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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
San Diego: Asian American Boomtown?
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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The area's emerging prominence as the nation's biotech capitol promises to be an 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?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:57 PM)
Really don't care whether people visit San Diego or not. I only ask that your opinion be fortified with facts. To just say that they are ALL are going to TJ(caps for emphasis) is not a fact that you can substantiate. All means EVERY SINGLE traveler who goes south on I-5 Friday afternoons are ALL going to TJ. Kindly provide proof.
The question was whether San Diego is an Asian American Boomtown. Instead, you want to make the question to be whether San Diego is a desirable place to visit. It may or may not be. Would rather have less people come here so that it is less crowded for those of us who live here.
Barstow/Las Vegas? While people book up rooms in San Diego and visit Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Coronado, Julian, Pacific Beach, LaJolla and the Embarcadaro and may do so without visiting TJ, , I find it hard to anologize your Barstow/LV example with SD/TJ, since besides an outlet mall, there's really nothing that would attract anyone to just visit Barstow and not go to LV.
San Diegan
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 09:54:02 (PDT)
"If you have statistics of the visitors to SD and/or TJ, I'd like you to reveal that, Otherwise, its just a wild hair out of your ass guess."
Haha... you are taking things way too seriously. Aww... do you get upset when people don't visit your town? =(
Anyways, the freeway from LA to Barstow to Las Vegas is packed every weekend too. The outlets in Barstow are packed to the rafters. I don't think too many people travel to Barstow just to go to outlets.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 00:21:47 (PDT)
They are all going to TJ?>
What is the percentage of them going to TJ versus visiting San Diego? What does a few hour visit to TJ and spending the rest of the weekend in San Diego count as? A non-visit to San Diego?
How come Balboa Park, Hotel Del Coronado, Embarcadero, Gaslamp, Kobey Swap Meet, La Jolla, San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach University Town Center are all crowded during the weekends?
If you have statistics of the visitors to SD and/or TJ, I'd like you to reveal that, Otherwise, its just a wild hair out of your ass guess.
San Diegan
Monday, June 17, 2002 at 12:27:46 (PDT)
"If San Diego has nothing to do, then why are the hotels/motels booked up on weekends? Why is driving south on Fridays on I-5 from LA to SD bumper to bumper? Why is driving north from SD to LA on Sunday nights the same way?"
They are all going to TJ.
TSJ
I totally agree with you TSJ!!!!!=P
A Cute Filipino Guy Who Knows
Monday, June 17, 2002 at 11:38:34 (PDT)
"If San Diego has nothing to do, then why are the hotels/motels booked up on weekends? Why is driving south on Fridays on I-5 from LA to SD bumper to bumper? Why is driving north from SD to LA on Sunday nights the same way?"
They are all going to TJ.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Saturday, June 15, 2002 at 00:02:03 (PDT)
Maybe, maybe not. I moved from S.F to S.D last year and have noticed a lot of differences between these two cities.
I'm trying to buy a house in S.D and it appears most of the new would be home owners are Asian. I heard on NPR that many agents are learning to communicate(sell) more effectively to Chinese clients.
Some things that will limit San Diego's growth are:
airport is located downtown. The planes have to land from the east and goes over most of the city as well as fly very low and very close to downtown. To be a major "international" city, S.D would have to allow the jumbo jets in/out, but that won't happen with the current airport. LAX is just too far.
It lacks cultural diversity...still. Despite those figures of Asians the article mentioned, I fail to see it in the communities. It was a full four months before I saw any black people, and I didn't just stay in my neighborhood. When I saw them I wanted to go up and hug'em and asked where they hung out.
Oh, the food here sucks. I go to L.A or even back up to S.F to eat.
Cost of living is very high compared even to S.F because of the lower salaries for the same positions. S.F is ranked #1 and #2 in salary and cost of living while S.D is ranked #5 in cost of living and #25 in salary, so in real terms I'm paying a little less for the same things while making a lot less money.
It doesn't feel like a boomtown but that may be because the Asian community is rather spread out and even the Convoy area is nothing more than a big strip mall of asian places...unlike Chinatown, or Little Saigon.
n8
Friday, June 14, 2002 at 13:42:17 (PDT)
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