The way we live


Living on the South Coast means exercising, waiting in Highway 101 traffic, enjoying trails and triathlons, blending mega mansions and moratoriums, balancing Farmers Markets and tri-tip barbecues and sunbathing when other parts of the country fight 7-foot drifts.

There is new emphasis on childhood health — but no one wants to stop chowing down a hot dog at the Surf Dog.

Our mountains and hills give splendor and strength to our city, perhaps nowhere more evident than in stonework that threads streets and corridors like a historic chain thanks to generations of stone mason artistry.

We saved bluffs and butterflies. We’re working on the Gaviota Coast.

We protested — war, school closure, government, grocery chains. We sometimes protested protestors.

We celebrate Fiesta, Solstice, avocados and lemons — and the world’s first Chicano doctorate program in the world at UCSB.

We recycle and bicycle. We’re into Night Moves and movies. We surfed after a deadly shark attack a few miles up the coast.

We love cell phones, hate spam. Generation text created a social revolution.

We lined up for flu shots.

We prize our art whether it is in a studio of sculptor Bela Bacsi or the breezy weekend beachfront Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show, where photographer Ali Shahrouzi captures nature’s masterpieces from a wheelchair.

We voted. Boy, did we vote. An Austrian bodybuilder-turned-Terminator proved the American dream is still alive. The Santa Barbara City Council picked up three new members, Helene Schneider, Das Williams and Brian Barnwell, as the indefatigable Bruce Rittenhouse drew a sizable number of write-in votes.

We shuddered at Southern California wildfires. An earthquake shattered our invulnerability.

We laughed. We cried. We lived.

– Sally Cappon