Downtown Ventura Vs. Downtown Santa Barbara (Oxnard, Pasadena: home, construction, college)

[the city]

Which is considered to be more of an urban area and which city is considered to be more like a major city?

Are their any big differences between the downtowns?

[Snort]

Both are more like large towns than proper 'cities'. Both have nice downtown areas, but Santa Barbara has a lot going for it due to its reconstruction in 1925 that required the "Spanish look" you see today.

[the city]

Is Oxnard considered a city? What about Pasadena out of curiousity?

[HSP1161]

Originally Posted by the city

Which is considered to be more of an urban area and which city is considered to be more like a major city?

Are their any big differences between the downtowns?

SB has more tourism than Ventura, no question - thus there's more "there" there.

Neither are a major city, but SB (Goleta, actually) boasts a research institution and a municipal airport, two important distinctions from Ventura.

I s'pose you need to define 'urban' for this exercise. If you simply mean 'densely populated', it is simply a technical distinction and I'd guess w/o checking the interwebs that SB has quite a bit more of that than Ventura, which has quite a bit of suburb starting in the college area proceeding east toward Santa Paula.

SB's State Street is exponentially busier than Vta's Main Street and there are more major employers in SB than Vta.

Cost of living in SB is also going to be higher than Vta, and last we compared, the same money gets you closer to the water in a nicer home in Ventura than SB.