Some of the best news we've heard.

One of the biggest problems people from other parts of the country have when they arrive in Southern California is figuring out where the centers are. The center of town, the center of political power and the centers of business and industrial activity are difficult to distinguish because the place is so sprawling. As the saying goes. It's hard to get your arms around it.

Getting your arms around the Southern California economy has always been especially tough because its so diverse. One segment of the economy may be growing and expanding while another is facing hard times, so it's hard to make a general statement about the state of the Southern California economy. But one group that does a good job of getting its arms around the region is the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

The center's latest report offers encouraging news for economy-watchers in Los Angeles and environs. Southern California is in the midst of a transition that could well pull it out of its long economic slump and result in an economy that will depend on a different set of industries than those that have traditionally determined the region's economic fate, the report says. Its findings are one of the feature articles in this issue's California section.

The Center's report is one of a number of encouraging signs in this issue of Corporate Expansion & Relocation. Some of the other upbeat news comes out of Minnesota, where Best Buy Co., the Minneapolis-based chain that operates some of the largest electronics retail stores in the country, reports that it will open seven stores in Southern California in November as part of a western expansion in which the company will open 90 stores from San Diego to Seattle. Best is already building seven stores, which it plans to open in November, has hired a regional manager and plans a big distribution center in Ontario. Among its reasons for the expansion into Southern California is the company's belief that the local economy is coming out of the recession. Find out more about it in the article Best in the West in the California section.

Despite the encouraging signs, of course, the region still faces big hurdles economically. One of the biggest is finding viable uses for the huge volume of office and industrial space that has been left empty by the downsizing of the defense industry. Much of that space is concentrated in El Segundo, where defense firms currently occupy 10.1 million square feet of space, down from 11.2 million in 1992.

In the most comprehensive study of local defense industry buildings to date, Kenneth Leventhal & Co. recently issued a report titled "Real Estate Strategies for a Changing Defense Industry" that makes a number of recommendations for recycling the defense industry space. The report, described in an article in the California section, shows that other parts of the country have tackled similar chunks of abandoned industrial space and found innovative ways to recycle it.

Southern California could also learn something from Florida, where the recession of the early 90's prompted the state to embark on an ambitious economic development program that has turned the Sunshine State into an increasingly powerful economic engine.

An over-dependence on population growth had led to losses in Florida's huge service industry base, such as tourism and retail, and an unemployment rate exceeding the national average. It also had led to declining sales tax revenues triggering cutbacks in government spending and programs, leading to more layoffs throughout the state.

But Florida is reinventing itself, as described in a group of articles in the National section of this issue. One part of the turnaround is the development of a growing entertainment industry. Last year in Metro Orlando the motion picture, television and commercial production industry was responsible for 93.1 million in direct dollars pumped into the local economy. This represents a total economic impact of more than $330 million. By the turn of the century, economists estimate that film and entertainment will be a billion dollar industry in Florida.

These and other stories in this issue illustrate how aggressive some economic development groups are getting -- and how they're getting results. The Economic Indicators section at the front of this issue, for example, shows how Anaheim's Public Utilities Department and Redevelopment Agency provided a creative mix of economic assistance to retain Disc Manufacturing Inc., the nation's largest independent manufacturer of compact discs and CD ROMs. Other successes locally and nationwide include The Orange Economic Development Partnership "Business Visitation Program" that will include personal interview surveys of approximately 200 key business owners; the City of Brea's addition of 1,100 new jobs in the last year and Iowa's completion of the nation's largest, most comprehensive fiber optic network of its kind.

As usual, this issue is divided into three sections: California. The Nation and The World, to reflect our focus on local, national and international topics. Enjoy, and look for more of the same in our next issue, due out in November.

Bob Howard is the editor of Corporate Expansion & Relocation.