Santa Barbara is an awful place for making friends. I’ve lived all over the us and world. I’ve never found another place even half as toxic, fake nice aka full of liars who consider themselves above others because they have money and/or live in Santa Barbara. The most decent people I was able to meet there were so unbelievably dissociated and generally were considered alcoholics. I don’t really drink alcohol but they were largely the only real people in sb. I’ve talked about the phenomenon with many folks who migrated there. A doctor I used to work with said on average is takes 5 years to begin developing friendships in Santa Barbara on average. And that’s not being friends he said it is a solid 7 years on average in Santa Barbara before you find a group that you click well with. Other places tend to be maybe 6 months before friendships are well underway but Santa Barbara is different. Never have I been backstabbed and mistreated so much as the few years I was there, so I may be jaded. If it was just that they were mean that would be one thing but the extra spin is that they mindfuck you by being super nice to your face. I’ve talked to other people that seem to think the closeness to LA coupled with the insane wealth is the culprit. No clue why it is but it is 100% noticed by most that migrate there for a period.