So, having never been to Santa Barbara I had no idea what to expect. I must say, it's the most liberal place I've ever been (I've never been to Berkeley). I saw more Obama and Coexist stickers in 2 days than I've seen in the rest of my life.
Even more interesting though is that fact that in 2 full days of going all over the city I literally saw less than a handful of overweight people. Saw what you will about hippy tree huggers, but one thing is for sure, they're more in shape than any other place I've ever been. I think this is attributable to the fact that everyone there seems to bike or walk all over the place. It just seemed like a very active community. I wish the rest of the country was more like this because I think health care costs would be a much smaller issue if that were the case
P.S. I could never live there - it's even a little too liberal for me (which is saying something).