News

Part II: The Binational Community: San Diego/Tijuana

March 14, 2005

The Border metropolis, San Diego/Tijuana, forms a mega billion dollar critical mass. Over 45 percent of San Diego's exports, approximately $10 billion, are sold to Mexico. According to statistics from the Department of Commerce, 19,000 jobs are supported for each billion dollars in exports. Accordingly, Mexico supports 190,000 jobs in San Diego.

Ten percent of the labor market in San Diego is supported by trade with Mexico.

Over 5 million northbound crossings are made each month. Of these, based on SANDAG estimates, 43 percent are to shop, which spills over to the service sector, such as restaurants. In fact, the city of Chula Vista swells to 50 percent increase in population during Tijuanenses high season shopping sprees. Over 10 percent of San Diego's sporting events and tourist attractions are patronized by Tijuana visitors. As much as 15 percent of the San Diego Gross Regional Product is attributed to Tijuana consumption and exports to Mexico. This dependency is critical to the economies of the San Diego South Coast region wherein over 25% of their GRP is trade and commerce with Tijuana.

An estimated 150,000 California residents and some 50,000 Mexican residents cross the border on a daily basis, for jobs, schools, housing, medical care, shopping and cultural exchange.

The Baja Triangle the Tijuana metropolitan region which includes Tecate, Rosarito and Ensenada with an aggregate population of 2.5 million is an industrial might which includes over 800 maquiladora (assembly) plans employing over 200,000 workers. A significant number of the components assembled in these plants, primarily electronics and electronic equipment, are exported from San Diego. By was of illustration, the Binational Metropolis is the television-producing capital of the world.

The pristine beaches from Tijuana to Ensenada, the many attractions such as the Titanic movie set, Puerto Nuevo, the gourmet restaurants and shopping choices – at a fraction of the price north of the border – fuels the region’s tourist industry and provides visitors to San Diego the added tourist attractions and romantic South of the Border adventures.

Housing in the Baja Triangle is less than one-half the cost of housing in San Diego and provides an affordable shelter alternative for San Diego residents. Already 196,000 Americans live in the Baja peninsula according to registration records of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. And with the growth of the Baja Triangle which will include vacation and retirement housing, the number of American expatriates could swell to 500,000 in the next decade. If so, 10 percent of the population in the region will be American.

Tijuana has become the affordable medical services solution for the uninsured in California. Over 250,000 California residents go to Tijuana , each month, for medical and dental health care and medicines, according to Pablo Schneider, the foremost authority on cross-border health services.

The Binational Community shares a critical dependence their source of water is the Colorado River. The Regional Colorado River Conveyance Feasibility Study was undertaken by both countries to develop a binational aqueduct for delivery of the Colorado river water to the binational region.

The links that bond the binational sister cities trade, commerce, medical services, tourism, cultural exchange blurr the political boundary between the two countries. The Binational Community is inextricably tied to a common destiny.

By Sal Osio