Watsonville, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 44,265 at the 2000 census.
Like neighboring Salinas in Monterey County, Watsonville produces a variety of fruits and vegetables, primarily strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and table mushrooms. Martinelli's, a producer of sparkling apple cider, is headquartered there, as are Driscoll's Strawberries, Well-Pict Berries, GraniteRock Corporation, Granite Construction Company and West Marine.
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[edit] Geography
Watsonville is located at (36.920054, -121.763725)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 16.7 km² (6.4 mi²). 16.4 km² (6.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (1.24%) is water. Watsonville is between the Bay Area and Monterey Bay but the community of Watsonville considers it to be the Bay Area.
[edit] Athletics
The Wastsonville High School Varsity Soccer team has had a deep prolithic history. It is known for garnering more fans than most porfessional teams and ais also kwon for having ultra Wildcatz fans and hooligans in the soccer obsessed city of watsonville. It has won a total 8 CCS championships and have made playoffs every year for the last 40 years under the guidance of coach Roland Hedgepeth. In 2005 the theam was nationally ranked #1 in the nation and advanced to the prestigous admirals invite championship game in florida where they lost 3-2 to American Heratage. They completed the season winning the SCCAL league and CCS championship. Their tradional arch rivals are Aptos, Alisal, Gilroy, Bellarmine and recently after moving from SCCAL to MBL they have formed a cross town rivalry with Pajaro Valley. Many noted that Pajaro Valley has taken much of their talent. Watsonvile has been known for their super skilled, fast latin style play. Of recently despite losing talent to cross town league rivel pajaro valley they have have more success in getting their players into NCAA division 1 teams.
[edit] Environmental features
The city of Watsonville has habitat areas that support the endangered species Santa Cruz Tarweed on the California coastal prairie ecosystem. Considerable population growth occurred since 1980, requiring preparation of a number of Environmental Impact Reports, with resultant development removing certain lands of the city from productive natural habitat.
Most of the coastal land adjacent to Watsonville is part of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, a designation championed by former Assemblyman Leon Panetta. Heading away from the coast, the backdrop features the southern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains, making this town a little "hideout", from Silicon Valley.
The town is flanked by agricultural land all around its perimeter.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 44,265 people, 11,381 households, and 8,865 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,691.5/km² (6,969.4/mi²). There were 11,695 housing units at an average density of 711.1/km² (1,841.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 43.00% White, 0.75% African American, 1.74% Native American, 3.29% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 45.92% from other races, and 5.18% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 75.12% of the population.
There were 11,381 households out of which 49.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.3% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.1% were non-families. 17.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.84 and the average family size was 4.26.
In the city the population was spread out with 34.0% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 15.1% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females there were 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $37,617, and the median income for a family was $40,293. Males had a median income of $26,701 versus $22,225 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,205. About 15.4% of families and 19.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.8% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Delicious facts
Watsonville is home to O'Boy's organic avocados
Strawberry capital of the world and home of the Monterey Bay Strawberry Festival
Home of the Burrito Bash annual competition
Watsonville is only a 17 mile drive to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy.
Home of the Watsonville Fly In and Airshow that began in 1964 and is held annually on Memorial Day weekend.
[edit] Interwiki links
[edit] External links
- Official City Website
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
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Santa Cruz County, California County Seat: Santa Cruz |
|---|---|
| Incorporated places |
Capitola • Santa Cruz • Scotts Valley • Watsonville |
| CDPs |
Amesti • Aptos • Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley • Ben Lomond • Boulder Creek • Corralitos • Day Valley • Felton • Freedom • Interlaken • Live Oak • Opal Cliffs • Rio del Mar • Soquel • Twin Lakes |
| Other unincorporated communities |
Bonny Doon • Brookdale • Davenport • Mount Hermon • Swanton |
