San Bernardino city is known for its exceptional scenery and ethnic diversity. The city combines the various influences from emigrants, ranging from the Spanish Missionaries to the Native Americans, has helped this culturally diverse and interesting city develop. The city was named by Father Dumetz, a Franciscan missionary, in 1810. The city itself is located west of the lower desert and south of the San Bernardino Mountains. It is currently the county seat of San Bernardino County and hosts a population of more than 205,000.
The financial system of San Bernardino is concentrated in government, retail, and services industries. In the city, there are all together 97,000 plus jobs provided, 20,000 of these are government jobs, sixteen thousand within retail, and 13,200 in education.
Located at the intersection of the I-10, I-215, and SR-210 freeways, the city of San Bernardino has a strategic location. The region is even close to the San Gorgonio and Cajon passes. In the city lies the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway's Intermodal fright transport yard, as well as the Yellow Freight System and Pacific Motor Trucking's cross-docking trucking center. There are some warehouses located near the San Bernardino International Airport for big companies, such as Mattel and Kohl's.
The Riverfront District, situated along Hospitality Lane and close to the Santa Ana River, has been the economic development hub within the city for the past few years. Several large hotels, office buildings, restaurants and retailers have been built here instead of downtown.
The Nortan Airforce Base was closed in 1994, practically causing the whole San Bernadino's economy to collapse. The rate of joblessness was over 12 percent with almost ten thousand people lost their jobs and many of the neighborhoods were emptied. The area still hasn't entirely recovered and people within one mile of the centre of the city have a meager median income of $20,480.