JEFF CLARK/NEWS-PRESS The Santa Maria Speedway is a popular weekend entertainment draw for North County residents. About 2,000 show up on an average Saturday night

Take a roll down the main drags of Santa Barbara and Santa Maria and try to remember you're in the same county.

State Street, a narrow lane flanked by wide, palm tree-peppered sidewalks, welcomes pedestrians with wooden benches and tiled fountains painstakingly arranged outside chic boutiques peddling overstuffed armchairs and $68 cotton tank-tops. The uniform stucco buildings house more than a dozen white-linen bistros, the majority gourmet Italian.

Cartooney go-carts, convertible sports cars and small SUVs pasted with Heal the Ocean stickers make their way toward the beach, where a whimsical bronze dolphin statue celebrates the city's proximity to the sea.
 

You're less likely to see a tourist but more likely to see a tractor on Santa Maria's central thoroughfare, a state highway known as 135 to travelers and Broadway to locals.

Four roomy lanes with skinny sidewalks, the boulevard sports the occasional sweet gum tree and an eclectic mix of roadside barbecue stands, auto parts shops, RV parks, 1950s burger joints and giant bargain stores like Factory 2-U and Food 4 Less.

Muscle cars, minivans and pick-up trucks bearing "Got Jesus?" stickers motor past a sign boasting the city's 1998 All-America City designation and down toward a residential neighborhood where 3-foot-high, tinfoil-covered letters spell out "God Bless America."

But the striking incongruities between south and north Santa Barbara County extend far beyond contrasting streetscapes. They pervade the very lifestyles of the people who live there.

As petitions circulate that may ultimately allow voters to split the county in two, cultural values on both sides of Central California's own Mason-Dixon line seem especially pronounced.

They sprawl over the landscapes, one of coastal shopping corridors and showy hillside estates, the other of verdant farmland and flat, suburban enclaves. They play out in the pastimes, as Santa Barbarans gather in gardens to hear nouveau flamenco bands and Lompocans swarm the bleachers at high school football games.

They are spelled out in the phone books, which list twice as many plastic surgeons in the south, and twice as many car dealers in the north, three times the psychologists down south, and three times the westernwear shops up north.

Are we really two cultures trying in vain to be one?

"I don't know if the split is a good idea or not, but I do know people just think differently up there and down here," said Olivia Flisher, 57, a Santa Ynez Valley resident who commutes five days a week to her job as a reference librarian at the Santa Barbara Public Library's downtown branch.

Geography accounts for some of the differences.

"It's small town versus city," she said. "The South Coast faces L.A. You're Southern California. The North County sees itself as Central Coast, aligned more with San Luis Obispo. It's still a rural area, and that's part of the attraction."

She likes the certainty of running into friends at her local market, the comfort of not having to lock her front door all the time, and the changeability of an inland climate.

"There are seasons in the North County," she said. "The plant life is different. We don't get the beautiful bougainvilleas and things that you have down here, but we get toyon and wildflowers, poppies and lupin and scotch broom.

"Even the sky is different," she added. "It's bigger and more intense. We notice how many stars there are."

Astrid DeWild, 50, wouldn't know anything about the northern sky. She seldom looks up when she's zipping through North County, on her way to shop in San Luis Obispo or soak at Sycamore Hot Springs.

"I drive through it, that's all I do," said the Santa Barbara resident, who teaches body-conditioning Pilates classes. "I feel a little guilty about that, but it's not that interesting to me. It's not where you go to have fun."

She prefers the cosmopolitan feel of Santa Barbara, and spends her free time nibbling sushi with her daughter, catching live salsa, and jazz and blues bands with her boyfriend, and staying in shape. Part of what drew her to Santa Barbara from Los Angeles 10 years ago is the health-conscious environment, evidenced by ribbons of bike paths and hiking trails, gourmet health-food markets and communitywide athletic events.

One of those is Nite Moves, a weekly summer foot race and ocean swim that draws hundreds of locals to Leadbetter Beach to compete and socialize.

"The Santa Barbara lifestyle is about not smoking, being fit, living healthy," said Cayce Issaris, a Santa Barbaran who frequently attends Nite Moves, but never visits North County. "It never occurs to me. There's no draw there. The reputation is hickville."

That sentiment is common on the South Coast, but North County folks have plenty of stereotypes about the south, too: "People there just don't stop and say 'Hi,'" a Lompoc man complained.

"They live off credit cards," an Orcutt woman said. "They have more class, drive nicer cars," a Santa Maria man conceded.

"They're not get-your-hands-dirty folks like we are up here," said Lompoc High School football coach Robin Luken. "Down there, they just go to the grocery store and buy their (produce). They're not worried about where it came from."

But Santa Barbara has its upside, too. Mr. Luken and his wife go to Longboards Grill on Stearns Wharf when they're hankering for a night out.

"We'll go down there sometimes for shopping, too," he said, "because you've got the real nice department stores down there."

They may not have a Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters or Restoration Hardware to speak of, but what Lompoc lacks in fashion it makes up for in community spirit. Coach Luken says a huge chunk of the town's population - often more than 4,000 of 41,000 residents - shows up on Friday nights to watch his team play football.

"Even on a losing season, there are more people at the game than any other place in town," he said. "Here in Lompoc, you've got a movie theater, you've got Burger King and Taco Bell to hang out at, but why not go to the game?"

There are those who would gladly trade their football for a disco ball, but the North County doesn't offer much in terms of nightlife. Line-dancing at Santa Ynez' Maverick Saloon, karaoke at the Historic Santa Maria Inn and disc jockeys at Stinky's Bar and Grill provide some of the few places to hear music on a weekend evening.

Born and raised in Solvang, 30-year-old musician Tompeet Frederiksen moved to the South Coast a few years ago to be closer to a viable music scene. His hard rock band, Les Mercy, plays State Street clubs at night.

By day, he manages Morninglory Music on State Street, where, unlike the Morninglory store in Lompoc, classical albums are in high demand, and country music simply doesn't sell.

He remembers the challenges of being a kid in the Santa Ynez Valley. "There's no entertainment there," he said, "and you can't go 'cruise the strip,' so you have to be a lot more creative. You get a bike, or you get a horse. And when you get a car, you pile all your friends in and come to Santa Barbara."

Or San Luis Obispo.

Mohawked 14-year-old Chris Lathouwers of Orcutt heads north for punk concerts with his buddies, or has his mom take him to the Santa Maria Speedway to watch sprint cars sideswipe one another and possibly catch fire.

"It's fun to see people crash," he said from a seat in the bleachers beside the dirt racetrack.

The Speedway fulfills roughly the same need in the north that Chase Palm Park concerts do in the south: It's an easy place to take the family for several hours of safe, loud entertainment.

About 2,000 people, from toddlers to seniors, take to the stands on a typical Saturday night to see which driver will accept a prize from the trophy girl. If he's lucky, the winner may get a big, wet kiss on the cheek from car owner and Lions Clubber "Goober" Goyette.

James Yeates, a 25-year-old Santa Maria truck driver, attends every weekend that he's not working on his '68 Cougar or watching illegal street racing on the outskirts of town. "I've been coming since I was a kid," he said. "It's exciting. It's unpredictable." In the north, those terms apply to Saturday nights. In the south, they describe Sunday mornings.

Services at the nondenominational Calvary Chapel of Santa Barbara, one of the best-attended churches in the area, draw nearly 2,000 people with their unconventional approach to worship.

"You can't go at the people of Santa Barbara with church organs and robes and titles and all that," said Pastor Randy McGlade, whose chapel operates out of an old linen-packing plant, with a come-as-you-are dress policy and seaside Sunday services at Leadbetter Beach, followed by a luau with a surf band.

"People here are a bit more cosmopolitan and they've probably seen more cultural events, so they relate a little differently to the message that's coming at them."

Several smaller area churches, whose leaders share the same belief, offer their parishioners yoga classes.

There is a greater variety of spiritual practices in Santa Barbara, too. Churches found on the South Coast, but not in the North County, include Buddhist, New Age, Islam and Spiritualist.

"I am certain you would find many more religious options, including those mystical, crystal variations of things, in the south," said Pastor Jerry Morris of Lompoc's popular Trinity Church of the Nazarene, which draws 700 worshipers on an average Sunday.

The North County, which claims 41 Baptist churches to the South's nine, is more traditional in its worship practices, he said, and religious leaders often play significant roles in the communities-at-large.

"We're a player in the culture of our town," said Rev. Morris, who is frequently invited to pray at otherwise secular community events like the opening of AYSO soccer season. "Up here, a prayer by a Christian is still en vogue. It's much more expected and accepted."

Santa Barbara County Arts Commissioner Patrick Davis, who lives on the South Coast, has witnessed the phenomenon himself.

"When we do an opening up there," he said, "it's not uncommon to have someone want to lead a prayer at the beginning, and we sort of go, 'Well, that's interesting.'"

It's not the only difference in the way both regions approach the arts. Whereas the South Coast has about 100 showcases for visual art, the combined communities of the North County have only 25, according to the Santa Barbara Visual Arts Alliance.

Santa Barbara values art for art's sake, Mr. Davis said.

"Mostly the cultural values here are about art itself," he said, "and the expectation that we can present, and sometimes produce, the best art in the world."

And while there is a cluster of notable galleries in Los Olivos, a collection of beloved murals in Lompoc and a sprinkling of esteemed musical groups throughout the North County, residents of the area tend to take a pragmatic view of art.

"What they want are things that are embedded in their families' lives," Mr. Davis said, which is one of the reasons many cultural performances take place in churches.

Also, the arts don't get the same financial support in the north.

"People are not willing to pay as much for arts events," he said. "Sustaining the costs - literally, the canvas and the plywood - is a big challenge."

Most arts organizations in the north operate on annual budgets of less than $10,000, compared to $150,000 for Summer Solstice and $400,000 for Santa Barbara's Contemporary Arts Forum. Perhaps that's partly because the fund-raising events are half the fun for South Coast art lovers.

"In Santa Barbara, you have to have the fancy event and people have to get their pictures in Santa Barbara Magazine having a great time in their $5,000 dress," Mr. Davis said. "That doesn't mean much to people in the North County. They don't really care about that. What they want to know is, 'What's going to happen for my family, for my church group, for my school?' I think that's really healthy, actually."

One place where the quality of art presentations regularly meets, if not exceeds, that of the South Coast is the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts, or PCPA, at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria.

R. Michael Gros, artistic director of the professional theater company, says his audiences, almost all of whom come from the North County and San Luis Obispo, are far more sophisticated than he expected when he moved from San Francisco two years ago.

"I was very concerned that it was going to be overly conservative," he said.

Instead, he's been delighted to hear patrons complimenting productions even when they disagree with the message, and begging him to take on challenging work rather than lean too heavily on light, crowd-pleasing fare.

"I don't know that my audience is any more sophisticated than the Santa Barbara audience, but I can tell you that they're not less sophisticated." Interest in the arts seems to be growing in the North County. For the first time, UCSB Arts & Lectures will bring two performing arts groups - Danza Floricanto and Ballet Hispanico - to schools in Guadalupe, Lompoc and Santa Maria in the coming season, thanks in part to the enthusiasm of a Guadalupe couple with a passion for culture.

Guadalupe, a two-square-mile community best known for the sand dunes that now cover set pieces from Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 film "The Ten Commandments," and for the renowned Far Western Tavern steakhouse, seems the unlikeliest of destinations for nationally renowned music and dance groups.

But Margie Talaugon and her city councilman husband, Joe, owners of Margie & Joe's Cafe, say the farmworkers that make up most of the town's 5,700 residents need the arts as much as anyone else.

"I'd like to bring comedy and acrobatics and all kinds of performances they've never been exposed to," said Mrs. Talaugon, who is also creating an arts education center where kids can take art classes after school. "Not everyone's going to stay in Guadalupe as a farmworker all their lives. I'd like to see a couple of playwrights and notable artists come out of this town." Perhaps such hopes indicate that the north and south need one another more than either side likes to admit.

"We're totally interdependent," said Mr. Davis. "We offer them art, they offer us reality."

Most people interviewed for this story believe there are undeniable, and perhaps even irreconcilable, cultural differences between the north and south, but don't think those alone warrant a split.

The Santa Ynez Valley's Olivia Flisher believes such distinctions make us richer.

"Isn't it a more interesting world if you can be with people who think differently than you do?" she said, adding that when addresses are pushed aside, we all have similar desires. "What makes people happy? Good friends, good food, good weather, cute little kids.

"The basic things that bring people pleasure are the same everywhere. It doesn't matter what half of the county you live in."

e-mail: sroshell@newspress.com