Santa Barbara has historically held an important place as a cultural, political, and economic center of the Central Coast, from thriving Chumash heartland to Spanish colonial fortress to Mexican rancher pueblo to American resort town. Santa Barbara has been developed for luxury tourism and real estate since the late 1800’s, when hotels were built to market the area’s clean air and coastal climate to wealthy travelers looking for a cure for their illnesses. Its economy was built through the hard work of immigrant domestic workers and hospitality workers, and continues to be to this day. The nearby university plays an important role in the economic and political development of Santa Barbara, putting the city often on the progressive leading edge of change in the Central Coast. Santa Barbara has roots as an important birthplace of the Chicano Movement and the modern environmental movement, and has a strong progressive activist community. The community is now struggling against the gentrification of the historically working-class Latino neighborhoods of the Eastside and Westside of Santa Barbara, organizing to fight displacement, evictions, and rent hikes. CAUSE and its predecessor organization PUEBLO have worked in Santa Barbara for many years to pass the city’s tenant protection laws, win living wages for workers, and defend public transit and childcare services in our neighborhoods.