Chaper 1 - Regions and Themes

The beautiful Santa Barbara is located along the Pacific coastline in central California. This area of coastline along the Santa Barbara County is often referred to as the "American Riviera" and is situated next to the Santa Ynez Mountains. Santa Barbara is located in the Central Coast Region of California

Santa Barbara is located in the Central Coast Region as specified by the orange area.

The Central Coast region is then divided into four distinct regions which are the Channel Islands Region, the Santa Barbara Region, the San Luis Obispo Region, and the Monterey Bay Region. These areas have miles of rocky shorelines, amazing beaches, and panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. These regions also extend inland and include big mountains and rolling hills and some desert areas.

Specifically, Santa Barbara is a city with approximately 423,895 people. It's demographic is mostly white but hundreds of years ago was inhabited by the Chumash Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans. The architecture of Santa Barbara is largely influenced by its Spanish period. Santa Barbara is 42 square miles; 19.5 being land and 22.5 being water. The large square mileage of water is due to the fact that the city limit stretches out into the ocean.

Santa Barbara has an abundance of resources including seafood, farming, and wine. Because of this, Santa Barbara is a big tourist spot not only because it's wonderfully mild weather and beautiful landscapes but because of these resources. Tourism alone gives Santa Barbara more than one billion dollars per year. It also has a large economic base built around high-tech, education, agriculture, medicine, and government on top of tourism. It is largely a residential area but there is some manufacturing.




[Sources]
http://cpr.ca.gov/images/ca_department/res11img.jpg

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06083.html