| San Diego | |
| City in the United States | |
| Location | |
| State | California |
| County | San Diego County |
| Coordinates | 32°42’54″N, 117°9’45″WL |
| General | |
| Surface | 964.5 km² |
| – country | 842.26 km² |
| – water | 122.24 km² |
| Residents (2020) |
1,386,932 (1647 inhabitant/km²) |
| – agglomeration | 3,095.313 |
| – agglomeration (international) |
5,105,761 (including Tijuana) |
| Politics | |
| Mayor | Todd Gloria (D) |
| Website | sandiego.gov |
The mission post San Diego de Alcalá
Balboa Park
According to anycountyprivateschools, San Diego is a city in the United States, located in San Diego County, southwestern California, on the border with Mexico. The city has 1.3 million inhabitants and is mainly known as an industrial and commercial center. The mild steppe climate and its location on the Pacific Ocean make San Diego a popular seaside resort. Notable attractions include SeaWorld San Diego, the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park.
San Diego has a very good natural harbor and is partly for this reason an important base for the American navy on the American west coast. The city is connected to Coronado via the 3,407-foot San Diego-Coronado Bridge that opened in 1969. San Diego is also known for the aerospace industry and the respected University of California – San Diego (UCSD), which is actually north of the city of San Diego in La Jolla. Another public university in San Diego is San Diego State University (SDSU).
The Municipality of San Diego directly borders Mexico and the Municipality of Tijuana, Mexico ‘s sixth largest city with a population of 1.3 million. The city centers are 28 km apart. There is a streetcar line from downtown San Diego to the border crossing, the world’s busiest, near San Ysidro. The border crossing on the highway has 30 lanes.
History
The first European to visit the region was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, but he never established a settlement there; San Diego was eventually founded by Spanish settlers led by Gaspar de Portolá in 1769. In 1821 Mexico became independent from Spain and San Diego became part of the Mexican state. After falling from 432 inhabitants to 150 to 100 inhabitants, the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846 and American troops occupied the city after some skirmishes with the Californios, such as the Battle of San Pasqual. In the Treaty of Cahuenga (1847) the Californios capitulated and in the Peace of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) the area around San Diego Bay was assigned to the United States. The original location of the city of San Diego was at the base of Presidio Hill, in the area that now houses the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. That place was not ideal, because it was several kilometers from navigable water. In 1850 William Heath Davis attempted to develop a new area right on the bay called New San Diego several miles south of the original settlement. But even after several decades it still consisted of only a few houses, a pier and an army depot.
Around 1860, Alonzo Horton advocated moving the city to the Bay Area . He called this New Town, and it is now known as Downtown San Diego. Horton’s relentless promotion of the area eventually led people and businesses to move to the new town, mainly because of its bay location, which was convenient for shipping. New Town soon eclipsed the original settlement, known today as Old Town. New Town became the economic and administrative heart of the city. San Diego, however, remained a sleepy town until the arrival of the rail link in 1878.
During World War II, San Diego became an important hub for military and defense activities, due to the presence of 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 inhabitants) and 1950 (333,865 inhabitants). After World War II, the military still played an important role in the local economy, but after the Cold War austerity measures took a heavy toll on the local defense and aerospace industries. The resulting downturn led San Diego officials to try to diversify the city’s economy by focusing on research and science, as well as tourism.
From the early 1900s through the 1970s, the U.S. tuna fishing fleet and associated canning industries were largely based in San Diego, the “tuna capital of the world.” The first tuna cannery was established in 1911, and by the 1930s, the canneries employed more than 1,000 people. [source?] The factories were supplied by a large fishing fleet, mostly manned by immigrant fishermen from Japan, and later from the Portuguese Azores and Italy, whose influence is still felt in neighborhoods like Little Italy and Point Loma. Due to rising costs and competition from abroad, the last cannery was closed in the early 1980s.
Geography
Topography
San Diego is located on the southwest coast of the United States and in the southwestern part of the state of California. The city is located in San Diego County, one of a total of 58 counties in California, and is located approximately 15 miles (25 km) above the Mexican border. Due to the California Current, the seawater is relatively cool. The city is located about 200 deep ravines and hills that are separated from plateaus. Most houses and businesses are traditionally located on these plateaus. Creating small areas of natural open space scattered throughout the city gives San Diego a hilly geography. The San Diego Riverruns through the middle of San Diego from east to west, through a valley that divides the city into a northern and southern part.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate system, San Diego has a mild steppe climate (type BW). San Diego is characterized by warm, dry summers and mild winters. There is not much rainfall in the city, with only 263 mm per year (229 mm per year in La Jolla in the north). This precipitation mainly falls in winter (December to March). December is the coldest month of the year (13.6 °C), August the warmest (22 °C). Summer temperatures in the northern part of the city are (during the day) a lot warmer than in the city center. In August, La Jolla has an average daily maximum temperature of about 32°C. In the center (airport) this is only 25 °C.
The city is known for its fog, especially in the month of June (June Gloom). That is why it is sometimes spoken of a mild steppe climate characterized by fog (subtype BWn). If the fog is not taken into account, the city lies on the border between the cold and the warm steppe climate. The average annual temperature in San Diego (airport) is 17.6 °C; in La Jolla it is 18.6 °C. The boundary between the warm (BWh) and cold (BWk) steppe climate is 18 °C.
The climate in San Diego, as in many of the areas in California, often varies widely over short geographic distances. This results in microclimates, and in this case it is mainly due to the topography of the city (the bay, and the many hills, mountains and canyons). But the city has a mild climate all year round.
Demographics
10.5% of the population is older than 65 and 28% consists of single -person households. Unemployment is 3% (census figures 2000).
About 25.4% of San Diego’s population is Hispanic and Hispanic, 7.9% of African origin and 13.6% of Asian origin.
The population increased from 1,111,031 in 1990 to 1,223,400 in 2000 and to 1,322,553 in 2012.
The metropolitan area has 3,095,313 residents (2010) on the US side of the border, while the metropolitan area as a whole, including Tijuana, has 5,105,761 residents.
Sights
- San Diego Museum of Art
- Timken Museum of Art
- SeaWorld San Diego
- San Diego Zoo
- Balboa Park.
Sports
Baseball Club San Diego Padres is the only San Diego sports club that plays in one of the four largest American sports leagues.
Public transport
In addition to several bus lines, San Diego has the San Diego Trolley light rail network, consisting of three lines. San Diego’s main station is the Santa Fe Depot. From here travelers can travel north with Amtrak ‘s Pacific Surfliner to Los Angeles, among others. San Diego also features its own Coaster commuter line. Coaster consists of one line and forms the suburban network that transports commuters to and from the center.
Town twinning
San Diego had fifteen city twinning in 2014.
- Alcala de Henares, Spain
- Campinas, Brazil
- Cavite, Philippines
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom of Great Britain
- Jalalabad, Afghanistan
- Jeonju, South Korea
- Leon, Mexico
- Perth, Australia
- Taichung, Taiwan
- Thema, Ghana
- Tijuana, Mexico
- Vladivostok, Russia
- Warsaw, Poland
- Yantai, China
- Yokohama, Japan
Nearby places
The figure below shows nearby places within 10 miles of San Diego.
San Diego
Casa de Oro – Mount Helix (16 km)
Coronado (12 km)
La Mesa (12 km)
La Presa (15 km)
Lemon Grove (12 km)
National City (13 km)
Spring Valley (16 km)
Famous San Diego residents
Born
- Evelyn Furtsch (1914-2015), sprinter
- Baby Peggy (1918-2020), child actress
- Robert Lansing (1928-1994), actor
- Billy Casper (1931-2015), golfer and golf course designer
- Robert Duvall (1931), actor
- Maureen Connolly (1934-1969), tennis star
- Geoffrey Lewis (1935-2015), actor
- Margaret O’Brien (1937), actress and former child star
- Victor Buono (1938-1982), actor and comedian
- Fred Ward (1942-2022), actor
- Michael McCulley (1943), astronaut
- Ted Danson (1947), actor
- Arnie Robinson (1948-2020), long jumper
- Greg Bear (1951), science fiction writer
- Tess Gerritsen (1953), writer
- Susanna Thompson (1958), actress
- Charlene Tilton (1958), actress
- RuPaul (1960) drag queen, model, program maker, presenter, writer and actor
- Carol Greider (1961), molecular biologist and Nobel Prize winner (2009)
- William McCool (1961-2003), astronaut
- Julie White (1961), actress
- Matt Cameron (1962), musician
- Mike Whitmarsh (1962-2009), beach volleyball player
- John Ottman (1964), film editor, composer and director
- Stanley Love (1965), astronaut
- Michael Andrews (1967), musician and film score composer
- Tony Hawk (1968), skater
- Christian Hoff (1968), actor
- Jazzmun (1969), actor and drag queen
- Cameron Diaz (1972), actress
- Emma Caulfield (1973), actress
- Holly Marie Combs (1973), actress
- Atom Willard (1973), Drummer
- Rey Mysterio (1974), wrestler
- Mayim Bialik (1975), actress
- Liza Del Mundo (1975), (voice) actress
- Kevin Daniels (1976), actor
- Jerry Trainor (1977), actor
- Johna Stewart-Bowden (1979), actress
- Nick Cannon (1980), actor, comedian, rapper
- Lauren Fendrick (1982), beach volleyball player
- Adam Driver (1983), actor
- Monique Henderson (1983), sprinter
- Dominick Cruz (1985), martial artist
- Kendra Wilkinson (1985), television personality and model
- Eric Avila (1987), football player
- Brittany Anne Pirtle (1989), actress
- Sterling Beaumon (1995), actor
- Ryan Ochoa (1996), actor
- Michael Norman (1997), athlete
Died
- Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972), German-American physicist
