Manufacturing in Sacramento

Even though Sacramento is not part of the North American manufacturing core, the city is full of manufacturing plants and facilities both within and on the outskirts of the city.

Chiller Plant for a Data Center located in Sacramento, CA
(Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/RagingWire_ChillerPlant.jpg)

For starters, Sacramento is known for the mines that surround the town which hold metals within them. The majority of these metals are gold, which is still found in mines near places such as Mother Lode. Sacramento also hosts the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, which is the leading railroad transportation company in the United States today. Because of this, quite often cargo vessels travel into Sacramento's district through the Sacramento River from the San Francisco Bay, and drop their cargo onto railroad cars to be transported across the US.

The inside of a gold mine
(Source: http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/minerals/PublishingImages/AuMine.jpg)

However, what Sacramento is also known for manufacturing are agricultural products. A number of farms surround the city of Sacramento, with different distribution plants and canneries within the city that both house and distribute fresh and canned produce throughout the United States. In fact, the agricultural district is so big in California that they produce over 350 crops and are responsible for growing over half the nation's produce and nuts (AG Classroom). During a couple trips that I've taken this past summer, I noticed that some of these fresh foods that are distributed from Sacramento have shown up all the way in Missouri, and is often sold there for lower prices than what one would pay for the same item in California.

A rice manufacturing plant in Sacramento
(Source: http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa48/bcsmith46/farmers-rice-rear.jpg)

More recently, Sacramento has taken on a big role in the Information Technology industry, housing big-name companies such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard (city-data.com) Smaller data manufacturing companies have opened up in the city as well, which act as data centers and website providers for many companies within the United States. With its sister city being San Jose (which, to most people, is considered the head of Silicon Valley) as well as San Francisco, its easily understandable how this type of industry would end up within Sacramento as well.

A typical data center
(Source: http://www.grantlabs.net/images/OIDataCenter1.jpg)

However, in recent years, Sacramento's economic growth has begun to decline. Unemployment has grown in the city, so much to the point that a homeless tent city has begun to emerge next to the American River (Gonzales). The faltering state economy has not helped the city either, which has also caused many working state employees to lose their jobs. One can only hope that as this recession ends, more jobs opportunities will begin to emerge once again within the city.

Current image of the Sacramento "tent city"
(Source: http://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/sacramento_tent_city.jpg)