[quote=sdrealtor]Trying to dismiss my points based upon the weather being the same is taking the easy way out. These are not the reasons everyone cites when talking about how its different here. Sure the weather comes up but that is not the only thing and fortunately it is the other things that have changed. The weather was the main driver when tourism and defense were our only industries. Now we have developed other reasons why it is different here than before. SD is home to major industries in growing fields like health sciences, telecom and tech. Other cities are dying because they rely on heavy manufacturing which is moving overseas while SD is still growing. Major cities on the east coast are suffering population declines while SD is growing.[/quote]

I think SD is growing for different reasons. People want to come out to SoCal, but LA and OC are way too expensive, so they come down here. That’s the reason why i moved down from LA, SD is way cheaper. The military is still the big driver for our economy.

I work for one of the 2 largest tech consulting companies and i jump back between the Health & Life sciences and hi tech service lines. SD has been on a decline in the H&LS sector. For H&LS, most companies are investing in the tried and true Bay Area and Boston markets due to the economic downturn and are thinking of making investments into Pittsburgh of all places.

I’ve also heard that there just isn’t the talent down here to drive technology. There’s only one major research university in the area, UCSD, and for some odd reason, most of those students tend to be from outside of SD and seem to have commitments to move back home after graduating. I was staffed at a tech company in the Bay Area that has a presence in SD, their college recruiter told me she has trouble recruiting out of UCSD, because the students don’t want to work in SD after graduating. I just don’t get it.