In its 2001 rankings, Forbes magazine placed the Sacramento region 11th out of the top 200 metropolitan areas in their annual listing of "Best Places To Do Business". Yuba City ranked 11th among 94 smaller communities in the same category. Is the Central Valley undergoing a major "makeover?" Are traditional businesses that launched California to the forefront of agricultural abundance being overshadowed by a new "high tech" revolution? The names of "Hewlett-Packard" and "Earthlink" are as noticeable these days as "Monsanto" and "Del Monte". According to the Sacramento Business Journal the number of hi-tech companies in the Sacramento region jumped from 236 in 1996 to 714 in 2001. Perhaps it was inevitable that the technological revolution would eventually catch up to the Central Valley. In the path of the population explosion the expansion into new business and manufacturing opportunities seems a certainty. |