Santa Barbara's Charms
Lure Well-Heeled Retirees
Most visitors come to Santa Barbara on Highway 101 from Los Angeles. And once they pull off the freeway, they realize they have come to a place apart from urban Southern California.
The plants and trees seem greener, the sky bluer, and the people more friendly. One quick turn takes you to Cabrillo Boulevard, a palm-lined drive that winds past a wildfowl refuge. Exotic trees and plants hug the shoreline of a pond. A mile or so down the road, you can park your car and walk along a glistening beach with sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean and the rugged Channel Islands.
Santa Barbara's Stats
Just to the north, the Santa Ynez Mountains serve as a counterpoint to the Spanish architecture that defines the city: low-rise buildings with red-tile roofs, arched facades and garden courtyards.
A description of Santa Barbara penned 100 years ago by the writer Frank Blake still seems appropriate today: "Dame Nature seems to have set this one spot on earth aside for her very own botanical garden, and no one will dispute the exquisite taste of the selection."
Sometimes called the American Riviera, Santa Barbara has been, and remains today, among the most popular retirement destinations in the country. The area's natural beauty and moderate climate, not surprisingly, are the biggest draws. But there's also art (three major museums and more than 200 classic and contemporary stage productions each year), music (a local symphony, a small civic opera and ballet company) and, for the thirsty, wine (a 45-minute drive inland takes you to one of the best wine-growing regions in the U.S., with 56 wineries).
Santa Barbara's charms, of course, are also responsible for some of its biggest headaches. "Sticker shock" awaits those looking for a house; the recent median home price was $460,000, according to real-estate firm Coldwell Banker. Preservationists and advocates of growth regularly square off over construction of new hotels and housing developments. And local officials can be rather, well, intimidating, especially when it comes to protecting the environment.
Consider: When Richard Shaikewitz, an attorney from Alton, Ill., retired to Santa Barbara in 1997, he discovered that he had to apply to the county to cut down some eucalyptus trees in his new yard. The county, though, said the loss of the trees might affect the local monarch butterfly population. (The street he lives on is Butterfly Lane.)
"I had to hire an entomologist," Mr. Shaikewitz, recalls. "I didn't know what one was." The trees eventually fell as a result of a wind storm -- but Mr. Shaikewitz had to plant some new ones.
Mother Nature, meanwhile, has chosen Santa Barbara for more than just her garden. Wildfires and mudslides are perennial threats, especially for residents who live in brush-filled canyons or the foothills of the mountains. And earthquakes are a given. The strongest recent quake occurred in 1978, when a fault under the Santa Barbara Channel cracked. The neighboring community of Goleta suffered the most damage. Seismologists, of course, say they can't predict whether another Santa Barbara earthquake is imminent -- or will occur in 100 years.
Well-Heeled Wave
Does any of this bother would-be transplants? Not much. The city's population now stands at about 91,200, up almost 7% from 1990. About 16% of the residents are age 65 or older; a similar percentage of Santa Barbara County is age 60 or older. (Nationwide, the 60-plus age group accounts for about 12% of the average county's population.) Peter and Linda Beuret moved to Santa Barbara one year ago from Cincinnati and are typical of the wave of retired managers, executives, attorneys, physicians and other professionals who are settling in the city and surrounding area.
"We love it," says Mr. Beuret, age 60, who retired at 57 as a marketing and advertising executive at Procter & Gamble Co.
When the Beurets began thinking about where they wanted to live in retirement, they set up six criteria. First, no winter. ("We're bird-watchers and snorkelers, and we have to have warm weather all year long to enjoy those activities," Mrs. Beuret explains.) Second, a healthy dose of classical music and culture. Third, proximity to hiking trails and other outdoor activities. Fourth, low humidity. Fifth, a nearby college or two to provide continuing education. And sixth, an international airport to make trips overseas more convenient.
Criteria in hand, the Beurets made extended visits to Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. ("nice, but too hot and humid in the summer"); Miami and Coral Gables, Fla. ("exciting, but too dangerous"); Palo Alto, Calif., and nearby San Francisco ("very, very exciting culturally, but too much traffic and unreasonable home prices"); and San Diego ("great weather, but symphony was foundering").
Finally, last year, they visited Santa Barbara. And their search was over. "It met five of our six criteria," Mr. Beuret says today. "The only thing it lacked was an international airport. We decided we could take a commuter plane to Los Angeles the two times a year we fly overseas."
For many people, finding a home is no easy task. But it happened quickly for the Beurets. They saw a place they liked on their first house-hunting visit, but it wasn't being offered for sale. They returned for a second visit three months later, and the home was on the market. They bought the octagonal-shaped residence on a lot high in the Mesa area of town with a panoramic view of the ocean, the city and the mountains. Taking a visitor on a tour of the house on one of Santa Barbara's blue-sky, windswept days, Mr. Beuret points out key locations from the living-room windows.
"Everything is five minutes away," he says -- the historic Mission Santa Barbara, the beach, hiking trails, downtown and Santa Barbara City College. The icing on the cake, he adds, is the quality of health care. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, with 443 beds, has one of the few graduate medical education programs between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Physicians, meanwhile, are plentiful, drawn by the same features that appeal to so many others.
The Reagan Effect
Most residents would like to keep Santa Barbara and its attractions a secret, but the chances of that happening are slim. During the Reagan years, the president often visited his ranch in the mountains above the city, and the press followed. Images of the beach and mountains were seen on television and in newspapers around the world. The popular soap opera "Santa Barbara" did its part, as well, portraying the city as a playground for the rich and famous. Foreign tourists now make up more than 15% of the city's 9.9 million visitors each year.
The city also has its share of celebrities, who keep a low profile for the most part. John Travolta, Michael Douglas, Steve Martin and Kevin Costner, among others, can be seen in local restaurants or riding the city's bicycle paths. On one of his first weeks in Santa Barbara, Mr. Shaikewitz, the former Illinois attorney, went to a small Chinese restaurant and saw Carol Burnett dining there. "People here leave them alone," he says. "They don't want to be noticed, and people respect that."
The steady flow of newcomers means that transplants tend to assimilate quickly. "Santa Barbara is full of people who have moved here from other places," Mrs. Beuret says. Opportunities are numerous to volunteer or join a wide variety of interest groups. The Beurets themselves joined every nature and music organization they could think of -- the local Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum and the Music Academy of the West. When they returned in August from a bird-watching trip to the Amazon, Mr. Beuret opened his mailbox to find a stack of envelopes an inch and a half thick with tickets to various musical and nature events.
Educational opportunities, too, are abundant and mostly inexpensive. The University of California at Santa Barbara's Extension Division, in nearby Goleta, offers more than 200 courses to area residents. Meanwhile, at Santa Barbara City College, students can take advantage of 106 programs (including 29 Internet courses) with enrollment fees totaling only $11 a unit.
Just how crowded any of these educational or cultural activities might be, of course, hinges to some extent upon Santa Barbara's future growth. For years, limited water supplies (a collection of local reservoirs) meant that local governments kept rapid development in check. But a series of droughts in the 1990s prompted the city and Santa Barbara County in 1998 to buy into California's state water system, opening more opportunities for growth.
Future Shock?
Will Santa Barbara become the next national example of urban sprawl? Not necessarily. Both Santa Barbara and the county strictly enforce building codes that have helped preserve the area's Spanish architecture and heritage.
The policies date to 1925, when an earthquake destroyed 80% of downtown buildings. An architectural review board, whose members were intent on recreating Santa Barbara's past, stipulated that all downtown structures had to feature red-tiled roofs and adobe-type walls. The same influences can be seen in the names of city streets: Gutierrez, Salsipuedes, Anapuma and Canon Perdido, among many others. That legacy isn't likely to fall victim any time soon to the expansionary visions of builders and businesses.
Indeed, most newcomers to Santa Barbara say they are more likely to be concerned about natural threats than commercial ones. The San Andreas fault runs right under the nearby Santa Ynez mountains. And when fires burn off a hillside's vegetation, mudslides can occur with heavy rains.
Doug Willsie, who left Santa Barbara for 20 years and then returned recently to retire, was determined never to give in to the elements. Rather than sell their home when they left the area, he and his wife Caroline kept their property in the Hope Ranch area of Santa Barbara and rented it out. When the couple returned, they were amazed to find that their home had appreciated by $1 million. The couple is now remodeling at a cost of about $125,000, more than it took to build the house back in 1973.
Earthquakes and fires, the Willsies say, are simply the annoyances one endures to live on the American Riviera.
"When people ask me where I plan to go on vacation," he says, "I say, 'Shut the door. I'm here.' "
Paradise of the Pacific
Santa Barbara County's Population: 405,500
(Includes Goleta, Montecito, Summerland/Carpinteria)
Average Rainfall: 19 inches
Mean Low Temperature in January: 43
Mean High Temperature in July: 75
Humidity: Very Low
Median Home Price: $460,000 in Santa Barbara County
Miles of beaches: 20
Number of golf courses: 12
Famous residents: Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Michael Jackson, Steve Martin
State Income Tax: Graduated: 1% to 11%
Residential Property Tax: 1%
Number of city parks: 46
Live theatrical productions annually: 200
Number of Hollywood films shot on location in Santa Barbara: 1,000; averages 3 major films a year
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Mr. Gottschalk is a writer in La Canada-Flintridge, Calif.
Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.