Santa Barbara (California)

Santa Barbara is a port city in California (USA), located on a south-facing coastline section (US West Coast's longest) between Pacific Ocean and Santa Ynez Mountains. The city has population around 90,000.

Santa Barbara CA's economy is based on resort tourism, service sector (over 1/3 of local employment), technology, education, health care, agriculture, manufacturing, finance, education (5 universities). Aerospace and defense companies are city's largest private employers, represented by Alliant Techsystems Inc (aerospace, defense, sporting goods), Channel Technologies Group (manufacturer of piezoelectric materials, transducers, optical technologies), LogMeIn (cloud-based software and services), FLIR Systems (world's largest designer and producer of thermal imaging cameras), Raytheon (defense contractor, manufacturing weapons and military electronics).

The city is served by Santa Barbara Airport and Highway 101 (connecting with San Francisco to northwest and Los Angeles to southeast). Behind the city are Santa Ynez Mountains and Los Padres National Forest. Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary and Channel Islands Park are approx 32 km (20 ml) offshore.