Santa Barbara
A remote fishing village of 140,000, with an exclusive, nouveau-riche mentality reeking of entitlement. It is a simultaneously right & left wing post Judeo-Christian enclave where parades range from Historic to the Absurd. It was a center of Chumash Indian Culture. Ronald Reagan later gleefully told his wife, 'Those oil rigs out there look just like Christmas Trees to me, Nancy!' Most of the real-estate purchased just a few decades ago for mere tens of thousands now sell for over a million dollars. After the housing bubble hit the beach, people held on due to its prime location on a Pacific Coast & resultant climate, in spite of the cost of property taxes & rents. It is also home to about five major colleges, students & staff. Its major import is Tourism.
The dichotomy: Severely handicapped, mentally ill, parolees & homeless visit & often remain there because of the weather & the fact they sometimes get disability checks; medication or have doctor's appointments in the area & therefore also call it 'home'. Like other cities across the country there is a mission (not the pretty one on the hill) & a few help outreaches but almost no affordable housing. The Section-8 Housing list, although not perpetually closed like other major nearby cities such as LA & San Francisco; is reputedly seven-thousand miles long, (each year representing a thousand miles to be walked) with most applicants dying before they reach the top.
The dichotomy: Severely handicapped, mentally ill, parolees & homeless visit & often remain there because of the weather & the fact they sometimes get disability checks; medication or have doctor's appointments in the area & therefore also call it 'home'. Like other cities across the country there is a mission (not the pretty one on the hill) & a few help outreaches but almost no affordable housing. The Section-8 Housing list, although not perpetually closed like other major nearby cities such as LA & San Francisco; is reputedly seven-thousand miles long, (each year representing a thousand miles to be walked) with most applicants dying before they reach the top.
Example:
We're from Lompoc, but when you walk down the street in Santa Barbara, kids, —don't talk to anyone, so they'll think we're Locals or foreign tourists. And if anyone asks, say you were born here.
We're from Lompoc, but when you walk down the street in Santa Barbara, kids, —don't talk to anyone, so they'll think we're Locals or foreign tourists. And if anyone asks, say you were born here.