Santa Barbara, CA (Westside)

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the Westside neighborhood in Santa Barbara are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 73.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.9% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 71.9% of America's neighborhoods.

The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.

In the Westside neighborhood, 32.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 26.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (21.2%), and 19.2% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the Westside neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 51.8% of households. Some people also speak English (46.8%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the Westside neighborhood in Santa Barbara, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (50.6%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (9.6%), and residents who report English roots (6.9%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (5.6%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (4.8%), among others. In addition, 27.5% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Westside neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (45.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (64.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (24.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.