Industry

Chapter 6

The origins of SF were a city. It never began as an agricultural community that in time became a metropolitan. They are not known for their primary activities. However I did find an interesting article on line from a Canadian agricultural magazine, published in 1999, about how the City is doing urban farming, and being quite successful on a small-business level

As for the City’s natural resources, they have their surrounding landscape like the beaches and Golden Gate Park.

Tourism is one of the primary industries. The most recent numbers from 2006 estimate that the City attracted about 15 million visitors. Hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions fall under this flag of “tourism.”

Recently, there is a lot of concern for what is named the “light” industry. It is being threatened by land developers who are greedy. “Light” industry consists of small suppliers, warehouses, and specialty manufacturing. There is also another article of interest which states: “Industry has declined but also has morphed into different types of activities. It has a different place in
the economy than it did in the 1950s. But this does not mean that it’s dead or not viable.”

SF Economic structure was once dominated by corporate headquarters. Many Fortune 500 companies were located here, but in the recent years have left to lower cost areas. Their economy is not associated with more smaller, innovated companies.

Future projections are that, despite the rise and crash of the dot-comb’s of 1995-2000, high technology industries will continue to grow in the Information and Computer Technology field.