Business View Magazine | January 2020

277 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 SANTA CLARA , CAL I FORNI A season, 300 to 400 women and men were employed in the handling, sorting and canning process. As the 19th century came to a close, more and more people arrived seeking the mild climate and job opportunities of the Santa Clara area. By 1906, the population of the city had grown to nearly 5,000. It remained fairly stable and did not increase greatly until after World War II, when the city outgrew its 19th century boundaries and expanded to open lands north and west of the original city limits. A new product, the semiconductor chip, was developed in the 1950s, and the resulting electronics industry, based on the silicon chip, gobbled up the remaining orchard land and changed the agricultural nature of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Valley forever. In response to the changing local economy, on July 23, 1896, Santa Clara strategically began operating a public electric utility company. Today, Santa Clara is a prosperous and progressive city of 130,000, with Donald Von Raesfeld Power Plant Santa Clara Square Marketplace