Global Study Group

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. It is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 92,325. The metropolitan area?which includes the cities of Goleta and Carpinteria; the unincorporated communities of Montecito, Summerland, Isla Vista, and Hope Ranch; and adjacent areas?has a population of approximately 200,000.

Geography and Climate
Mission Santa Barbara, known as "the queen of the missions".Santa Barbara is located about 100 miles almost due west of Los Angeles, along the Pacific coast. This stretch of coast along southern Santa Barbara County is often referred to as the "American Riviera" because of its Mediterranean climate. The Santa Ynez Mountains, an east-west trending range, rise dramatically behind the city, with several peaks exceeding 4,000 feet. Covered with chaparral and with sandstone outcrops, they make a famously scenic backdrop to the town. Nearer to town, and directly east and adjacent to Mission Santa Barbara, is a hill known locally as the "Riviera" traversed by "Alameda Padre Serra" (shortened APS) the pathway of Father Serra. The hillside, made accessible by the advent of the automobile early in the 20th century, is now built with relatively expensive homes. A spectacularly beautiful area looking south toward the Pacific and the Channel Islands and having sunrise to sunset views, Santa Barbara became the winter destination for the titans of post-Civil War America and then a refuge of the wealth of the world with the Russian Revolution and World War I. Private railroad cars clustered on the sidings at Santa Barbara. The Potter Hotel overlooking Santa Barbara' s West Beach was a world renown resort. Titans of industry visited Santa Barbara and looked up at the foothills and chose Santa Barbara hilltops for their grand estates. Others preferred the beach and built palatially there Sandyland Cove, Padaro Lane the city beaches and out to what is now Goleta. The city's best sites were covered with family homes which were staffed with family retainers. The city sustained heavy damage in an earthquake on June 29, 1925, which was followed by substantial rebuilding.

The architectural image of Santa Barbara is the Mission revival style of architecture adopted by city leaders after the 1925 earthquake destroyed much of the downtown commercial district. The domestic architecture of downtown Santa Barbara is predominantly California bungalows built in the early decades of the 20th century. The city has passed ordinances against billboards and regulates outdoor advertising, so the city is relatively free of the advertising clutter found in most American cities.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 107.3 km² (41.4 mi²). 49.2 km² (19.0 mi²) of it is land and 58.1 km² (22.4 mi²) of it (54.17%) is water. this is because the official city limit extends exactly four miles south into the ocean, and in addition a long "finger" of the city extends out to sea and again inland, in order to make Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) (adjacent to the University of California, Santa Barbara [UCSB]) contiguous with the city.