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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
San Diego: Asian American Boomtown?
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:58 PM)
an Diego doesn't have much of an Asian American history. That could be one reason it may have the brightest future of any Asian American city.
Between 1992 and 2002 the area's Asian American population jumped a spectacular 44%. Its current AA population of 360,000 -- the nation's 10th largest -- is only 12% of the 3,000,000 in the San Diego metro area, but the growth trajectory remains strong due to a steady influx of Asians drawn to the area's paradisial climate and growth potential.
AA Boomtown?
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San Diego's emerging prominence as the nation's biotech capitol promises to be a growth engine and a powerful magnet for ambitious young Asian Americans. La Jolla, the city's ritziest neighborhood, is home to talent incubators like the Scripps Research Institute, the nation's biggest private research organization. La Jolla is also home to UC San Diego, a top bio engineering power. It doubled its Asian enrollment from 22% of undergraduates in 1991 to 43% in 2002, nearly equal to Whites (44%). The balance is tilting toward Asians. The 2001 freshmen class is 46.5% Asian and 42% White.
The area is also attracting a disproportionate share of other growth industries like software, communications, defense and entertainment, accelerating the escalation of housing prices, not to mention its traffic congestion.
Perhaps because of its blue-sky economic climate and white-collar demographics, San Diego seems to have been hospitable to Asian success. A Corean American architect named C. W. Kim designed several prominent features of its sparkling seaside skyline, including the Emerald Plaza, the Marriott and the First National Bank building.
The city's first Asian success story was Ah Quin, a Chinese immigrant who made a name as a merchant and labor broker during the 1880s when only a few hundred mostly male Chinese made up the city's entire Asian population. Many of those early settlers came to dominate a thriving fishing industry that supplied not only San Diego but Chinese communities on both sides of the Pacific. Today all that remains to commemorate that first small wave of Asian immigrants is the Chinese Museum near Marina Park in the Gaslamp District.
The majority of Asian San Diegans arrived with the wave that began in the late 1960s. Today the city's Asian presence is most visible in the Convoy area located in a triangle formed by the I-805 to the west and Highways 52 and 163 respectively to the north and east. Convoy, Clairemont Mesa Blvd and other streets are lined with Vietnamese, Chinese, Corean, Japanese and Thai eateries, markets, pearl tea shops and business offices. Making up nearly a third of the area's Asians, and its fastest-growing Asian population, Vietnamese have established visible commercial stretches as well in the El Cajon and Mira Mesa districts.
Is San Diego an Asian American boomtown in the making? Or is it destined to become just another L.A. South?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
Hey AA people,
I'm a business man who moved to San Diego about 2 years ago. I'm looking to start up an upscale hangout/cafe/coffee shop targeted for us, Asian Americans. I want to hear what ideas and promotions, you all are interested in from a AA perspective. We need to represent and continue to make our presense felt in SD!
xie xie
Thanks again,
Proud Asian American from SD
Thomas
tomhl100@yahoo.com
Sunday, December 22, 2002 at 15:58:16 (PST)
[68.70.230.57]
I am a San Diegan and i love it here! The weather's perfect and u get a bit of every culture here! It is truly America's Finest City to me.
Kimchi
Thursday, November 07, 2002 at 21:06:54 (PST)
[66.27.81.202]
No.
You said "You seem to know a lot about the Philippines and Filipinos. Your probably Filipino yourself. =P"
If you don't freeken care, why did you mention it?
Instead of declaring to me that "you are probably Filipino", why don't you just ask instead of just speculate? That's where you F'ed up. And if you don't care, you f'ed up by stating this probability that don't matter anyway, right?
Hey, For The next 3 day holiday weekend, you want to go together to Silicon Valley? Since they have a high cost of living it must be a happening place! Must less boring than both LA and SD!!!!
Let me know if you want to party. (I mean, Pssst! Do yuuuu want tuuuu farrrTY?)
San Diegan
Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 07:58:34 (PDT)
[144.141.248.97]
That rationale means that Silicon Valley is the least boring area in the nation, and that SF, NY and CHI are more boring!!!!
And where does that leave San Diego?
HAHAHAHAHAHA =P
A Cute Filipino Guy
Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 21:19:59 (PDT)
[198.81.16.29]
[You aren't interested in SD, so go elsewhere. --Ed]
San Diegan
Hey you never gave out your ethnicity. So who knows or cares?
Did I say that you were? I said you're PROBABLY FILIPINIO YOURSELF! I made that assumption because of the fact that you seem to know a lot about filipinos. Do you think I care about what you know or about the cities that you know. So you read a map. Big freakin deal!!!!
So get a clue!!!!
And "Read again"!!
"Don't read anything more into it."
Just giving you some more of your own advice!
A Cute Filipno Guy
Friday, September 13, 2002 at 10:25:12 (PDT)
[198.81.16.51]
Higher median income of one city means that the those with lower median incomes are boring?
That rationale means that Silicon Valley is the least boring area in the nation, and that SF, NY and CHI are more boring!!!!
Cool. Thanks for the info!
San Diegan
Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 14:04:39 (PDT)
[144.141.248.97]
My family (on my father's side) "ran away" from Okinawa-ken, Nakagami-gun, Nakagusuku-son, Aza-tsuha and went to Hawaii on a Japanese ship called the Chusa-maru which left Kobe, Japan and landed in Honolulu Harbor in March, 1907.
Mother's side was native aboriginal Hawaiian.
So what were you saying about being Filipino?
Because I knew the cities? Could it be because the wonders of the internet allows us to view maps of countries throughout the world?
...and you tell ME to get a clue.
San Diegan
Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 08:18:29 (PDT)
[144.141.248.97]
How wrong you are!
San Francisco has a higher cost of living than San Diego. The average utility cost per year is also higher. Single family home sale pricing is higher.
San Francisco has 64.76% of its people employed with white collared jobs. As opposed to 59.85% in SD.
SF has 41.26% of its population that is college educated with SD having 37.78%.
The Median household income in SF is $49916 while SD's is $47479.
San Francisco even scored higher in Yahoo's cultural index than San Diego.
Hmm....Is that good enough?
Look it up on yahoo!!
A Cute Filipino Guy
Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 23:08:27 (PDT)
[198.81.17.169]
Read again, I said from which city did his FAMILY run from?
Don't read anything more into it.
And don't get starded on the patriotism comparasion between the Japanese Americans and the Filipino Americans.
Because you know by the record, who will win.
San Diegan
Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 16:14:15 (PDT)
[152.163.189.99]
No. According to US News and World Report, Rancho Santa Fe is more expensive.
So what are you going to do, slam the magazine like you slammed the Automobile club because they don't agree with your assessment?
Instead of just giving your opinion, why don't you back it up with unbiased FACTS from unbias publications and sources? That's what I did.
I said a long time ago that it's ok that people want to go to LA rather than SD. We would rather have it that way. But if it is so boring as you say, I cannot understand why the housing price percentage has increased higher than both SF and LA over the last year (CA Board of Realtors Report). Surely, if this place was so boring, the demand of housing would not be so.
Why don't you just say, to you (and to you only) that SD is boring and leave it at that? Void of unbias statistics, that is the only outcome of your statements; your opinion only.
San Diegan
Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 16:09:13 (PDT)
[152.163.189.99]
"Filipinos have been in America long before Japanese even knew what the hell it was. And no, I'm not talking about Hawaii. I mean the mainland. Cantonese and Filipinos were the first Asians in North America."
You're totally right on this one. I couldn't agree with you more. Especially with the Chinese having a long history in this country. They have as much a part of building this country as Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, and other ethnic groups.
"Which city did your family run from anyway?"
Hey San Diegan:
Hmmm....I was born here but my parents probably ran away from the same city that your family did. You seem to know a lot about the Philippines and Filipinos. Your probably Filipino yourself. =P
A Cute Filipino Guy Who Knows
Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 12:17:23 (PDT)
[198.81.26.209]
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