Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been promoted as the "American Riviera". As of the census of 2010, the city had a population of 88,410, a loss of 1,190 from the previous census, making it the second most populous city in the county after Santa Maria while the contiguous urban area, which includes the cities of Goleta and Carpinteria, along with the unincorporated regions of Isla Vista, Montecito, Mission Canyon, Hope Ranch, Summerland, and others, has an approximate population of 220,000. The population of the entire county in 2010 was 423,895.

In addition to being a popular tourist and resort destination, the city economy includes a large service sector, education, technology, health care, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, and local government. In 2004, the service sector accounted for fully 35% of local employment. Education in particular is well represented, with five institutions of higher learning on the south coast (the University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College, Westmont College, Antioch University, and the Brooks Institute of Photography). The Santa Barbara Airport serves the city, as does Amtrak. U.S. Highway 101 connects the Santa Barbara area with Los Angeles to the southeast and San Francisco to the northwest. Behind the city, in and beyond the Santa Ynez Mountains, is the Los Padres National Forest, which contains several remote wilderness areas. Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary are located approximately 20 mi offshore.

History
Evidence of human habitation of the area begins at least 13,000 years ago. Evidence for a Paleoindian presence includes a fluted Clovis-like point found in the 1980s along the western Santa Barbara County coast, as well as the remains of Arlington Springs Man, found on Santa Rosa Island in the 1960s. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Chumash lived on the south coast of Santa Barbara County at the time of the first European explorations. Five villages flourished in what is today Santa Barbara:
 * 1) Mispu (now occupied by the City College);
 * 2) Syukhtun, chief Yanonalit’s large village between Bath and Chapala streets (later called “El Baño”, site of El Baño pool);
 * 3) Amolomol at the mouth of Mission Creek;
 * 4) and Swetete, above the present bird refuge.

Spanish period
Portuguese explorer João Cabrilho (Spanish: Cabrillo), sailing for the Kingdom of Spain, sailed through what is now called the Santa Barbara Channel in 1542, anchoring briefly in the area. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno gave the name "Santa Barbara" to the channel and also to one of the Channel Islands.

A land expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà visited in 1769, and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, who accompanied the expedition, named a large native town "Laguna de la Concepcion". Cabrillo's earlier name, however, is the one that has survived.

The first permanent European residents were Spanish missionaries and soldiers under Felipe de Neve, who came in 1782 to build the Presidio. They were sent both to fortify the region against expansion by other powers such as England and Russia, and to convert the natives to Christianity. Many of the Spaniards brought their families with them, and those formed the nucleus of the small town – at first just a cluster of adobes – that surrounded the Presidio. Mission Santa Barbara was dedicated December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara. It was dedicated by Padre Fermín Lasuén, who succeeded Padre Junipero Serra as the second president and founder of the California Franciscan Mission Chain. The Mission fathers began the slow work of converting the native Chumash to Christianity, building a village for them on the Mission grounds. During the following decades, many of the natives died of diseases such as smallpox, against which they had no natural immunity.

The most dramatic event of the Spanish period was the powerful 1812 earthquake, and tsunami, with an estimated magnitude of 7.1, which destroyed the Mission as well as the rest of the town; water reached as high as present-day Anapamu street, and carried a ship half a mile up Refugio Canyon. Following the earthquake, the Mission fathers chose to rebuild in a grander manner, and it is this construction that survives to the present day, the best-preserved of the California Missions.

The Spanish period ended in 1822 with the end of the Mexican War of Independence, which terminated 300 years of colonial rule. The flag of Mexico went up the flagpole at the Presidio, but only for 24 years.

Mexican and Rancho period
After the forced secularization of the Missions in 1833, successive Mexican Governors distributed the large land tracts formerly held by the Franciscan Order to various families in order to reward service or build alliances. These land grants to local notable families mark the beginning of the "Rancho Period" in California and Santa Barbara history. The population remained sparse, with enormous cattle operations run by wealthy families. It was during this period that Richard Henry Dana, Jr. first visited Santa Barbara and wrote about the culture and people of Santa Barbara in his book Two Years Before the Mast.

Santa Barbara fell bloodlessly to a battalion of American soldiers under John C. Frémont on December 27, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, and after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 it became part of the expanding United States.

Middle and late 19th century
Change came quickly after Santa Barbara's acquisition by the United States. The population doubled between 1850 and 1860. In 1851, land surveyor Salisbury Haley designed the street grid, famously botching the block measurements, misaligning the streets, thereby creating doglegs at certain intersections. Wood construction replaced adobe as American settlers moved in; during the Gold Rush years and following, the town became a haven for bandits and gamblers, and a dangerous and lawless place. Charismatic gambler and highwayman Jack Powers had virtual control of the town in the early 1850s, until driven out by a posse organized in San Luis Obispo. English gradually supplanted Spanish as the language of daily life, becoming the language of official record in 1870. The first newspaper, the Santa Barbara Gazette, was founded in 1855.

While the Civil War had little effect on Santa Barbara, the disastrous drought of 1863 ended the Rancho Period, as most of the cattle died and ranchos were broken up and sold. The building of Stearns Wharf in 1872 enhanced Santa Barbara's commercial and tourist accessibility; previously goods and visitors had to transfer from steamboats to smaller craft to row ashore. During the 1870s, writer Charles Nordhoff promoted the town as a health resort and destination for well-to-do travelers from other parts of the U.S.; many of them came, and many stayed. The luxurious Arlington Hotel dated from this period. In 1887 the railroad finally went through to Los Angeles, and in 1901 to San Francisco: Santa Barbara was now easily accessible by land and by sea, and subsequent development was brisk.

Peter J. Barber, an architect, designed many Late Victorian style residences, and served twice as mayor, in 1880 and again in 1890.

Early 20th century to World War II
Just before the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered at the Summerland Oil Field, and the region along the beach east of Santa Barbara sprouted numerous oil derricks and piers for drilling offshore. This was the first offshore oil development in the world; oil drilling offshore would become a contentious practice in the Santa Barbara area, which continues to the present day.

Santa Barbara housed the world's largest movie studio during the era of silent film. Flying A Studios, a division of the American Film Manufacturing Company, operated on two city blocks centered at State and Mission between 1910 and 1922, with the industry shutting down locally and moving to Hollywood once it outgrew the area, needing the resources of a larger city. Flying A and the other smaller local studios produced approximately 1,200 films during their tenure in Santa Barbara, of which approximately 100 survive.

During this period, the Loughead Aircraft Company was established on lower State Street, and regularly tested seaplanes off of East Beach. This was the genesis of what would later become Lockheed. The magnitude 6.3  earthquake of June 29, 1925, was the first destructive earthquake in California since the 1906 San Francisco quake, destroyed much of downtown Santa Barbara and killed 13 people. The low death toll is attributed to the early hour (6:44 a.m., before most people were out on the streets, vulnerable to falling masonry). While this quake, like the one in 1812, was centered in the Santa Barbara Channel, it caused no tsunami. It came at an opportune time for rebuilding, since a movement for architectural reform and unification around a Spanish Colonial style was already underway. Under the leadership of Pearl Chase, many of the city's famous buildings rose as part of the rebuilding process, including the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, sometimes praised as the "most beautiful public building in the United States."

During World War II, Santa Barbara was home to Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara; Naval Reserve Center Santa Barbara at the harbor; was near to the Army's Camp Cook, present-day Vandenberg Air Force Base; and contained a hospital for treating servicemen wounded in the Pacific Theatre. On February 23, 1942, not long after the outbreak of war in the Pacific, the Japanese submarine I-17 surfaced offshore and lobbed 16 shells at the Ellwood Oil Field, about 10 mi west of Santa Barbara, in the first wartime attack by an enemy power on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812. Although the shelling was inaccurate and only caused about $500 damage to a catwalk, panic was immediate. Many Santa Barbara residents fled, and land values plummeted to historic lows.

After World War II
After the war many of the servicemen who had seen Santa Barbara returned to stay. The population surged by 10,000 people between the end of the war and 1950. This burst of growth had dramatic consequences for the local economy and infrastructure. Highway 101 was built through town during this period, and newly built Lake Cachuma began supplying water via a tunnel dug through the mountains between 1950 and 1956.

Local relations with the oil industry gradually soured through the period. Production at Summerland had ended, Elwood was winding down, and to find new fields oil companies carried out seismic exploration of the Channel using explosives, a controversial practice that local fishermen claimed harmed their catch. The culminating disaster, and one of the formative events in the modern environmental movement, was the blowout at Union Oil's Platform A on the Dos Cuadras Field, about eight miles (13 km) southeast of Santa Barbara in the Santa Barbara Channel, on January 28, 1969. Approximately 100000 oilbbl of oil surged out of a huge undersea break, fouling hundreds of square miles of ocean and all the coastline from Ventura to Goleta, as well north facing beaches on the Channel Islands. Two legislative consequences of the spill in the next year were the passages of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); locally, outraged citizens formed GOO (Get Oil Out). Santa Barbara's business community strove to attract development until the surge in the anti-growth movement in the 1970s. Many "clean" industries, especially aerospace firms such as Raytheon and Delco Electronics, moved to town in the 1950s and 1960s, bringing employees from other parts of the U.S. UCSB itself became a major employer. In 1975, the city passed an ordinance restricting growth to a maximum of 85,000 residents, through zoning. Growth in the adjacent Goleta Valley could be shut down by denying water meters to developers seeking permits. As a result of these changes, growth slowed down, but prices rose sharply.

When voters approved connection to State water supplies in 1991, parts of the city, especially outlying areas, resumed growth, but more slowly than during the boom period of the 1950s and 1960s. While the slower growth preserved the quality of life for most residents and prevented the urban sprawl notorious in the Los Angeles basin, housing in the Santa Barbara area was in short supply, and prices soared: in 2006, only six percent of residents could afford a median-value house. As a result, many people who work in Santa Barbara commute from adjacent, more affordable areas, such as Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Ventura. The resultant traffic on incoming arteries, in particular the stretch of Highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara, is another problem being addressed by long-range planners.

Notable wildfires
Several destructive fires affected Santa Barbara during this time: the 1964 Coyote Fire, which burned 67000 acre of backcountry along with 106 homes; the smaller, but quickly moving, Sycamore Fire in 1977, which burned 200 homes; the disastrous 1990 Painted Cave Fire, which incinerated over 500 homes in only several hours, during an intense Sundowner wind event; the November 2008 Tea Fire, which destroyed 210 homes in the foothills of Santa Barbara and Montecito; and the 2009 Jesusita Fire that burned 8733 acre and destroyed 160 homes above the San Roque region of Santa Barbara.

Geography


Santa Barbara is located about 90 mi WNW of Los Angeles, along the Pacific coast. This stretch of coast along southern Santa Barbara County is sometimes referred to as "The American Riviera", presumably because its geography and climate are similar to that of areas along the northern Mediterranean Sea coast (especially in southern France) known as the Riviera. The Santa Ynez Mountains, an east–west trending range, rise dramatically behind the city, with several peaks exceeding 4000 ft. Covered with chaparral and sandstone outcrops, they make a scenic backdrop to the town. Sometimes, perhaps once every three years, snow falls on the mountains, but it rarely stays for more than a few days. Nearer to town, directly east and adjacent to Mission Santa Barbara, is an east-west ridge known locally as "the Riviera," traversed by a road called "Alameda Padre Serra" (shortened APS, which translates to "Father Serra's pathway").

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 42.0 sqmi, of which 19.5 sqmi of it is land and 22.5 sqmi of it (53.61%) is water. The high official figures for water is due to the extension of the city limit into the ocean, including a strip of city reaching out into the sea and inland again to keep the Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) within the city boundary.

Climate
Santa Barbara experiences a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb) characteristic of coastal California. Because the city lies along the ocean, onshore breezes moderate temperatures resulting in warmer winters and cooler summers compared with places farther inland. In the winter, storms reach California, some of which bring heavy rainfall. Locally the Santa Ynez mountains create an upslope flow causing higher rainfall than other coastal areas. Summers in Southern California are mostly rainless due to the presence of a high-pressure area over the eastern Pacific. In the fall, downslope winds, locally called "Sundowners", can raise temperatures into the high 90s creating a heat-wave, increasing the chance of brush fires in the foothills north of the city. Rainfall is extremely erratic and in exceptional years like 1940–1941 and 1997–1998 over 40 in of rain has fallen in a year, but in dry seasons less than 6 in is not unheard of. Snow sometimes covers the Santa Ynez Mountains but has not been recorded in the city itself except for a few flakes in 1939.

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Barbara had a population of 88,410. The population density was 2,106.6 people per square mile (813.4/km²). The racial makeup of Santa Barbara was 66,411 (75.1%) White, 1,420 (1.6%) African American, 892 (1.0%) Native American, 3,062 (3.5%) Asian (1.0% Chinese, 0.6% Filipino, 0.5% Japanese, 0.4% Korean, 0.4% Indian, 0.2% Vietnamese, 0.4% other), 116 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 13,032 (14.7%) from other races, and 3,477 (3.9%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 33,591 persons (38.0%). Non-Hispanic Whites were 45,852 persons (52.2%)

The Census reported that 86,783 people (98.2% of the population) lived in households, 1,172 (1.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 455 (0.5%) were institutionalized.

Of the 35,449 households, 8,768 (24.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,240 (37.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,454 (9.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, and 1,539 (4.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,420 (6.8%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 339 (1.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships; 11,937 households (33.7%) were made up of individuals and 4,340 (12.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45. There were 18,233 families (51.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.13.

The population was spread out with 16,468 people (18.6%) under the age of 18, 10,823 people (12.2%) aged 18 to 24, 26,241 people (29.7%) aged 25 to 44, 22,305 people (25.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 12,573 people (14.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.7 males.

There were 37,820 housing units at an average density of 901.2 per square mile (347.9/km²), of which 13,784 (38.9%) were owner-occupied, and 21,665 (61.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.1%; 34,056 people (38.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 52,727 people (59.6%) lived in rental housing units.

2000
As of the census of 2000, 92,325 people*, 35,605 households, and 18,941 families resided in the city. The population density was 4,865.3 people per square mile (1,878.1/km²). There were 37,076 housing units at an average density of 1,953.8 per square mile (754.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 74.0% White, 1.8% African American, 1.1% Native American, 2.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 16.4% from other races, and 3.9% from two or more races. People of Hispanic or Latino background, of any race, were 35.0% of the population. (*This number was revised to 89,600 when it was discovered that a dormitory population outside the city was erroneously included in the 92,325 figure.)

Of the 35,605 households, 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.8% were not families. About 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the city, the population was distributed as 19.8% under the age of 18, 13.8% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $47,498, and for a family was $57,880. Males had a median income of $37,116 versus $31,911 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,466. About 7.7% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.8% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over. If one compares the per capita income to the actual cost of living, the number of people living below the poverty line is considerably higher.

Economy
Aerospace and defense companies form the basis of the city's private employment as Alliant Techsystems, Channel Technologies Group, Citrix Online, and Raytheon have major operations in the area. Santa Barbara's tourist attractions have made the hospitality industry into a major player in the regional economy. Motel 6 was started in Santa Barbara in 1962.

Top employers
The top employers in South Santa Barbara County are:

Architecture
The dominant architectural themes of Santa Barbara are the Spanish Colonial Revival and the related Mission Revival style, encouraged through design guidelines adopted by city leaders after the 1925 earthquake destroyed much of the downtown commercial district. Residential architectural styles in Santa Barbara reflect the era of their construction. Many late 1800s Victorian homes remain downtown and in the "Upper East" neighborhood. California bungalows are common, built in the early decades of the 20th century. Spanish Colonial Revival-style homes built after 1925 are common all over the city, especially in newer upscale residential areas like Montecito and Hope Ranch.

Neighborhoods
Santa Barbara has a range of neighborhoods with distinctive histories, architectures, and cultures. While considerable consensus exists as to the identification of neighborhood names and boundaries, variations exist between observers. For example, real estate agents may use different names than those used by public utilities or municipal service providers, such as police, fire, or water services. The following is a list of neighborhoods with descriptions and comments on each.


 * The Mesa stretches 2.5 mi from Santa Barbara City College on the east to Arroyo Burro County Beach (or "Hendry's/The Pit" to locals) on the west. "The Mesa" embodies a beach vibe. The neighborhood has beach access to Mesa Lane Beach, as well as Thousand Steps Beach. This is considered to be a desirable neighborhood due to its proximity to the ocean as well as the college. Residential development began here in the 1920s, but was interrupted by the discovery of the Mesa Oil Field.  The field was quickly exhausted, and after the Second World War building of houses resumed, although the last oil tanks and sumps did not disappear until the early 1970s.


 * Mission Canyon contains the wooded hilly area beginning at the Old Mission and extending along Foothill Road, east into Mission Canyon Road and Las Canoas Road. A popular spot as an entry-point for weekend foothill hiking, it is one of the most rustically beautiful, yet fire-prone areas of Santa Barbara due to heavy natural vegetation.


 * The Riviera encompasses an ocean-facing hillside and back hillside extending for approximately two miles, with the north side extending from Foothill Road to Sycamore Canyon Road, and the south side from the Santa Barbara Mission to North Salinas Street. The famous ribbon-like Alameda Padre Serra serves as the principal entry point from the Mission and the City of Santa Barbara. Since the past century, it has been known as "the Riviera" due to its resemblance to the Mediterranean coastal towns of France and Italy.  The neighborhood has winding streets with intricate stone work terracing built by early 20th-century Italian immigrants. Most of the topography of the Riviera is relatively steep, making it particularly noteworthy for homes with outstanding views of the City of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean.


 * The Westside ("west of State Street") lies predominantly in the lowlands between State Street and the Mesa, including Highway 101, and also reaches down to Cliff Drive, incorporating Santa Barbara City College.


 * The Eastside ("east of State Street") is generally the area east of State to the base of the Riviera, and includes Santa Barbara Junior High School, Santa Barbara High School, and the Santa Barbara Bowl.


 * The Waterfront comprises roughly commercial and tourist-oriented business structures along Cabrillo Blvd including Stearn's Wharf, the Santa Barbara Harbor and the breakwater, and extending East toward the Bird Refuge and West along Shoreline Drive above the SBCC campus West.


 * Lower State Street is, along with the waterfront, the part of town most popular with tourists. It is usually defined as stretching from Anapamu to either the intersection with 101 or Stearns Wharf. It features primarily commercial properties, as well as a thriving nightlife. Lower State Street also serves as the main location for local celebrations and parades such as Old Spanish Days Fiesta.


 * Upper State Street is a residential and commercial district that includes numerous professional offices, and much of the medical infrastructure of the city.


 * San Roque is located northwest of the downtown area and north of Samarkand. It is a good spot for families within the Hope School District. This area is said to be a constant 5 degrees warmer than the coastal areas, due to its greater distance from the ocean than other Santa Barbara neighborhoods, and being separated from the sea by a low range of hills to the south, occupied by the Mesa and Hope Ranch. San Roque is also the most popular spot for Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween.


 * Samarkand currently has approximately 630 homes on 184 acre with a population of about 2000 people. The name Samarkand comes from an Old Persian word meaning "the land of heart's desire." It was first applied to a deluxe Persian-style hotel that was converted from a boy’s school in 1920. Samarkand later became identified as its own neighborhood located between Las Positas, State Street, De La Vina, Oak Park and the Freeway. Earle Ovington built the first home here in 1920 at 3030 Samarkand Drive. As a pilot, Ovington established the Casa Loma Air Field with a 1500 ft runway that was used by legendary pilots, Lindbergh and Earheart.

Performing arts
Santa Barbara contains numerous performing art venues, including the 2,000 seat Arlington Theatre, is the largest indoor performance venue in Santa Barbara and also serves as the premise for the annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The Lobero Theatre, a historic building and favorite venue for small concerts; the Granada Theater, the tallest building downtown, originally built by contractor C.B. Urton in 1924, but with the theatre remodeled and reopened in March 2008; and the Santa Barbara Bowl, a 4,562 seat amphitheatre used for outdoor concerts, nestled in a picturesque canyon northwest of Santa Barbara at the base of the Riviera.

The city is considered a haven for classical music lovers with a symphony orchestra, a part-time opera company, and many non-profit classical music groups (such as CAMA). The Music Academy of the West, located in Montecito, hosts an annual music festival in the summer, drawing renowned students and professionals.

Tourist attractions
Santa Barbara is a year-round tourist destination renowned for its fair weather, downtown beaches, and Spanish architecture. Tourism brings more than one billion dollars per year into the local economy, including $80 million in tax revenue. In addition to the city's cultural assets, several iconic destinations lie within the city's limits. Mission Santa Barbara, "The Queen of the Missions," is located on a rise about two miles (3 km) inland from the harbor, and is maintained as an active place of worship, sightseeing stop, and national historic landmark. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse, a red tiled Spanish-Moorish structure, provides a sweeping view of the downtown area from its open air tower. The Presidio of Santa Barbara, a Spanish military installation and chapel built in 1782, was central to the town's early development and remains an icon of the city's colonial roots. In 1855, the Presidio Chapel, being in decay, grew into the Apostolic College of Our Lady of Sorrows, now Our Lady of Sorrows Church. The present church, consecrated on the 147th anniversary of the founding of the presidio on April 21, 1929, remains one of the most beautiful churches in California.

Also famous is the annual Fiesta (originally called "Old Spanish Days"), which is celebrated every year in August. The Fiesta is hosted by the Native Daughters of the Golden West and the Native Sons of the Golden West in a joint committee called the Fiesta Board. Fiesta was originally started as a tourist attraction, like the Rose Bowl, to draw business into the town in the 1920s.

Flower Girls and Las Señoritas are another attraction of Fiesta, as they march and participate in both Fiesta Pequeña (the kickoff of Fiesta) and the various parades. Flower Girls is for girls under 13. They throw roses and other flowers into the crowds. Las Señoritas are their older escorts. Many Señoritas join the Native Daughters at the age of 16.

The annual Santa Barbara French Festival takes place Bastille Day weekend in July. This is the largest French Festival in the western United States.

New Noise Music Conference and Festival, established in 2009, is a 4 day event with the main party in the Funk Zone, a small art and wine tasting section of the city near the beach, and other small bands to local venues around the city. New Noise brings in over 75 bands and 50 speakers to the festival each year.

For over 40 years, the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show has been held on Cabrillo Blvd., east of Stearns Wharf and along the beach, attracting thousands of people to see artwork made by artists and crafts people that live in Santa Barbara county. By the rules of the show, all the works displayed must have been made by the artists and craftspeople themselves, who must sell their own goods. The show started in the early 1960s, and now has over 200 booths varying in size and style on any Sunday of the year. The show is also held on some Saturdays that are national holidays, but not during inclement weather.

In recent years, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, another local non-profit, has also become a major draw bringing over 50,000 attendees during what is usually Santa Barbara's slow season in late January. SBIFF hosts a wide variety of celebrities, premieres, panels and movies from around the world and runs for 10 days.

The annual Summer Solstice Parade draws up to 100,000 people. It is a colorful themed parade put on by local residents, and follows a route along State Street for approximately one mile, ending at Alameda Park. Its main rule is that no written messages or banners with words are allowed. Floats and costumes vary from the whimsical to the outrageous; parties and street events take place throughout the weekend of the parade, the first weekend after the solstice.

Surfing is as much a part of Santa Barbara culture as art. Bruce Brown's cult classic, The Endless Summer, put surfing on the map, and he is often seen around the town. Surfing legend Pat Curren and his son, three time world champion Tom Curren, as well as ten time world champion Kelly Slater, and other popular surf icons such as Jack Johnson call Santa Barbara home. Local surfers are known for going north to The Point, or south to Rincon.

Other tourist-centered attractions include:
 * Stearns Wharf – Adjacent to Santa Barbara Harbor, features shops, several restaurants, and the newly rebuilt Ty Warner Sea Center.
 * Rafael Gonzalez House – Adobe residence of the alcalde of Santa Barbara in the 1820s, and a National Historic Landmark.
 * Santa Barbara's Moreton Bay Fig Tree – a giant Moreton Bay Fig, 80 ft tall, which has one of the largest total shaded areas of any tree in North America
 * Burton Mound – on Mason Street at Burton Circle, this mound is thought to be the Chumash village of Syujton, recorded by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, and again by Fr. Crespí and Portolá in 1769. (California Historical Landmark No. 306)
 * De La Guerra Plaza (Casa de la Guerra) – Site of the first City Hall, and still the center of the city's administration. (California Historical Landmark No. 307)  Also the location of the Santa Barbara News Press.
 * Covarrubias Adobe – Built in 1817; adjacent to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum on Santa Barbara Street. (California Historical Landmark No. 308)
 * Hastings Adobe – Built in 1854, partially from material recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Winfield Scott. (California Historical Landmark No. 559)
 * Hill-Carrillo Adobe – Built in 1825 by Daniel A. Hill for his wife Rafaela L. Ortega y Olivera; currently at 11 E. Carrillo St.
 * Cold Spring Tavern
 * El Paseo Shopping Mall – California's first shopping center.
 * Santa Barbara Zoo
 * Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
 * Channel Islands National Park

Restaurants
With its abundance of seafood, awareness of farming methods, and nearby wineries, Santa Barbara has many restaurants. In 2010, the SantaBarbara.com Restaurant Guide listed 693 separate restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries in the region.

Museums
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), located on State Street, features nationally recognized collections and special exhibitions of international importance. Highlights of the Museum's remarkable permanent collection include antiquities; 19th-century French, British, and American art; 20th-century and contemporary European, North American, and Latin American art; Asian art; photography; and works on paper. It is also recognized for its innovative education program that serves local and surrounding communities through extensive on-site programming and curriculum resources. Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), located on the top floor of Paseo Nuevo shopping mall, is a non-profit, non-collecting museum dedicated to the exhibition, education, and cultivation of the arts of our time. The premier venue for contemporary art between Los Angeles and San Francisco, MCASB offers free admission to its exhibitions and public programming. Other art venues include the University Art Museum on the University of California at Santa Barbara Campus, various private galleries, and a wide variety of art and photography shows. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is located immediately behind the Santa Barbara Mission in a complex of Mission-style buildings set in a park-like campus. The Museum offers indoor and outdoor exhibits and a state-of-the-art planetarium. The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is located on De La Guerra Street and offers free admission. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is located at 113 Harbor Way (the former Naval Reserve Center Santa Barbara) on the waterfront. The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum (free admission) houses a collection of historical documents and manuscripts. Two open air museums here are Lotusland and Casa del Herrero, exemplifying the American Country Place era in Santa Barbara. Casa Dolores, center for the popular arts of Mexico, is devoted to the collection, preservation, study, and exhibition of an extensive variety of objects of the popular arts of Mexico.

Print
Santa Barbara has two adjudicated, general circulation newspapers: The daily Santa Barbara News-Press (sold by the New York Times Company in 2000 to local resident Wendy P. McCaw), with a circulation of about 25,000, and the Santa Barbara Independent, a weekly with 40,000 audited circulation. Other media available include Edhat Online Magazine Edhat, an aggregation of citizen news and links to other media websites, the Santa Barbara View Santa Barbara View, an award-winning online magazine offering news, views, and commentary, Pacific Coast Business Times, a weekly business journal covering Santa Barbara, Ventura County and San Luis Obispo County; Santa Barbara Life; Noozhawk, a local affairs website, Builder/Architect Gold & Central Coast Edition; and Shape of Voice, a nonprofit youth-created publication that focuses on social justice and youth issues, and City 2.0, a local citizen blog network and news headline aggregation website.

Television

 * KEYT 3, an ABC television affiliate;
 * KPMR 38, a Univision affiliate
 * Santa Barbara Internet TV, and
 * TV Santa Barbara; Voice-17 (Public-access television) and Culture-71 Arts & Education (formerly owned by Cox Communications).
 * Other television stations can be received from Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, and Los Angeles.

Radio

 * KJEE (92.9 FM),
 * The Vibe:Hip Hop y Mas 103.3, formerly easy listening station KRUZ. It broadcasts from La Cumbre Peak at an altitude of 3000 ft and can be heard in San Diego despite a distance of 200 mi because it propagates across the ocean.
 * KDB (93.7 FM)
 * KTYD (99.9 FM) and
 * KSBL (101.7 FM) which markets itself as KLITE and is owned by Rincon Broadcasting.

Some Los Angeles radio stations can be heard, although somewhat faintly due to the 85 mi distance. Santa Monica-based NPR radio station KCRW can be heard in Santa Barbara at 106.9 MHz, and San Luis Obispo-based NPR station KCBX at 89.5 FM and 90.9 FM. The California Lutheran University operated NPR station KCLU (102.3 FM, 1340 AM) based in Thousand Oaks in Ventura County also serves Santa Barbara and has reporters covering the city. The only non-commercial radio station based in Santa Barbara is KCSB-FM (91.9 FM) owned the University of California, Santa Barbara which uses it as part of its educational mission.

Parks
Santa Barbara has many parks, ranging from small spaces within the urban environment to large, semi-wilderness areas that remain within the city limits. Some notable parks within the city limits are as follows:
 * Alameda Park
 * Elings Park
 * Butterfly Beach
 * Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens
 * De La Guerra Plaza
 * Hilda Ray Park
 * Skofield Park
 * Parma Park
 * Shoreline Park
 * Douglas Family Preserve
 * East Beach
 * Leadbetter Beach
 * West Beach
 * Hendry's Beach (Arroyo Burro)
 * Andree Clark Bird Refuge

Some notable parks and open spaces just outside of the city limits include:
 * Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, which contains a diverse collection of plants from around California; it is in Mission Canyon, directly north of the city.
 * Gould Park
 * Rattlesnake Canyon, a favorite local hiking area.
 * Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park

Colleges and universities
Santa Barbara and the immediately adjacent area is home to several colleges and universities:

Research university

 * University of California, Santa Barbara

Liberal arts colleges

 * Westmont College
 * Antioch University

Community college

 * Santa Barbara City College

Trade schools

 * Brooks Institute of Photography
 * Paul Mitchell the School - Santa Barbara
 * Santa Barbara Business College

Conservatory

 * Music Academy of the West

Non-research graduate schools

 * Pacifica Graduate Institute
 * Fielding Graduate University
 * Santa Barbara Graduate Institute
 * Southern California Institute of Law
 * Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law

High schools
Secondary and Primary School students go to the Santa Barbara and Hope district schools. There is also a variety of private schools in the area. The following schools are on the south coast of Santa Barbara County, including the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, and contiguous unincorporated areas.


 * The Anacapa School, 7-12
 * San Marcos High School, 9-12
 * Dos Pueblos High School, 9-12
 * Dos Pueblos Continuation High School, 9-12
 * Garden Street Academy, 9-12
 * Las Alturas Continuation High School, 9-12
 * La Cuesta/Pathfinders Continuation High School, 9-12
 * San Marcos Continuation High School, 9-12
 * Santa Barbara High School, 9-12
 * Laguna Blanca School K-12
 * Bishop Garcia Diego High School, 9-12
 * Cate School, 9-12
 * Providence A Santa Barbara Christian School, 7-12
 * Carpinteria High School, 9-12,
 * Rincon/Foothill High School, 9-12 (CUSD)

Junior high/middle schools

 * Carpinteria Middle School, 6-8 (CUSD)
 * Community Day School, 7-8
 * Crane Country Day School, K-8
 * Goleta Valley Junior High School, 7-8
 * La Colina Junior High School, 7-8
 * La Cumbre Junior High School, 7-8
 * Marymount of Santa Barbara, JK-8
 * Santa Barbara Junior High School, 7-8
 * Santa Barbara Middle School, 6-9
 * Santa Barbara Montessori School, Pre-K to 8
 * Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, K-8

Elementary schools

 * Adams Elementary School, K-6
 * Cesar Estrada Chavez Dual Language Immersion Charter School, K-6
 * Cleveland Elementary School, K-6
 * Cold Spring Elementary School, K-6
 * Coastline Christian Academy, K-8
 * Crane Country Day School, K-8
 * El Camino Elementary School, K-6
 * Ellwood Elementary School, K-6
 * Foothill Elementary School, K-6
 * Franklin Elementary School, K-6
 * Goleta Family School, K-6
 * Harding Elementary School, K-6
 * Hollister Elementary School, K-6
 * Hope Elementary School, K-6
 * Isla Vista Elementary School, K-6
 * Kellogg Elementary School, K-6
 * La Patera Elementary School, K-6
 * Marymount of Santa Barbara, JK-8
 * McKinley Elementary School, K-6
 * Monroe Elementary School, K-6
 * Monte Vista Elementary School, K-6
 * Montecito Union Elementary School, K-6
 * Mountain View Elementary School, K-6
 * Open Alternative School, K-8
 * Peabody Charter School, K-6
 * Roosevelt Elementary School, K-6
 * Santa Barbara Charter School, K-8
 * Santa Barbara Christian School, K-8
 * Santa Barbara Community Academy, K-6
 * Santa Barbara Montessori School, Pre-K to 8
 * Vieja Valley Elementary School, K-6
 * Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, K-8
 * Washington Elementary School, K-6
 * Canalino School, K-5 (CUSD)
 * Aliso School, K-6 (CUSD)

Private schools

 * Anacapa School, 7-12
 * Crane Country Day School, K-8
 * El Montecito Early School, Preschool
 * Garden Street Academy, K-12
 * Laguna Blanca School, K-12
 * Marymount of Santa Barbara, JK-8
 * Montessori Center School, K-6
 * Notre Dame School, K-8
 * Providence Hall, 7-12
 * Santa Barbara Middle School, 6-9
 * Santa Barbara Montessori School, Pre-K to 8
 * St. John of Damascus Academy, K-8
 * Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, K-8

Transportation
Santa Barbara is bisected by U.S. Route 101, an automotive transportation corridor that links the city to the rest of the Central Coast region, San Francisco to the north, and Los Angeles to the south. Santa Barbara Municipal Airport offers commercial air service. Surf Air flies four flights daily, two to San Carlos in the Silicon Valley, and two to Burbank, California. Amtrak offers rail service through the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner trains at the train station on State Street. The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) provides local bus service across the city, and Greyhound bus stations are located downtown. Electric shuttles operated by MTD ferry tourists and shoppers up and down lower State Street and to the wharf. Santa Barbara has an extensive network of bike trails and other resources for cyclists, and the League of American Bicyclists recognizes Santa Barbara as a Silver Level city. Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority (VISTA) bus service offers connections south to Ventura and west to Goleta. The Clean Air Express bus offers connections to Lompoc and Santa Maria. Santa Barbara Airbus offers service to LAX from Santa Barbara and Goleta. In addition, Santa Barbara Car Free promotes visiting and exploring the area without use of a car.

Another popular car-free transportation method in Santa Barbara is bicycling. Often chosen as a winter training location for professional cycling teams and snowbirds alike, Santa Barbara has many great cycling routes and several notable climbs, including Gibraltar Road and Old San Marcos/Painted Cave. A bike path and route also connects the University of California, Santa Barbara to the downtown area, passing through Goleta and Hope Ranch along the way. Bike rentals are a great way for tourists to view Santa Barbara and the surrounding area, with resource website "Best Bike Rentals and Routes" offering links to all the major rental companies in the area.

In popular culture
The Loud family, subjects of the very first reality TV series, PBS's An American Family, called Santa Barbara home since the early 1960s (moving there from Eugene, Oregon) and throughout the series, all the family members save for Lance (who lived in New York City at the time) were filmed going about their daily lives in Santa Barbara. Bill's foundry supply company was headquartered in downtown Santa Barbara.

In the ABC television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the fictional privately owned nuclear-powered submarine Seaview was based at the equally fictional Nelson Institute of Marine Research located in Santa Barbara.

Several scenes in the 1966 film Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, were filmed on Stearns Wharf.

The final scene of the 1967 film The Graduate is set in Santa Barbara, but the final scene was filmed in Calabasas.

The 1980s soap opera Santa Barbara is set within its namesake city.

Santa Teresa is a fictional version of Santa Barbara used in the mystery novels of Ross Macdonald and Sue Grafton.

The 1999 film My Favorite Martian was filmed on location in Santa Barbara. While the opening shot shows fictional TV station KGSC Channel 10, KEYT Channel 3 was actually used for the filming location.

Several city vistas were used to represent Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The USA Network television show Psych features a fake psychic working for the Santa Barbara Police Department. The show, however, is not filmed on location. It is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Hollywood couples including Fergie and Josh Duhamel, Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler, Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli and Martin Sheen's daughter, Casandra Estevez all celebrated their weddings at the Bacara Resort in Goleta, adjacent to Santa Barbara.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episodes Scratch Made Classics and Global Traditions on the Food Network each have a segment at restaurants in Santa Barbara.

The television show $40 a Day showed an episode in Santa Barbara.

The 2009 film It's Complicated is set in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is the hometown of Grammy nominated popstar, Katy Perry who filmed her music video "Teenage Dream" in the city.

The song "Hannah Hunt" by Vampire Weekend refers to Santa Barbara as a place where the namesake character had cried.