How does being a "local applicant" help (or not) your app?

Basically, every high school and CC in California has a designated CSU.

They officially define “Local” like this:

http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf

As you can see, it is really specific - especially in more urban areas.

It is interesting for transfer applicants, CSULB looks back to the high school the applicant graduated from. I had never noticed that before.

UCs can choose a location to prefer - (certain high schools or zip codes that have been historically under-represented).
How that weighs in is very difficult to divine but, the areas aren’t typically proximate to the campus.

See item 14 on UCSBs list.

https://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/applying/freshman/selection