Santa Barbara County Places
Every city and community in the county, each with local political news, discussions, elected officials, elections, and the issues that matter on the ground.
Countywide
South Coast
The county seat — State Street, City Hall, and the fight over downtown's future.
The Good Land — Old Town, tech jobs, UCSB spillover, and pension math.
The world's safest beach — plus cannabis greenhouses and Coastal Commission fights.
A square mile of students paying the county's highest rents.
Billionaire's row, mudslide recovery, and the politics of disaster spending.
Wildfire-zone foothills above the Mission, with evacuation on everyone's mind.
North County
The county's largest city and the engine of North County politics.
Flower fields, a federal prison, Vandenberg spillover, and a Sheriff's budget fight.
Santa Maria's unincorporated neighbor with a strong local identity.
A bedroom community at the doorstep of America's West Coast spaceport.
Santa Ynez Valley
Danish-themed tourism town with very real local-government debates.
The gateway to the valley — Highway 246, growth, and split-pea-soup pragmatism.
Wine country, ranch land, water fights, and the Chumash reservation.
Tasting-room village wrestling with septic, water, and its own future.