It’s about time I smacked down this BS about San Diego’s economy being weak or dying.
San Diego has #’s 1-5. If you are breathing in this town, you can get a tech job. Heck, even In-N-Out pays over $9/hr.
1-2) Biotech is very strong and pays well. Try researching companies like Illumnia, Amylin – there are hundreds of companies from 2-person startups on up. Those big new buildings off the 56? Being eyeballed by biotech priced out of Sorrento Valley. What about the port of San Diego — the only major shipbuilding yard on the West Coast. Is it at all plausible that being a border town generates commerce? K2 and Calloway? General Lock? PetCo? Enough diversity yet?
3) Does Genentech starting a gigantic manufacturing plant in Oceanside count as a worthy company moving here? Expanding? Profitline, AMEC, SonTek (ok, these are small companies). How about General Atomics expanding in Poway?
4) UCSD which has a tech transfer office set to assist with licensing and startups. There is the Scripps Research Institute, Salk Insitute, and the Burnham Insitute. These are some of the most prestigious biomedical researchers west of Cambridge, bar none. The San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Jacobs School have generated numerous companies.
5) Does the Navy count as recession-proof? Or the Marines? Coast Guard? Or how about all the local defense research, ie civilian jobs? SAIC? Lockheed Martin? L-3? SPAWAR?
However, none of this means that people, not evey highly paid professionals and researchers, can afford a house. You can earn over $100K a year in SD and it’ll buy you a trash heap at current prices.
