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As we end the 20th century, I find it fascinating to look back over my lifetime and re-examine how San Diego’s economic chapters relate to each other. I am sure most people will be quite surprised as I make the case that our wonderful San Diego Bay was the foundation for the various economic engines now propelling us into the next millennium.
San Diego Bay is our most important historical linchpin because the U.S. Navy decided in the mid-1920s to make it the home of the Pacific Fleet. Thus, San Diego got its first identity as a "Navy Town," a description that would prevail over the next 25 years.
While this great natural harbor was an ideal base for the Navy's ships, it did not make sense for the fleet to be isolated from its other support needs. North Island was a natural to become a Naval air station for both land and seaplanes as well as dockage for aircraft carriers and other warships.
It should be no surprise then that the Naval Training Center was built in the early 1920s as the West Coast's only such recruit training facility. Next came the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, the 32nd Street Supply/Repair Facility, Naval Electronics Laboratory, Miramar Air Field and many more installations.
The aircraft builders led the next chapter in San Diego’s economic development. But why would they establish their businesses here? Because they wanted to be close to a major customer, the U.S. Navy. First, T. Claude Ryan started Ryan Aeronautical Co., its most famous product being the "Spirit of St. Louis," which Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean as a pioneering aviation first.
The big prize for San Diego during this era was when Major Reuben Fleet decided to move his Consolidated Aircraft Co. here from Buffalo, N.Y., in 1935. Few people remember that in 1943, at the peak of World War II, Consolidated Aircraft employed about 45,000 workers, the largest civilian employer in San Diego’s entire history. Most were recruited from out of state and remained here after WWII.
Another note of trivia: Between Pearl Harbor Day and V-J Day, Consolidated built 33,000 aircraft. Fred Rohr was a production manager for Ryan in 1940 when he decided to start his own company. He recognized that Consolidated would need subcontractors and persuaded Reuben Fleet to finance his start-up to specialize in ready-to-install power packages connecting the engines to the planes.
During this same time, Solar also became an important subcontractor of aircraft components. The really important part of this chapter was the importing and development of a large workforce with engineering and technical skills that became the launch pad of our next economic era.
With WWII over, it was only natural that this talent would start new businesses to take advantage of their technical learning. Thus, Walter Zable, Lamont Cohu and many others started their fledgling enterprises known as Cubic, Cohu, WaveTech and dozens of others. High technology in those days was principally manufacturing electronic testing and monitoring equipment. While employment was declining, nevertheless a new industry was born.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s the tourism industry started to become a major force. With the explosion of air travel, better automobiles and highways, San Diego’s "climate" was to become internationally known. This timing was fortuitous as San Diego was then in need of another economic engine.
The 1950s and 1960s were transition periods when San Diegans were attempting to set a proper course for the future. Civic leaders then included merchants Hamilton Marston, Joe Jessop and Guilford Whitney; bankers C. Arnholt Smith and Anderson Borthwick; and real estate types such as Ewart Goodwin and Charles Fletcher.
Urban sprawl had started, Mission Valley was discovered and the Mid-City started to decline in importance. Then came perhaps San Diego’s first public/private partnership with local government. To begin the rebuilding of the Centre City, private funds were raised to help build City Hall Downtown, birthing San Diegans Inc. (now the Downtown San Diego Partnership) and later, the Centre City Development Corp.
San Diego’s next great influencing chapter was the build-up of our higher educational system. While San Diego State University had been here for decades, its major growth occurred during the past 30 years. During this same period, the University of San Diego and University of California at San Diego have both added immense talent to our region. Perhaps we were just lucky that UCSD started at the graduate level surrounding Scripps Institution of Oceanography and then added schools of medicine, engineering and several other intensive learning disciplines. It is my studied opinion that USD and UCSD were started to fulfill the needs of the growing families principally brought here by the U.S. Navy and aircraft industry, people who had accumulated high levels of technical skills potential.
It was this university build-up that produced outstanding graduates who stayed to spawn an entirely new industry of high-tech electronic communications and biomedical companies. With the assistance of UCSD's Connect, San Diego Economic Development Corp. and others, San Diego’s largest growth industry today is recognized worldwide.
Okay, so let's connect the dots:
- God gave us a wonderful harbor known as San Diego Bay;
- San Diego Bay attracted the U. S. Navy;
- The U. S. Navy was why the aircraft builder came;
- Airplane manufacturers imported and trained thousands with engineering and technical skills;
- This WWII workforce launched new manufacturing businesses;
- Tourism and community development began to fill the gaps;
- Tremendous growth of higher education facilities filled the needs of our diverse workforce with growing families;
- Emphasis of high-tech learning created our present economic powerhouses of electronic communications and biomedical companies;
- So, because of San Diego Bay, our economic foundation appears solid for decades to come.
Malin Burnham is chairman of Burnham Real Estate Services, John Burnham & Co. Insurance Group, Burnham Pacific Properties and The Burnham Institute.
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