It depends on your financial situation and what you want to do. If you want to end up with a UC degree, then community college is the most direct route for you to get there, as well as the most economical one. There’s nothing wrong with this path, at all! The main limitations are in fields where you need to take specialized courses in the first two years in order to graduate on time. (Engineering or architecture for example.) But for most programs where the first two years are spent on general education anyway, CC is fine. Register as early as you can and choose classes by the quality of the instructors as much as you can. What do you want to end up studying?
Do you know why you ended up with a 2.9 GPA? Obviously you test extremely well. Is your relative under-performance in high school explained by situational factors, or is it possible that you have something going on that merits some more detailed testing to see whether there are accommodations and supports that you may need to perform up to your ability? Get this sorted out before college if there is any question.
If you want to go away to a four-year school, and if you can afford an out-of-state public U at the WUE rate (150% of in-state tuition, which often isn’t much different from the cost of UC), then you can look at some of the almost-open-admissions schools out of state. Portland State, for example, is not a competitive admit, but has some terrific programs and provides a great urban college experience. Southern Oregon U feels almost like a small LAC. Northern Arizona… U of Nevada Reno, Utah State… there are many fine schools in the Western Undergrad Exchange where you can get in with your stats and get a quality four-year education that will be limited only by what you put into it. Apply early, as spots at the WUE rate are not unlimited.
What are your “decent EC’s?” Aside from finances and academic interests, your extracurricular interests may influence what the best path for you will be. Some extracurriculars may be easily pursued at cc (some cc’s have fantastic performing arts programs, sports, etc.) and others may be more available at a 4-year university.