 1967, snow stayed on the ground for a few hours in higher locations like
Point Loma
Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...
and
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
. The other three occasions, in 1882, 1946, and 1987, involved flurries but no accumulation. On February 21, 2019, snow fell and accumulated in residential areas of the city, but none fell in the downtown area.
Ecology
![Torrey Pines State Park Valley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Torrey_Pines_State_Park_Valley.jpg)
Like much of
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
, the majority of San Diego's current area was originally occupied on the west by
coastal sage scrub
Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...
and on the east by
chaparral, plant communities made up mostly of drought-resistant shrubs. The steep and varied topography and proximity to the ocean create a number of different habitats within the city limits, including
tidal marsh
A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes are commonly zoned into lower marshes ( ...
and
canyons
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...
. The chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats in low elevations along the coast are prone to
wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
, and the rates of fire increased in the 20th century, due primarily to fires starting near the borders of urban and wild areas.
San Diego's broad city limits encompass a number of large nature preserves, including
Torrey Pines State Reserve
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is of coastal state park located in the community of La Jolla, in San Diego, California, off North Torrey Pines Road. Although it is located within San Diego city limits, it remains one of the wildest stretche ...
,
Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve
Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve is an urban park in San Diego, California. Stretching approximately , the park encompasses some of both Peñasquitos and Lopez canyons, and is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The preserve is j ...
, and
Mission Trails Regional Park
Mission Trails Regional Park is a open space preserve within the city of San Diego, California, established in 1974. It is the sixth-largest municipally owned park in the United States, and the largest in California.
Description
The park cons ...
. Torrey Pines State Reserve and a coastal strip continuing to the north constitute one of only two locations where the rare species of Torrey Pine, ''
Pinus torreyana
The Torrey pine (''Pinus torreyana'') is a rare pine species in California, United States. It is a critically endangered species growing only in coastal San Diego County, and on Santa Rosa Island, offshore from Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara ...
'', is found.
![San Diego skyline against smoke from wildfires Oct 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/San_Diego_skyline_against_smoke_from_wildfires_Oct_2007.jpg)
Due to the steep topography that prevents or discourages building, along with some efforts for preservation, there are also a large number of canyons within the city limits that serve as nature preserves, including
Switzer Canyon, Tecolote Canyon Natural Park,
and Marian Bear Memorial Park in
San Clemente Canyon
San Clemente Canyon is a canyon located in the city of San Diego, in San Diego County, California.Marian Bear Memorial Park, a linear open space park, is along the canyon and in the southern tributary arroyos and mesa.
Park
The canyon and Marian ...
,
as well as a number of small parks and preserves.
San Diego County has one of the highest counts of animal and plant species that appear on the
endangered list of counties in the United States.
Because of its diversity of habitat and its position on the
Pacific Flyway
The Pacific Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance both in spring and in fall, following food sources, heading ...
, San Diego County has recorded 492 different bird species, more than any other region in the country. San Diego always scores high in the number of bird species observed in the annual
Christmas Bird Count
The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society. The purpose is to provide pop ...
, sponsored by the
Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...
, and it is known as one of the "birdiest" areas in the United States.
San Diego and its backcountry suffer from periodic wildfires. In October 2003, San Diego was the site of the
Cedar Fire
The Cedar Fire was a massive, highly-destructive wildfire, which burned of land in San Diego County, California, San Diego County, California, during October and November 2003. The fire's rapid growth was driven by the Santa Ana wind, causing ...
, at that time the largest wildfire in California over the past century.
The fire burned , killed 15 people, and destroyed more than 2,200 homes. In addition to damage caused by the fire, smoke resulted in a significant increase in emergency room visits due to asthma, respiratory problems, eye irritation, and smoke inhalation; the poor air quality caused San Diego County schools to close for a week.
Wildfires four years later destroyed some areas, particularly within
Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Bernardo is a master-planned community in the northern hills of the city of San Diego, California.
Geography
The topography of Rancho Bernardo consists of canyons and rolling hills that have large bedrock outcroppings. The major floral bio ...
, as well as the nearby communities of
Rancho Santa Fe
Rancho Santa Fe is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California, United States, within the San Diego metropolitan area. The population was 3,156 at the 2020 census. The CDP is primarily residential with a few shopping block ...
and
Ramona
''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...
.
Demographics
![Race and ethnicity 2010- San Diego (5560483270)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Race_and_ethnicity_2010-_San_Diego_%285560483270%29.png)
The city had a population of 1,307,402 according to the 2010 census, distributed over a land area of . The urban area of San Diego extends beyond the administrative city limits and had a total population of 2,956,746, making it the
third-largest urban area in the state, after that of the
Los Angeles metropolitan area
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino C ...
and
San Francisco metropolitan area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gove ...
. They, along with the
Riverside–San Bernardino, form those metropolitan areas in California larger than the
San Diego metropolitan area, which had a total population of 3,095,313 at the 2010 census.
The 2010 population represents an increase of just under 7% from the 1,223,400 people, 450,691 households, and 271,315 families reported in 2000.
The estimated city population in 2009 was 1,306,300. The population density was . The racial makeup of San Diego was 58.9%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 6.7% African American, 0.6% Native American, 15.9%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
(5.9%
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
, 2.7%
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
, 2.5%
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
, 1.3%
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
, 1.0%
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
, 0.7%
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, 0.4%
Laotian, 0.3%
Cambodian
Cambodian usually refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Cambodia
** Cambodian people (or Khmer people)
** Cambodian language (or Khmer language)
** For citizens and nationals of Cambodia, see Demographics of Cambodia
** Fo ...
, 0.1%
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
). 0.5%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
(0.2%
Guamanian
The Chamorro people (; also CHamoru) are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the encompassing Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, signifi ...
, 0.1%
Samoan, 0.1%
Native Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawa ...
), 12.3% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 5.1% from two or more races. The ethnic makeup of the city was 28.8%
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
(of any race);
24.9% of the total population were
Mexican American, 1.4% were
Spanish American
Spanish Americans ( es, españoles estadounidenses, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in th ...
and 0.6% were
Puerto Rican. Median age of Hispanics was 27.5 years, compared to 35.1 years overall and 41.6 years among non-Hispanic whites; Hispanics were the largest group in all ages under 18, and non-Hispanic whites constituted 63.1% of population 55 and older.
, the San Diego City and County had the fifth-largest
homeless population among major cities in the United States, with 8,102 people experiencing homelessness. In the city of San Diego, 4,887 individuals were experiencing homelessness according to the 2020 count.
In 2000 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. Households made up of individuals account for 28.0%, 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.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2000, 24.0% of San Diego residents were under 18, and 10.5% were 65 and over.
the median age was 35.6; more than a quarter of residents were under age 20 and 11% were over age 65.
Millennials (ages 18 through 34) constitute 27.1% of San Diego's population, the second-highest percentage in a major U.S. city. The San Diego County regional planning agency, SANDAG, provides tables and graphs breaking down the city population into five-year age groups.
In 2000, 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 $35,199.
According to ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' in 2005, San Diego was the fifth wealthiest U.S. city,
but 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.
San Diego was rated the fifth-best place to live in the United States in 2006 by ''
Money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
'' magazine,
and it was rated #6 in Best Big Cities in 2018.
As of January 1, 2008 estimates by the
San Diego Association of Governments revealed that the household median income for San Diego rose to $66,715, up from $45,733 in 2000.
San Diego was named the ninth-most
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
-friendly city in the U.S. in 2013. The city also has the
seventh-highest population of gay residents in the U.S. Additionally in 2013,
San Diego State University
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
(SDSU), one of the city's prominent universities, was named one of the top LGBT-friendly campuses in the nation.
According to a 2014 study by the
Pew Research Center, 68% of the population of the city identified themselves as
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...
, with 32% professing attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, and 32% professing
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
beliefs. while 27% claim
no religious affiliation. The same study says that other religions (including
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
,
Islam, and
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
) collectively make up about 5% of the population.
Economy
The largest sectors of San Diego's economy are
defense/military,
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
,
international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy)
In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...
, and
research
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
/
manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...
.
In 2014, San Diego was designated by a ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' columnist as the best city in the country to launch a small business or
startup company
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...
.
San Diego recorded a
median household income
The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two equal groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways o ...
of $79,646 in 2018, an increase of 3.89% from $76,662 in 2017.
[San Diego](_blank)
''DataUSA'' The median property value in San Diego in 2018 was $654,700,
and the average home has two cars per household.
Defense and military
![FA18CHornetOverSanDiegoNov08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/FA18CHornetOverSanDiegoNov08.jpg)
The economy of San Diego is influenced by
its deepwater port, which includes the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
. Several major national
defense contractor
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and se ...
s were started and are headquartered in San Diego, including
General Atomics
General Atomics is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, specializing in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion energy. Th ...
,
Cubic, and
NASSCO.
San Diego hosts the largest naval fleet in the world: In 2008 it was home to 53 ships, over 120 tenant commands, and more than 35,000 sailors, marines,
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
civilian employees and contractors.
About 5 percent of all civilian jobs in the county are military-related, and 15,000 businesses in San Diego County rely on Department of Defense contracts.
Military bases in San Diego include
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
facilities,
Marine Corps
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...
bases, and
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
stations.
The city is "home to the majority of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's surface combatants, all of the Navy's West Coast amphibious ships and a variety of Coast Guard and Military Sealift Command vessels".
The military infrastructure in San Diego is still growing and developing, with numerous military personnel stationed there, numbers of which are expected to rise. This plays a significant role in the city's economy, as of 2020, it provides roughly 25% of the GDP and provides 23% of the total jobs in San Diego.
Tourism
![Harbor Drive, San Diego](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Harbor_Drive%2C_San_Diego.jpg)
Tourism is a major industry owing to the city's climate,
beaches
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
, and tourist attractions such as
Balboa Park,
Belmont amusement park,
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...
,
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, originally named the San Diego Wild Animal Park until 2010, is an 1,800 acre (730 ha) zoo in the San Pasqual Valley area of San Diego, California, near Escondido. It is one of the largest tourist attractions in S ...
, and
SeaWorld San Diego
SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outside aquarium and marine mammal park, in San Diego, California, United States, inside Mission Bay Park. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
SeaWorld San Diego ...
. San Diego's Spanish and Mexican heritage is reflected in many historic sites across the city, such as
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá ( es, Misión San Diego de Alcalá) was the second Franciscan founded mission in The Californias (after San Fernando de Velicata), a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it ...
and
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, located in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, California, is a state protected historical park in San Diego. It commemorates the early days of the City of San Diego and includes many historic buildings ...
. Also, the
local craft brewing industry attracts an increasing number of visitors for "beer tours" and the annual San Diego Beer Week in November; San Diego has been called "America's Craft Beer Capital."
San Diego County hosted more than 32 million visitors in 2012; collectively they spent an estimated $8 billion. The visitor industry provides employment for more than 160,000 people.
San Diego's cruise ship industry used to be the second-largest in California. Numerous cruise lines operate out of San Diego. However, cruise ship business has been in decline since 2008, when the Port hosted over 250 ship calls and more than 900,000 passengers. By 2016–2017, the number of ship calls had fallen to 90.
Local sightseeing cruises are offered in San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, as well as whale-watching cruises to observe the migration of
gray whales, peaking in mid-January.
Sport fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit (economics), profit; or subsistence fishing ...
is another popular tourist attraction; San Diego is home to southern California's biggest sport fishing fleet.
International trade
![San Diego Skyline Panorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/San_Diego_Skyline_Panorama.jpg)
San Diego's commercial port and its location on the
United States–Mexico border
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
make international trade an important factor in the city's economy. The city is authorized by the United States government to operate as a
Foreign Trade Zone.
The city shares a border with Mexico that includes two border crossings. San Diego hosts the busiest international border crossing in the world, in the San Ysidro neighborhood at the
San Ysidro Port of Entry
__NOTOC__
The San Ysidro Port of Entry (aka San Ysidro Land Port of Entry or San Ysidro LPOE) is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the fourth- busiest land border crossing in the world (second-busiest if one exclu ...
. A second, primarily commercial border crossing operates in the
Otay Mesa
Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border.
It is bordered by the Otay River Valley and the city of Chula Vista on the north; Interstate 805 and the neighborhoods of Oc ...
area; it is the largest commercial crossing on the California-
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
border and handles the third-highest volume of trucks and dollar value of trade among all United States-Mexico land crossings.
One of the Port of San Diego's two
cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
facilities is located in
Downtown San Diego at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. This terminal has facilities for
containers
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
,
bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities.
Description
Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude o ...
, and
refrigerated
The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
and frozen storage, so that it can handle the import and export of many commodities. In 2009 the Port of San Diego handled 1,137,054 short tons of total trade; foreign trade accounted for 956,637 short tons while domestic trade amounted to 180,417 short tons.
Historically tuna fishing and canning was one of San Diego's major industries, although the American tuna fishing fleet is no longer based in San Diego. Seafood company
Bumble Bee Foods
Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is a company that produces canned tuna, salmon, other seafoods, and chicken under the brand names "Bumble Bee," "Wild Selections," "Beach Cliff," "Brunswick," and "Snow's." The brand is marketed as " Clover Leaf" in Can ...
is headquartered in San Diego and
Chicken of the Sea
Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups, as a ...
was until 2018.
Companies
![Qualcomm Headquarters La Jolla](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Qualcomm_Headquarters_La_Jolla.jpg)
San Diego hosts several major producers of wireless cellular technology.
Qualcomm was founded and is headquartered in San Diego, and is one of the largest private-sector employers in San Diego.
Other wireless industry manufacturers headquartered here include
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
,
LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...
,
Kyocera International
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunica ...
,
Cricket Communications
Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider, owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T ac ...
and Novatel Wireless. San Diego also has the U.S. headquarters for the Slovakian security company
ESET. San Diego has been designated as an iHub Innovation Center for potential collaboration between wireless and the life sciences.
The
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
and other research institutions have helped to fuel the growth of
biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...
.
In 2013, San Diego had the second-largest biotech cluster in the United States, below the
Boston area and above the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
. There are more than 400 biotechnology companies in the area. In particular, the
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
and nearby
Sorrento Valley
Sorrento Valley is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located about 17 mi (27 km) north of Downtown San Diego and its main airport, Lindbergh Field. It is roughly bounded by Interstate 5 and Interstate 805, Camino Santa Fe t ...
areas are home to offices and research facilities for numerous biotechnology companies.
Major biotechnology companies like
Illumina and
Neurocrine Biosciences
Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company founded in 1992. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, and led by CEO Kevin Gorman. Neurocrine develops treatments for neurological and endocrine-related diseas ...
are headquartered in San Diego, while many other biotech and pharmaceutical companies have offices or research facilities in San Diego. San Diego is also home to more than 140
contract research organizations (CROs) that provide contract services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Top employers
According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report,
[City of San Diego, California Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Year ended June 30, 2021](_blank)
page 304 the top employers in the city are:
Real estate
![LaJollaSkyline](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/LaJollaSkyline.jpg)
San Diego has high real estate prices. San Diego home prices peaked in 2005, and then declined along with the national trend. As of December 2010, prices were down 36 percent from the peak,
median price of homes having declined by more than $200,000 between 2005 and 2010. As of May 2015, the median price of a house was $520,000. In November 2018 the median home price was $558,000. The San Diego metropolitan area had one of the worst housing affordability rankings of all metropolitan areas in the United States in 2009.
Consequently, San Diego has experienced negative net migration since 2004. A significant number of people moved to adjacent
Riverside County
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Uni ...
, commuting daily to jobs in San Diego, while others are leaving the region altogether and moving to more affordable regions.
Government
Local government
![AssemblymemberToddGloria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/AssemblymemberToddGloria.jpg)
The city is governed by a mayor and a nine-member city council. In 2006, its government changed from a
council–manager government
The council–manager government is a form of local government used for municipalities, counties, or other equivalent regions. It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States along with the mayor–council gover ...
to a
strong mayor government, as decided by a citywide vote in 2004. The mayor is in effect the chief executive officer of the city, while the council is the legislative body. The City of San Diego is responsible for
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
, public safety, streets, water and sewer service, planning and zoning, and similar services within its borders. San Diego is a
sanctuary city, however, San Diego County is a participant of the
Secure Communities
Secure Communities is a data-sharing program that relies on coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.ICE. Secure Communities: A Comprehensive Plan to Identify and Remove Criminal Aliens (Strategic Plan). July 21, 2009 ...
program. , the city had one employee for every 137 residents, with a payroll greater than $733 million.
The members of the city council are each elected from single-member districts within the city. The mayor and city attorney are elected directly by the voters of the entire city. The mayor, city attorney, and council members are elected to four-year terms, with a two-term limit. Elections are held on a non-partisan basis per California state law; nevertheless, most officeholders do identify themselves as either Democrats or Republicans. In 2007, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by about 7 to 6 in the city,
and Democrats currently () hold an 8–1 majority in the city council. The current mayor,
Todd Gloria
Todd Rex Gloria (born May 10, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 37th and current mayor of San Diego since 2020. As a strong mayor, he is the chief executive officer in the city of San Diego. A member of the Democratic Party, he is t ...
, is a member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
.
![San Diego City Council chambers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/San_Diego_City_Council_chambers.jpg)
San Diego is part of
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
, and includes all or part of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th supervisorial districts of the
San Diego County Board of Supervisors
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is the legislative branch of the county government of San Diego County, California. Though officially nonpartisan, three Democrats and two Republicans currently comprise the Board of Supervisors, with ...
, Other county officers elected in part by city residents include the
Sheriff,
District Attorney, Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk, and Treasurer/Tax Collector.
Areas of the city immediately adjacent to
San Diego Bay ("
tidelands
Tidelands are the territory between the tide line of sea coasts, and lands lying under the sea beyond the low-water limit of the tide, considered within the territorial waters of a nation. The United States Constitution does not specify whether ...
") are administered by the
Port of San Diego
The Port of San Diego is a seaport in San Diego, California. It is located on San Diego Bay in southwestern San Diego County, California, and is a self-supporting district established in 1962 by an act of the California State Legislature. In addi ...
, a quasi-governmental agency which owns all the property in the tidelands and is responsible for its land use planning, policing, and similar functions. San Diego is a member of the regional planning agency
San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). Public schools within the city are managed and funded by independent school districts (see
below).
State and federal representation
In the
California State Senate, San Diego County encompasses the
38th,
39th and
40th districts, represented by , , and , respectively.
In the
California State Assembly, lying partially within the city of San Diego are the
77th,
78th,
79th, and
80th districts, represented by , , , and , respectively.
In the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
, San Diego County includes parts or all of California's
49th,
50th,
51st,
52nd, and
53rd congressional districts, represented by , , , , and , respectively.
Election history
After narrowly supporting
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
in 1964, San Diego provided majorities to all six Republican presidential candidates from 1968 to 1988. However, in more recent decades, San Diego has trended in favor of
Democratic presidential candidates for president.
George H. W. Bush in 1988 is the last Republican candidate to carry San Diego in a presidential election.
Major scandals
San Diego was the site of the 1912
San Diego free speech fight
The San Diego free speech fight in San Diego, California, in 1912 was one of the most famous "free speech fights", class conflicts over the free speech rights of labor unions.
Introduction
By the beginning of the 20th century, growing confronta ...
, in which the city restricted speech, vigilantes brutalized and tortured anarchists, and the
San Diego Police Department
The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for the city of San Diego, California. The department was officially established on May 16, 1889.
History
Prior to the establishment of the San Diego Police Departm ...
killed a member of the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
(IWW).
In 1916,
rainmaker Charles Hatfield
Charles Mallory Hatfield (July 15, 1875January 12, 1958) was an American " rainmaker".
Early life
Hatfield was born in Fort Scott, Kansas on July 15, 1875. His family moved to Southern California in the 1880s. As an adult, he became a salesman ...
was blamed for $4 million in damages and accused of causing San Diego's worst
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
, during which about 20
Japanese American farmers died.
Then-mayor
Roger Hedgecock
Roger Allan Hedgecock (born May 2, 1946) is an American politician and conservative talk radio host, who served as 30th mayor of San Diego between May 1983 and December 1985. His show is syndicated by Radio America.
Early life
Hedgecock was bor ...
was forced to resign his post in 1985, after he was found guilty of one count of
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...
and 12 counts of
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
, related to the alleged failure to report all
campaign contributions
Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, Political party, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, a ...
.
After a series of appeals, the 12 perjury counts were dismissed in 1990 based on claims of
juror misconduct
Juror misconduct is when the law of the court is violated by a member of the jury while a court case is in progression or after it has reached a verdict."USLegal Definitions"
Misconduct can take several forms:
* Communication by the jury with ...
; the remaining conspiracy count was reduced to a
misdemeanor and then dismissed.
A 2002 scheme to underfund pensions for city employees led to the
San Diego pension scandal The San Diego City Employee's Retirement Pension Fund was the source of a multi-year scandal and has been an ongoing financial concern for the city of San Diego, California.
Situation background
The San Diego City Employees' Retirement System had ...
. This resulted in the resignation of newly re-elected Mayor
Dick Murphy
Richard M. Murphy (born December 16, 1942) is a former American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of San Diego, California from 2000 to 2005.
Early life
Murphy was born 1942 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was captain of the varsity basketbal ...
and the criminal indictment of six pension board members. Those charges were finally dismissed by a federal judge in 2010.
On November 28, 2005, U.S. Congressman
Randy "Duke" Cunningham
Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham (born December 8, 1941) is a former American politician, decorated Vietnam War veteran, fighter ace, and ex-felon. Cunningham served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's ...
resigned after being convicted on federal
bribery charges. He had represented
California's 50th congressional district
California's 50th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California, and encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County and a small part of Riverside County. Darrell Issa is currently the ...
, which includes much of the northern portion of the city of San Diego. In 2006, Cunningham was sentenced to a 100-month prison sentence. He was released in 2013.
In 2005 two city council members,
Ralph Inzunza
Ralph Inzunza (born c. 1969) is a former city councilman from San Diego. He was elected in March 2001 to represent City Council District 8. He resigned in July 2005 along with Councilman Michael Zucchet after both were convicted on federal corrupt ...
and Deputy Mayor
Michael Zucchet
Michael J. Zucchet (born December 24, 1969) is an American Democratic politician, a former member of the San Diego City Council, and a former Deputy Mayor of San Diego. In 2005, he briefly served as the Acting Mayor of San Diego.
Early life and ...
– who briefly took over as acting mayor when Murphy resigned – were convicted of
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
,
wire fraud
Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...
, 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. Inzunza was sentenced to 21 months in prison. In 2009, a judge acquitted Zucchet on seven out of the nine counts against him, and granted his petition for a new trial on the other two charges; the remaining charges were eventually dropped.
In July 2013, three former supporters of mayor
Bob Filner
Robert Earl "Bob" Filner (born September 4, 1942) is an American former politician who was the 35th mayor of San Diego from December 2012 through August 2013, when he resigned amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He later pleaded gui ...
asked him to resign because of allegations of repeated
sexual harassment. Over the ensuing six weeks, 18 women came forward to publicly claim that Filner had sexually harassed them, and multiple individuals and groups called for him to resign. Filner agreed to resign effective August 30, 2013, subsequently pleaded guilty to one felony count of
false imprisonment
False imprisonment or unlawful imprisonment occurs when a person intentionally restricts another person’s movement within any area without legal authority, justification, or the restrained person's permission. Actual physical restraint is ...
and two misdemeanor
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
charges, and was sentenced to
house arrest and
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
.
Crime
![San Diego Police Department car](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/San_Diego_Police_Department_car.jpg)
Like most major cities, San Diego had a declining crime rate from 1990 to 2000. 1991 would mark the city's deadliest year, registering 179 homicides within city limits (while the
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
as a whole peaked at 278 homicides), capping off an unabated, eight-year climb in murders, rapes, robberies, and assault dating back to 1983. At the time, the city was ranked last among the 10 most populous U.S. cities in homicides per 1,000 population, and ninth in crimes per 1,000. From 1980 to 1994, San Diego surpassed 100 murders ten times before tapering off to 91 homicides in 1995. That number would not exceed 79 for the next 15 years. Crime in San Diego increased in the early 2000s.
In 2004, San Diego had the sixth lowest crime rate of any U.S. city with over half a million residents.
From 2002 to 2006, the crime rate overall dropped 0.8%, though not evenly by category. While
violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objecti ...
decreased 12.4% during this period,
property crime
Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime is a crime to obtain money, property, o ...
increased 1.1%. Total property crimes per 100,000 people were lower than the national average in 2008.
According to
Uniform Crime Report
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and co ...
statistics compiled by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) in 2010, there were 5,616 violent crimes and 30,753 property crimes. Of these, the violent crimes consisted of forcible rapes, 73 robberies and 170 aggravated assaults, while 6,387 burglaries, 17,977 larceny-thefts, 6,389 motor vehicle thefts and 155 acts of arson defined the property offenses. In 2013, San Diego had the lowest murder rate of the ten largest cities in the United States.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Public schools in San Diego are operated by independent
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations.
North America United States
In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...
s. The majority of the public schools in the city are served by the
San Diego Unified School District
San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the school district based in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employee ...
, the second-largest school district in California, which includes 11 K–8 schools, 107 elementary schools, 24 middle schools, 13 atypical and alternative schools, 28 high schools, and 45
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
s.
Several adjacent school districts which are headquartered outside the city limits serve some schools within the city; these include the
Poway Unified School District
Poway Unified School District is a school district located in Poway, California. The district operates 26 elementary schools (grades Preschool–5), seven middle schools (6–8); five comprehensive high schools (9–12); and one continuation hi ...
,
Del Mar Union School District
The Del Mar Union School District (DMUSD) is a public school district based in Del Mar in San Diego County, California. The district was founded in 1906. For many years, the district was small, serving approximately 1,000 students in the City ...
,
San Dieguito Union High School District
San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) is a public school district in northern San Diego County, California. Established in 1936, the district serves over 13,000 students in five middle schools, five comprehensive high schools, and one a ...
, and
Sweetwater Union High School District. In addition, there are a number of private schools in the city.
Colleges and universities
![Hepner Hall, San Diego State University](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Hepner_Hall%2C_San_Diego_State_University.jpg)
According to education rankings released by the
U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
in 2017, 44.4% of San Diegans (city, not county) ages 25 and older hold
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
s, compared to 30.9% in the United States as a whole. The census ranks the city as the ninth-most educated city in the United States, based on these figures.
The largest university in the area is the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
(UC San Diego). The university is the southernmost campus of the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
system and is the second largest employer in the city. It is the only university in the city that is
classified "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity", and it has the 7th largest research expenditure in the country.
Other public colleges and universities in the city include
San Diego State University
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
(SDSU) and the
San Diego Community College District
The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) is a public community college district in San Diego, California. The SDCCD is one of the five community college districts in San Diego County and part of the California Community Colleges system. ...
, which includes
San Diego City College
San Diego City College (City College or City) is a public community college in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Community College District and the California Community College System. San Diego City College is accredited by t ...
,
San Diego Mesa College
San Diego Mesa College (Mesa College or Mesa) is a public community college in Clairemont Mesa in San Diego, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges and the San Diego Community College District. It is the largest communit ...
, and
San Diego Miramar College
San Diego Miramar College (Miramar) is a public community college in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Community College District and the California Community Colleges System.
Notable alumni
* Brian Awadis (FaZe Rug): YouTube ...
.
Private non-profit colleges and universities in the city include the
University of San Diego (USD),
Point Loma Nazarene University
Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a private Christian liberal arts college with its main campus on the Point Loma oceanfront in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1902 as a Bible college by the Church of the Nazarene ...
(PLNU),
National University's San Diego campus,
University of Redlands
The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...
' School of Business San Diego campus,
Brandman University's San Diego campus,
San Diego Christian College
San Diego Christian College (SDCC) is a private, evangelical college in Santee, California, a suburb of San Diego. Founded in 1970, SDCC offers traditional, non-traditional, and graduate programs.
History
In January 1970, Tim F. LaHaye, pastor ...
, and
John Paul the Great Catholic University
John Paul the Great Catholic University (JPCatholic) is a private Roman Catholic university in Escondido, California. It offers Bachelor of Science degrees and a Bachelor of Arts degree.
History
John Paul the Great Catholic University was foun ...
. For-profit institutions include
Alliant International University (AIU),
California International Business University
California International Business University (CIBU) was a private university in San Diego, California. The university was located in the Little Italy section of downtown San Diego. The university offered a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) ...
(CIBU),
California College San Diego,
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) is a private college in downtown Los Angeles. It offers degree programs in majors including fashion, entertainment, beauty, interior design, and graphic design. The college was founded in 19 ...
's San Diego campus,
NewSchool of Architecture and Design,
Platt College,
Southern States University (SSU),
UEI College
UEI College is a Private college, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit career college with locations in the U.S. states of California, Washington (state), Washington, Arizona, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It ...
, and
Woodbury University
Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California, with a satellite campus in San Diego.
History
The school was founded in 1884 as Woodbury's Business College by its namesake, F. C. Woodbury, formerly a partner in Heald's Busi ...
School of Architecture's satellite campus.
There is one medical school in the city, the
UC San Diego School of Medicine
The University of California San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego. It was the third medical school in the University of California system, after those established at UCSF and UCLA, ...
. There are three
ABA accredited law schools in the city, which include
California Western School of Law
California Western School of Law is a private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from th ...
,
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) is a private law school in San Diego, California. It offers a Juris Doctor and three Master of Laws programs, including one that is exclusively online,"How to enroll in America's first LLM Program". http: ...
, and
University of San Diego School of Law
The University of San Diego School of Law (USD Law) is the law school of the University of San Diego, a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1954, the law school has held ABA approval since 1961. I ...
. There is also one law school,
Western Sierra Law School, not accredited by the ABA.
Libraries
![Geisel-Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Geisel-Library.jpg)
The city-run
San Diego Public Library
The San Diego Public Library is a public library system serving the city of San Diego, California.
History
The San Diego Public Library was established on May 19, 1882, by an elected board of library trustees, one of whom was civic leader a ...
system is headquartered downtown and has 36 branches throughout the city. The newest location is in Skyline Hills, which broke ground in 2015. The libraries have had reduced operating hours since 2003 due to the city's financial problems. In 2006 the city increased spending on libraries by $2.1 million.
A new nine-story Central Library on Park Boulevard at J Street opened on September 30, 2013.
In addition to the municipal public library system, there are nearly two dozen libraries open to the public run by other governmental agencies, and by schools, colleges, and universities. Noteworthy are the
Malcolm A. Love Library at San Diego State University, and the
Geisel Library
Geisel Library is the main library building of the University of California, San Diego. It is named in honor of Audrey and Theodor Seuss Geisel. Theodor is better known as children's author Dr. Seuss. The building's distinctive architecture, des ...
at the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
.
Culture
![San Diego Museum of Man 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/San_Diego_Museum_of_Man_01.jpg)
Many popular museums, such as the
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Galler ...
, the
San Diego Natural History Museum
The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and th ...
, the
Museum of Us, the
Museum of Photographic Arts
The Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) is a museum in San Diego's Balboa Park. First founded in 1974, MOPA opened in 1983.[San Diego Air & Space Museum
San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...](_blank)
, are located in Balboa Park, which is also the location of the
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...
. The
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (or MCASD), in San Diego, California, US, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present.
Mission
The stated mission of ...
(MCASD) is located in La Jolla and has a branch located at the
Santa Fe Depot downtown. The downtown branch consists of two buildings on two opposite streets. The
Columbia district
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company betw ...
downtown is home to historic ship exhibits belonging to the
San Diego Maritime Museum
The Maritime Museum of San Diego, established in 1948, preserves one of the largest collections of historic sea vessels in the United States. Located on the San Diego Bay, the centerpiece of the museum's collection is the '' Star of India'', an 18 ...
, headlined by the
Star of India, as well as the unrelated
San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum
The USS ''Midway'' Museum is a historical naval aircraft carrier museum located in downtown San Diego, California at Navy Pier. The museum consists of the aircraft carrier . The ship houses an extensive collection of aircraft, many of which we ...
featuring the aircraft carrier.
The
San Diego Symphony
The San Diego Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in San Diego, California. The orchestra is resident at Copley Symphony Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for the San Diego Opera.
History
On December 6th 1910, th ...
at
Symphony Towers performs on a regular basis; from 2004 to 2017, its director was
Jahja Ling
Jahja Ling () is a conductor, music director and pianist. From 2004 to 2017, he was the music director and conductor at the San Diego Symphony. Following his retirement in 2017, he plans to do guest conducting, as well as teaching and voluntee ...
. The
San Diego Opera The San Diego Opera Association (SDO) is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California. It incorporated in 1965, presenting operas under the name of the San Diego Opera.[Old Globe Theatre
The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons. Plays are performed in three separate theatres in the complex, which i ...]
at Balboa Park produces about 15 plays and musicals annually. The
La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
History
La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer. In 1983, it was revived under ...
at UCSD is directed by
Christopher Ashley
Christopher Ashley (born July 6, 1964) is an American stage director. Since 2007, he has been the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse.
Career
Ashley graduated from Yale University in 1986, with a Bachelor of Art in Theatre. . Both the Old Globe Theatre and the La Jolla Playhouse have produced the world premieres of plays and musicals that have gone on to win
Tony Awards
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
or nominations on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. The
Joan B. Kroc Theatre at Kroc Center's Performing Arts Center is a 600-seat state-of-the-art theater that hosts music, dance, and theater performances. The
San Diego Repertory Theatre
The San Diego Repertory Theatre is a performing arts company in San Diego, California.
History
The company grew out of Indian Magique, a street theater group of actors, writers, directors, and producers, some of whom were theater graduates from ...
at the Lyceum Theatres in
Westfield Horton Plaza
Horton Plaza, not to be confused with its adjacent namesake Horton Plaza Park, was a five-level outdoor shopping mall located in downtown San Diego. It was known for its bright colors, architectural tricks, and odd spatial rhythms. It stood on 6. ...
produces a variety of plays and musicals. Hundreds of movies and a dozen TV shows have been
filmed in San Diego, a tradition going back as far as 1898.
Sports
![Petco_Park_Padres_Game](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Petco_Park_Padres_Game.jpg)
San Diego is home to one
major professional sports team,
Major League Baseball (MLB)'s
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...
. The region is home to several other highest-level professional teams,
minor league teams,
semi-pro
''Semi-Pro'' is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tier ...
and amateur teams, and
college athletics
College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games.
World University Games
The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...
teams.
The region has previously hosted the
National Football League (NFL)
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
's
Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...
and the
National Basketball Association (NBA)'s
Rockets
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...
and
Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...
, all three of which relocated from the region due to a combination of ownership and stadium/arena issues. San Diego has additionally been the past home of two other defunct major professional teams: the
San Diego Conquistadors/Sails, which competed in the
American Basketball Association (ABA) for four seasons before folding less than a year prior to the
ABA–NBA merger
The ABA-NBA merger was a major pro sports business maneuver in 1976 when the American Basketball Association (ABA) combined with the National Basketball Association (NBA), after multiple attempts over several years. The NBA and ABA had entered ...
of 1976, and the
San Diego Mariners
The San Diego Mariners were an ice hockey team based in San Diego that played in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Previous to being in San Diego, the team was known as the New York Raiders, New York ...
, which played three seasons in the
World Hockey Association (WHA) before folding less than two years before the
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
–WHA merger of 1979.
Highest-level professional teams
The following teams compete at their sport's highest level of domestic competition
Bold indicates
major professional league team
''Italic'' indicates
semi-pro
''Semi-Pro'' is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tier ...
or professional-level
club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises ...
team (highest competitive level leagues of sports with no fully-professional domestic competition)
Minor league professional teams
The following teams compete below their sport's highest level of domestic competition
College athletics
The
San Diego State Aztecs
The San Diego State Aztecs are the athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level.
The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I ( FBS for foo ...
(
MW), the
San Diego Toreros
The San Diego Toreros are the 17 teams representing the University of San Diego of San Diego, California in intercollegiate athletics. The Toreros compete in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of the National Collegiate At ...
(
WCC), and the
UC San Diego Tritons
The UC San Diego Tritons are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, San Diego. UC San Diego has 23 varsity sports teams and offers student participation in a wide range of sports. As of July 1, 2020, all UC San Diego team ...
(
BWC) are
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...
teams. The
Cal State San Marcos Cougars
The Cal State San Marcos Cougars are the athletic teams that represent California State University, San Marcos, located in San Marcos, California, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic ...
(
CCAA) and
Point Loma Sea Lions (
PacWest) are members of
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...
, while the
San Diego Christian Hawks (
GSAC) and
Saint Katherine Firebirds (
CalPac) are members of the
NAIA.
Annual sports events
San Diego has hosted numerous other major sports events. College football's annual
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...
, the
Holiday Bowl
The Holiday Bowl is a post-season NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game that has been played in San Diego since 1978. San Diego County Credit Union has been the game's title sponsor since 2017, and the bowl has ...
, is held in the city. The annual
Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament (formerly the San Diego Open and Buick Invitational) on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...
occurs at
Torrey Pines Golf Course
Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility on the west coast of the United States, owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla, just south ...
. This course was also the site of the
2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship. Soccer,
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
, and track and field are also played in
Balboa Stadium
Balboa Stadium is an American football and soccer stadium on the west coast of the United States, located in San Diego, California. Just east of San Diego High School, the original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the 1915 Panama–Californ ...
, the city's first stadium, which was constructed in 1914.
The
San Diego Yacht Club
San Diego Yacht Club is a yacht club located in San Diego Bay. It is located in Point Loma across from a spit of land known as Shelter Island.
Facilities
The San Diego Yacht Club facility has a main dining room and outdoor deck seating, a b ...
hosted the
America's Cup yacht races three times during the period 1988 to 1995. The amateur beach sport
Over-the-line was invented in San Diego, and the annual world Over-the-line championships are held at Mission Bay every year.
Media
Published within the city are the daily newspaper, ''
The San Diego Union Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'' and its online portal of the same name, and the alternative newsweeklies, the ''
San Diego CityBeat
''San Diego CityBeat'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in San Diego, California that focused on local progressive politics, arts, and music. It was published every Wednesday and distributed around San Diego county, although with a focus on the ...
'' and ''
San Diego Reader
The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in the county of San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With ...
''. ''
Times of San Diego
San Diego is one of the major cities in California. The following is a list of media outlets based in the city of San Diego. People in San Diego are also able to receive media from Tijuana, Mexico.
Print Newspapers
* ''The San Diego Union-Tribu ...
'' is a free online newspaper covering news in the metropolitan area. ''
Voice of San Diego
''Voice of San Diego'' is a nonprofit news organization focused on issues affecting the San Diego region.
Background
''Voice of San Diego'' is an online-only local news site. Established in 2005, it was one of a number of such publications tha ...
'' is a non-profit online news outlet covering government, politics, education, neighborhoods, and the arts. The ''San Diego Daily Transcript'' is a business-oriented online newspaper.
San Diego is also the headquarters of national
far-right cable TV channel
One America News Network (OANN), which was founded in 2013 and is owned by
Herring Networks
Herring Networks Inc. is a media company based in San Diego, California. It was founded in 2003 by Robert Herring. Through its Herring Broadcasting division, the company owns and operates two cable networks: AWE Network (originally known as Wea ...
. The network gained notoriety for being ardent supporters of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
and providing a platform for
right-wing conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
.
San Diego led U.S. local markets with 69.6 percent broadband penetration in 2004 according to
Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
.
San Diego's first television station was
KFMB, which began broadcasting on May 16, 1949.
Since the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) licensed seven television stations in Los Angeles, two
VHF channels were available for San Diego because of its relative proximity to the larger city. In 1952, however, the FCC began licensing
UHF channels, making it possible for cities such as San Diego to acquire more stations. Stations based in Mexico (with
ITU prefixes of XE and XH) also serve the San Diego market. Television stations today include
XHCPDE 11 (
Canal Once (Mexico)),
XETV
XETV-TDT (channels 6 and 16) is a television station located in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, broadcasting programs from Canal 5 and NU9VE. Its terrestrial signal also covers the San Diego, California area across the international border in ...
6 (
Canal 5/
Nueve),
KFMB 8 (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, with
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
/
MNTV on DT2),
KGTV 10 (
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
),
XEWT 12 (
Televisa Regional
Televisa Regional is a unit of Grupo Televisa which owns and operates television stations across Mexico. The stations rebroadcast programming from its subsidiary TelevisaUnivision's other networks, and they engage in the local production of newsca ...
),
KPBS 15 (
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
),
KBNT-CD
KBNT-CD (channel 17) is a low-power, Class A television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongside UniMás affiliate KDTF-LD (cha ...
17 (
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
),
XHTIT-TDT 21 (
Azteca 7
Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico.
Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. A substantial portion of their purchased programming include ...
),
XHJK-TDT
XHJK-TDT, virtual channel 1 ( UHF digital channel 28), is a television station in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The station is owned by TV Azteca. XHJK carries TV Azteca's Azteca Uno, with a 2-hour delay except for live television.
XHJK recei ...
1 (
Azteca Uno
Azteca Uno (previously Azteca Trece), is a Mexican national broadcast television network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 transmitters across the country. Azteca Uno broadcasts on virtual channel 1. Azteca Uno programming is available in ...
),
XHAS 33 (
Azteca America
Azteca is the Spanish word for Aztec. In English, Azteca or Aztecas may refer to:
Animals
* ''Azteca'' (ant), a genus of ants
* Azteca horse, a breed of horse
Games
* Azteca, a world in the online game of ''Wizard101''
Sport
* Aztecas de la U ...
),
K35DG-D 35 (
UCSD-TV),
KDTF-LD
KDTF-LD (channel 36) is a low-power television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongside Class A Univision affiliate KBNT-CD (cha ...
36 (
Unimás
UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network's programming, which i ...
),
KNSD
KNSD (channel 39) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations alongside Poway-licensed Telemundo outlet KUA ...
39 (
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
),
KUAN-LD
KUAN-LD (channel 48) is a television station licensed to Poway, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Telemundo network to the San Diego area. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group alongside N ...
48 (
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
),
KSEX-CD
KSEX-CD, UHF Digital terrestrial television, digital channel 42, was a Low-powered broadcasting#Television, low-powered, Class A television service, Class A Home Shopping Network, HSN-Network affiliate, affiliated television station City of lic ...
42 (Infomercials),
XHBJ-TDT
XHBJ-TDT channel 45 is a television station in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The station is currently affiliated with Multimedios Television since 2020.
History
XHBJ's concession history began in the late 1960s with the initial award of the ...
45 (
Canal 6 (Mexico)
Canal 6 (alternately known as Multimedios Televisión) is a network of Spanish language television stations primarily concentrated in northeastern Mexico and the southwestern United States. The system is part of Grupo Multimedios. The flagship st ...
),
XHDTV 49 (
Milenio Televisión
Milenio Televisión is a Mexican television cable news channel owned by Grupo Multimedios. The news programming uses the resources of the Milenio newspaper, one of the largest in the country. Programming is 24 hours a day, through news, analysis ...
),
KUSI
KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is the sole property of locally based McKinnon Broadcasting Company. KUSI-TV's studios are located on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the Ke ...
51 (Independent),
XHUAA-TDT
XHUAA-TDT, virtual channel 19 ( UHF digital channel 22), is a Las Estrellas television station located in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, whose over-the-air signal also covers the San Diego, California area across the international border in ...
19 (
Canal de las Estrellas
Las Estrellas ("The Stars"; previously El Canal de las Estrellas, or "The Channel of the Stars") is one of the cornerstone networks of TelevisaUnivision, with affiliate stations all over Mexico, flagshipped at XEW-TDT in Mexico City. Many of t ...
), and
KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...
69 (
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
). San Diego has an 80.6 percent cable penetration rate.
[San Diego market in ]
Due to the ratio of U.S. and Mexican-licensed stations, San Diego is the largest
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
in the United States that is legally unable to support a
television station duopoly between two full-power stations under
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
regulations, which disallow duopolies in metropolitan areas with fewer than nine full-power television stations and require that there be eight unique station owners that remain once a duopoly is formed (there are only seven full-power stations on the California side of the San Diego-Tijuana market). Though the
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
owns KGTV and KZSD-LP, they are not considered a duopoly under the FCC's legal definition as common ownership between full-power and
low-power television stations in the same market is permitted regardless to the number of stations licensed to the area. As a whole, the Mexico side of the San Diego-Tijuana market has two duopolies and one triopoly (
Entravision Communications
Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community and owns television and radio stations and outdoor media, in several o ...
owns both
XHAS-TV
XHAS-TDT (channel 33) is a television station in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, affiliated with LATV. It is owned by a Mexican company in which the largest single investor is Entravision Communications, a U.S.-based operator of radio and tel ...
and XHDTV-TV,
Azteca owns
XHJK-TV and
XHTIT-TV, and
Grupo Televisa
Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...
owns
XHUAA-TV and
XHWT-TV along with being the license holder for XETV-TV, which was formerly managed by California-based subsidiary
Bay City Television
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
).
San Diego's television market is limited to only
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
. The
Imperial Valley
, photo = Salton Sea from Space.jpg
, photo_caption = The Imperial Valley below the Salton Sea. The US-Mexican border runs diagonally across the lower left of the image.
, map_image = Newriverwatershed-1-.jpg
, map_caption = Map of Imperial ...
, including
El Centro
El Centro (Spanish for "The Center") is a city and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban are ...
, is in the
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515.
Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...
television market while neighboring
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
and
Riverside
Riverside may refer to:
Places Australia
* Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania
Canada
* Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon
* Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta
* Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
counties are part of the Los Angeles market. (Sometimes in the past, a missing network affiliate in the Imperial Valley would be available on cable TV from San Diego.) As a result, San Diego is the largest single-county media market in the United States.
The radio stations in San Diego include nationwide broadcaster
iHeartMedia;
Entercom Communications
Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
, Local Media San Diego, and many other smaller stations and networks. Stations include:
KOGO AM 600,
KGB AM 760,
KCEO AM 1000,
KCBQ AM 1170,
K-Praise,
KLSD AM 1360,
KFSD 1450 AM,
KPBS-FM
KPBS-FM is a non-commercial public radio station broadcasting in San Diego on 89.5 MHz, affiliated with National Public Radio (NPR). It is owned by San Diego State University as part of KPBS Public Media, and is a sister station to PBS member ...
89.5,
Channel 933,
Star 94.1,
FM 94/9,
FM News and Talk 95.7,
Q96 96.1,
KyXy
KYXY (96.5 FM) is a commercial radio station owned by Audacy, Inc. KYXY is licensed to San Diego, California, with its studios in the city's Stonecrest area. Its transmitter site is in La Jolla, on the KGTV Tower which it shares with KGTV and ...
96.5,
Free Radio San Diego (AKA
Pirate Radio
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...
San Diego) 96.9FM FRSD,
KWFN
KWFN (97.3 FM) – branded as 97.3 The Fan – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve San Diego, California. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station covers both the Greater San Diego market and the San Diego–Tijuana transborder aggl ...
97.3,
KXSN
KXSN (98.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in San Diego, California, branded as Sunny 98.1. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station airs a classic hits radio format. The studios and offices are located in San Diego's Stonecrest area, off Granite R ...
98.1,
Big-FM 100.7, 101.5
KGB-FM
KGB-FM (101.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Diego, California. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a classic rock music format. KGB-FM's studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood on the ...
,
KLVJ 102.1,
KSON 103.7,
Rock 105.3, and another ''
Pirate Radio
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...
'' station at 106.9FM, as well as a number of local Spanish-language radio stations.
Infrastructure
Utilities
Water is supplied to residents by the Water Department of the City of San Diego. The city receives most of its water from the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cit ...
.
Gas and electric utilities are provided by
San Diego Gas & Electric
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) provides natural gas and electricity to San Diego County and southern Orange County in southwestern California, United States. It is owned by Sempra, a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Di ...
, a division of
Sempra Energy
Sempra is a North American energy infrastructure company based in San Diego, California. The company is one of the largest utility holding companies in the United States with roughly 40 million consumers. Sempra's focus is on electric and natura ...
.
Street lights
In the mid-20th century the city had
mercury vapor street lamps. In 1978, the city decided to replace them with more efficient
sodium vapor lamps. This triggered an outcry from
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
s at
Palomar Observatory north of the city, concerned that the new lamps would increase
light pollution
Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...
and hinder astronomical observation. The city altered its lighting regulations to limit light pollution within of Palomar.
In 2011, the city announced plans to upgrade 80% of its street lighting to new energy-efficient lights that use
induction technology, a modified form of
fluorescent lamp
A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet ligh ...
producing a broader spectrum than sodium vapor lamps. The new system is predicted to save $2.2 million per year in energy and maintenance.
The city stated the changes would "make our neighborhoods safer."
They also increase
light pollution
Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...
.
In 2014, San Diego announced plans to become the first U.S. city to install cyber-controlled street lighting, using an "intelligent" lighting system to control 3,000
LED street lights.
Transportation
![I-5 South in San Diego](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/I-5_South_in_San_Diego.jpg)
With the automobile being the primary means of transportation for over 80 percent of residents, San Diego is served by a network of freeways and highways. This includes
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
, which runs south to
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
and north to Los Angeles;
Interstate 8, which runs east to
Imperial County
Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...
and the
Arizona Sun Corridor
The Arizona Sun Corridor, shortened Sun Corridor, is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of Arizona. The Sun Corridor is comparable to Indiana in both size and population. It is one of the fastest growing ...
; Interstate 15, which runs northeast through the
Inland Empire to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
and
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
; and
Interstate 805
Interstate 805 (I-805) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running roughly through the center of the Greater San Diego region from San Ysidro (part of the c ...
, which splits from I-5 near the Mexican border and rejoins I-5 at
Sorrento Valley
Sorrento Valley is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located about 17 mi (27 km) north of Downtown San Diego and its main airport, Lindbergh Field. It is roughly bounded by Interstate 5 and Interstate 805, Camino Santa Fe t ...
.
Major state highways include
SR 94, which connects downtown with I-805, I-15 and
East County
East County is a region of San Diego County, California, east of San Diego.
Geography
East County does not have an official geographic definition, although East County boundaries are unofficially drawn by the County of San Diego for its second ...
;
SR 163, which connects downtown with the northeast part of the city, intersects I-805 and merges with I-15 at
Miramar;
SR 52, which connects La Jolla with
East County
East County is a region of San Diego County, California, east of San Diego.
Geography
East County does not have an official geographic definition, although East County boundaries are unofficially drawn by the County of San Diego for its second ...
through
Santee
Santee may refer to:
People
* Santee Dakota, a subgroup of the Dakota people, of the U.S. Great Plains
* Santee (South Carolina), a Native American people of South Carolina
Places
* Lake Santee, Indiana, a reservoir and census-designated place
* ...
and
SR 125;
SR 56, which connects I-5 with I-15 through
Carmel Valley and
Rancho Peñasquitos
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
*Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
;
SR 75, which spans
San Diego Bay as the
San Diego-Coronado Bridge, and also passes through
South San Diego
South San Diego is a district within the City of San Diego, and is in the larger South Bay region of southwestern San Diego County, California. South San Diego is a practical exclave of San Diego, having no land connection with the rest of the c ...
as Palm Avenue; and
SR 905, which connects I-5 and I-805 to the
Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The stretch of SR 163 that passes through Balboa Park is San Diego's oldest freeway, and has been called one of America's most beautiful parkways.
![OverCoronadoSanDiegoAug07](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/OverCoronadoSanDiegoAug07.jpg)
San Diego's roadway system provides an extensive network of cycle routes. Its dry and mild climate makes cycling a convenient year-round option; however, the city's hilly terrain and long average trip distances make cycling less practicable. Older and denser neighborhoods around the downtown tend to be oriented to
utility cycling
Utility cycling encompasses any cycling done simply as a means of transport rather than as a sport or leisure activity. It is the original and most common type of cycling in the world. Cycling mobility is one of the various types of private t ...
. This is partly because of the grid street patterns now absent in newer developments farther from the urban core, where suburban style arterial roads are much more common. As a result, the majority of cycling is recreational. In 2006, San Diego was rated the best city (with a population over 1 million) for cycling in the U.S.
San Diego is served by the
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
light rail system,
by the
SDMTS bus system, private
jitneys in some neighborhoods, and by
Coaster
Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...
and
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner commuter rail; northern
San Diego county
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
is also served by the
Sprinter light rail line. The trolley primarily serves downtown and surrounding urban communities,
Mission Valley
Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Miss ...
, east county, and coastal south bay. A mid-coast extension of the Trolley operates from
Old Town to
University City and the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
along the I-5 Freeway since November 2021. The Amtrak and Coaster trains currently run along the coastline and connect San Diego with Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura via
Metrolink and the Pacific Surfliner. There are two Amtrak stations in San Diego, in
Old Town and
the Santa Fe Depot downtown. San Diego transit information about public transportation and commuting is available on the Web and by dialing "511" from any phone in the area.
![View of CBX bridge from parking lot on U](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/View_of_CBX_bridge_from_parking_lot_on_U.S._side.jpg)
The city has two major commercial airports within or near its city limits. Downtown
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Feder ...
(SAN), also known as Lindbergh Field, is the busiest single-runway airport in the United States.
It served over 24 million passengers in 2018, and is dealing with larger numbers every year. It is located on San Diego Bay, from downtown, and maintains scheduled flights to the rest of the United States (including Hawaii), as well as to Canada, Germany, Mexico, Japan, and the United Kingdom. It is operated by an independent agency, the San Diego Regional Airport Authority.
Tijuana International Airport
General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional General Abelardo L. Rodríguez) or simply Tijuana International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional de Tijuana), , in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, is ...
has a terminal within the city limits in the
Otay Mesa
Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border.
It is bordered by the Otay River Valley and the city of Chula Vista on the north; Interstate 805 and the neighborhoods of Oc ...
district connected to the rest of the airport in
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, via the
Cross Border Xpress
Cross Border Xpress (CBX), historically also called the Tijuana Cross-border Terminal and the Puerta de las Californias, is an airport terminal located in the Otay Mesa
Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the southern section of the city of San Die ...
cross-border footbridge. It is the primary airport for flights to the rest of Mexico, and offers connections via Mexico City to the rest of Latin America. In addition, the city has two general-aviation airports,
Montgomery Field
Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport , formerly known as Montgomery Field and Gibbs Field, is a public airport in San Diego, California, United States, six miles (10 km) north of downtown San Diego. The airport covers and has three runways, ...
(MYF) and
Brown Field (SDM).
Recent regional transportation projects have sought to mitigate congestion, including improvements to local freeways, expansion of San Diego Airport, and doubling the capacity of the cruise ship terminal. Freeway projects included expansion of Interstates 5 and 805 around "The Merge" where these two freeways meet, as well as expansion of Interstate 15 through North County, which includes new
high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) "managed lanes". A tollway (the southern portion of SR 125, known as the South Bay Expressway) connects SR 54 and Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border. According to an assessment in 2007, 37 percent of city streets were in acceptable condition. However, the proposed budget fell $84.6 million short of bringing streets up to an acceptable level.
Expansion at the port has included a second cruise terminal on
Broadway Pier, opened in 2010. Airport projects include expansion of Terminal Two.
Notable people
Sister cities
San Diego's
sister cities
A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.
While there are early examples of inter ...
are:
*
Alcalá de Henares, Spain (est. 1982)
*
Campinas
Campinas (, ''Plains'' or ''Meadows'') is a Brazilian municipality in São Paulo State, part of the country's Southeast Region. According to the 2020 estimate, the city's population is 1,213,792, making it the fourteenth most populous Brazilian ...
, Brazil (est. 1995)
*
Cavite City
Cavite City, officially the City of Cavite ( fil, Lungsod ng Kabite, Spanish and cbk, Ciudad de Cavite), is a 4th class component city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 100,674 people.
The city was the ...
, Philippines (est. 1969)
*
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, Scotland (est. 1977)
*
Jalalabad
Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلالآباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...
, Afghanistan (est. 2004)
*
Jeonju
Jeonju () is the 16th largest city in South Korea and the capital of North Jeolla Province. It is both urban and rural due to the closeness of Wanju County which almost entirely surrounds Jeonju (Wanju County has many residents who work in Jeonj ...
, South Korea (est. 1983)
*
León, Mexico (est. 1969)
*
Panama City
Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
, Panama (est. 2015)
*
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, Australia (est. 1986)
*
Taichung
Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...
, Taiwan (est. 1983)
*
Tema
Tema is a city on the Bight of Benin and Atlantic coast of Ghana. It is located east of the capital city; Accra, in the region of Greater Accra, and is the capital of the Tema Metropolitan District. As of 2013, Tema is the eleventh most populo ...
, Ghana (est. 1976)
*
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, Mexico (est. 1993)
*
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...
, Russia (est. 1991)
*
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, Poland (est. 1996)
*
Yantai
Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...
, China (est. 1985)
*
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
, Japan (est. 1957)
Notes
References
General sources
*
*
External links
*
Civic San Diego(replaced redevelopment corporations)
SANDAG, San Diego's Regional Planning AgencyDemographic Fact Sheetfrom
Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal Statistical System of the United States, U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the Americans, Ame ...
San Diego Historical SocietySan Diego Unified School DistrictSan Diego Public LibrarySan Diego Tourism Authority (formerly the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau)
{{Authority control
1769 establishments in Alta California
1850 establishments in California
California Enterprise Zones
Cities in San Diego County, California
County seats in California
Incorporated cities and towns in California
Populated coastal places in California
Populated places established in 1769
Port cities in California
San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line
San Diego Bay
San Diego County, California
.
Spanish mission settlements in North America
Stagecoach stops in the United States