Up until the crash in the global financial markets last September, it looked like the South Coast region of the Tri-Counties would escape the recession largely unscathed.

That turns out not to have been the case. And now the stretch of coast from Carpinteria to Goleta is in danger of losing its status as one of the major employment and commercial hubs for the region — and California.
The first symptoms of this greater meltdown showed up in declining sales of luxury goods, frozen home prices and weak results for area financial institutions.

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