San Diego boasts a population of 3 million;15 miles south, Chula Vista's is a more modest 225,000.
The region is home to the nation's only warm-weather, year-round Olympic Training Center, the renowned San Diego Zoo, and numerous beaches. Sporting opportunities abound, and woodsy environmentalists can escape to the Cleveland National Forest via a thirty-minute drive from downtown San Diego.
From Chula Vista to San Diego, the area has seen an explosion of high-tech and biotech companies in the last ten years. Other growing industries include computer science and electronics. In 2004, the Milken Institute ranked the San Diego area the top biotech cluster in the nation.
Chula Vista's extensive harbor area historically has been connected to the local military economy, as San Diego is home to bases for the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Marines. The city is fondly known as the "birthplace of naval aviation." A variety of national security projects continue to support a significant sector of the region's economy.
In 2004, the area had a $37,965 per capita personal income. Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc., has located their North American headquarters in eastern Chula Vista, offering several hundred new high-paying jobs in the tech sector. Other major employers include:
- Qualcomm Incorporated
- The University of California, San-Diego
- Neurocrine
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